Plot
A bureaucrat in a retro-future world tries to correct an administrative error and himself becomes an enemy of the state.
Release Year: 1985
Rating: 8.0/10 (92,084 voted)
Critic's Score: 88/100
Director:
Terry Gilliam
Stars: Jonathan Pryce, Kim Greist, Robert De Niro
Storyline Sam Lowry is a harried technocrat in a futuristic society that is needlessly convoluted and inefficient. He dreams of a life where he can fly away from technology and overpowering bureaucracy, and spend eternity with the woman of his dreams. While trying to rectify the wrongful arrest of one Harry Buttle, Lowry meets the woman he is always chasing in his dreams, Jill Layton. Meanwhile, the bureaucracy has fingered him responsible for a rash of terrorist bombings, and both Sam and Jill's lives are put in danger.
Writers: Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard
Cast: Jonathan Pryce
-
Sam Lowry
Robert De Niro
-
Archibald 'Harry' Tuttle
Katherine Helmond
-
Mrs. Ida Lowry
Ian Holm
-
Mr. M. Kurtzmann
Bob Hoskins
-
Spoor
Michael Palin
-
Jack Lint
Ian Richardson
-
Mr. Warrenn
Peter Vaughan
-
Mr. Helpmann
Kim Greist
-
Jill Layton
Jim Broadbent
-
Dr. Jaffe
Barbara Hicks
-
Mrs. Alma Terrain
Charles McKeown
-
Harvey Lime
Derrick O'Connor
-
Dowser
Kathryn Pogson
-
Shirley
Bryan Pringle
-
Spiro
Taglines:
Have a laugh at the horror of things to come.
Release Date: 18 December 1985
Filming Locations: Croydon, London, England, UK
Box Office Details
Budget: $15,000,000
(estimated)
Opening Weekend: $30,099
(USA)
(22 December 1985)
(1 Screen)
Trivia: Terry Gilliam and his crew were excited to have Robert De Niro on board at first, but as time wore on they found De Niro's need for "research" and obsession with details increasingly irritating, saying that he "wanted to strangle him".
Goofs:
Continuity:
Holly's hair has a big gap in her front bangs when she says her one line, whereas before her bangs were intact. Holly Gilliam did this on purpose in an effort to avoid working on the scene again because she despised the process of filming. It didn't work, and the result is the continuity error.
Quotes:
[first lines]
Singers:
[TV commercial jingle]
Central Services: We do the work, you do the pleasure. TV commercial pitchman:
Hi, there. I want to talk to you about ducts.
User Review
Perhaps the greatest of all films
Rating: 10/10
I have read a lot of understandably negative reviews of the movie
'Brazil.'
Brazil(in its proper form) is a long film at well over two hours, it has
many cutaways to dream sequences that are only loosely related to the
rest
of the film, and the narrative story is not always the driving force of
the
film which many people find confusing. With all these things going
against
it, Brazil is clearly not a film for everyone.
All that being said, Brazil is my very favorite movie. Those things
previously described as reasons that some people will dislike the movie
are
the very reasons I love it. The story is both simple and complex
depending
on how you look at it, and this kind of paradox is what makes for great
art.
There, I did it! I used the 'A' word, and not lightly. Brazil is an
art
film, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Sam Lowry(Jonathan Pryce) is our hero, an unambitious bureaucrat within
the
ranks of the Ministry of Information. The only place he is willing to be
more than a drone is in his dreams where he is some sort of angelic
knight
fighting to save his dream girl. While running an errand for work, Sam
comes face to face with a woman who is the very image of the dream girl,
and
his life is forever changed when he surrenders his tranquil unambitious
life
in the attempt to pursue the woman.
This movie is less about the story than it is about the atmosphere in my
opinion. Terry Gilliam is a visual genius, and this movie marks his
peak(so
far) in producing a visually stunning film, with due apologies to
Adventures
of Baron Munchausen and 12 Monkeys which are beautiful in their own
rights.
The oppression of the bureaucratic life is felt by anyone who watches
this
film, and the freedom experienced in the dreams is a fantastic
counterpoint.
This film does a wonderful job of evoking emotional responses for me,
and I
suspect for most of the fans of the film as well.
The film can be viewed at many different levels of complexity, from
fairly
simple to fully allegorical. The simple view would be that the movie is
about the dreams we create to escape our dull lives, and the potentially
disastrous results of pursuing them in waking life. Symbolically the
film
can be interpreted as a vicious attack on the status quo as an
impersonal,
consumer/beauty oriented beast that is upheld by a draconian adherence to
regulations and invasive public policy. There are many other ways to see
it, most of which are probably unintended, but certainly completely
valid.
The best part about Brazil is that it is absolutely hilarious. Jonathan
Pryce shows remarkable aptitude for physical comedy. The dialogue is as
funny as any movie you'll ever see, though the humor is very dry, and
often
so subtle that you might not get a joke until a minute after it has
passed.
There are the occasional tidbits of out loud guffaws one would expect
from a
script that was partly written by Tom Stoppard, but there is not a
constant
barrage of this material.
Brazil is a very cerebral film, so if you are thinking, "What does
cerebral
mean?" you can probably skip it. Anyone who expects to have a story
clearly
spelled out for them, and done so in a concise manner with little
background
interference will hate Brazil. Brazil is a film for those who want
texture,
emotional involvement and some sort of deeper meaning.
Brazil is my favorite movie, but it is clearly not for
everyone!
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