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Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Katherine Helmond

Terry Gilliam's 1985 film is a surrealist nightmare of a low-level bureaucrat in a dismal world of the near future.

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90% liked it

32,447 ratings

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98% liked it

40 critics

R, 2 hrs. 22 min.

Directed by: Terry Gilliam

Release Date: February 20, 1985

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DVD Release Date: March 31, 1998

Stats: 7,059 reviews

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Brazil (1985) Jonathan Pryce on the set of Brazil Brazil Brazil The torture begins... Bryan Pringle (1935 -2002) as Spiro in Brazil (1985) Mrs. Lowry's facelift Brazil Michael Palin Brazil Sam's dream girl Brazil Brazil Brazil Brazil Brazil
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Flixster Reviews (7,059)

  • SirPant
    August 27, 2009
    SirPant
    One of the greatest films ever made in my opinion and definitely Gilliam's best work.
  • gilbertgumphrey
    April 27, 2009
    gilbertgumphrey
    It's my personal opinion that Terry Gilliam is the worst filmmaker ever, in the history of time. A bold statement. And yes, I think he's worse than Uwe Boll, who's terrible but at least can admit to it; and yes, I think he's worse than Michael Bay, who's a terrible douchebag an...( read more)d host of countless shitty movies but at least knows how to make things go "boom". Terry Gilliam has no redeeming qualities. Everything he touches turns to shit. He can't make a single scene in any of his movies remotely visually appealing or enjoyable to watch - not only that, but he's a self-proclaimed, arrogant, conceited douche who really does think he's amazingly wonderful (as evidenced on the Tideland DVD, where he filmed himself before the movie started saying that many of us wouldn't like the film, but those of us with INTELLIGENCE will probably love it....he was saying all this BEFORE any of us had seen the film itself!!!). I hate him. I loathe him. All of his movies are so weird, so bizarre, so unrelentingly depressing and annoying and infuriating and so aesthetically ugly and unpleasant that no enjoyment or entertainment can be derived from any of them. Hell, he even managed to ruin Monty Python with his insipid animations and that long 20 minute sketch about the old man pirates in Meaning of Life, which went on for so long without any point or punchline I actually stopped watching the movie as soon as the sketch was done.

    Wow. That's a lot of bitching, and without having even yet mentioned the film I'm reviewing. But there's not a frame of this film that went by where I wasn't reminded by Terry Gilliam of how great Terry Gilliam is. He shoots everything with wide angle lenses, distorting the shots. He never uses deep focus, so usually everything in the frame is seen vividly, which isn't easy on the eyes. His camera usually moves in unpleasantly for closeups, then shakily draws back, then goes back in again, over and over. Simply put - he's never once filmed anything I thought was impressive or halfway decent (the overall movie of 12 Monkeys was pretty good, admittedly, but even then that was because the acting and screenplay were so strong they almost overpowered Gilliam's shitty directing...as hard as he tried). This visual approach is used throughout Brazil, which I believe was his breakout film. A sad indicator of things to come.

    Let it be said that the movie is rife with ideas. An endless amount of ideas, really. Brazil is a science fiction epic, set in a futuristic London I believe (no idea where the title of the movie came from). But all of these ideas are completely without a unifying purpose, or theme, or need, or point. They're just ideas for the sake of being ideas. Stuff like the satirical attacks on cosmetic surgery and the powerful police state are all pointed and interesting, sure, but what's the context? Why have them in there? Because Gilliam thought they were funny, I guess, or because he figured he was being much more clever than he really is. In the whole agonizingly long 2.5 hours of this movie, I probably only enjoyed myself for about 5 minutes (there is one clever segment, where Gilliam pays homage to the Odessa Steps sequence of Battleship Potemkin....but even then, Brian De Palma did it better in The Untouchables).

    I don't want to talk about the story, because I could hardly follow it. I don't want to talk anymore about the technical stuff, because Gilliam so desperately ruined almost all of it for me (even though I must admit the set design is incredible). I really don't want to mention the acting, especially considering that Robert fucking De Niro is even in the movie, for about 6 minutes. What I want to mention is this - why? Why tell this story, this way? This large amount of sci-fi ideas, and indeed many of them are with merit and interest, deserved a filmmaker with conviction, someone who would attempt to make a great film using a story, characters, and dialogue that is worth watching - not just endlessly unfunny characters acting so completely "British" and flipping a big middle finger in the face of logic or reason. You can say it all "means something", or that it's all "metaphorically significant", but to me, when I watch a movie, I want to either be educated or entertained, and this film did neither.

    So that's my rant on Brazil, I guess. I'm frustrated. I'm frustrated that I wasted so many hours of my life watching this shit. I'm frustrated that Terry Gilliam still gets work, even after destroying everything he touches from Brazil to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to the aforementioned, so-bad-I-couldn't-even-finish-it Tideland. I'm frustrated how popular this movie was and is, how most critics loved it, and how people still seem to think it's some sort of landmark in science fiction. But it isn't. There isn't a single solitary idea or theme (well, except maybe the obsessive attention to duct work) that hadn't already been done, far better, in movies like Blade Runner, A Clockwork Orange, and Metropolis. The story rambles on forever, the plot is damn near incomprehensible, every scene is littered with so many annoyances, contrivances, and arrogant waving-of-the-arms by Gilliam that it gave me a headache. And then after putting us through all this, the ending decides to throw everything concievable even in this sci-fi world out the window by giving us guys being eaten by garbage and escapes through coffins (I know the very last scene explains all this, but it's so pointlessly pessimistic that I just choose to ignore it). I have given a name to my pain, Bob, and it is Terry Gilliam.

    Final Note: This is also the first time I've ever actually had to stop a movie, go to the DVD Chapters menu, and see how many chapters were left before continuing my agony and finishing the film. If there had been more than a couple chapters left, I probably would've given up.
  • ohagankieran
    April 11, 2009
    ohagankieran
    Terry Gilliam has always been a unique director - a man with a vision determined to let nothing get in the way of his quest to make movies the way he wants to. 'Brazil' is his greatest achievement (though many of his other films come close) and brings a breathtaking Orwellian fut...( read more)ure society to life on the screen. Featuring a fantastically creepy performance from Mr Nice-Guy Mr. Michael Palin and a memorable somewhat low-key performance from Robert DeNiro 'Brazil' is not to be missed. Recut by the studios in a shocking attempt at making the film more upbeat, this feels HAS to be seen in this, the original version. Over twenty years old but as fresh and original as the day it was released...
  • SarahG1988
    April 11, 2009
    SarahG1988
    Photobucket




    The film centers on Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce), a young ...( read more)man trying to find a woman who appears in his dreams while he is working in a mind-numbing job and living a life in a small apartment, set in a dystopian world in which there is an over-reliance on poorly maintained (and rather whimsical) machines.

    Review coming soon...
  • DrBenway
    March 14, 2009
    DrBenway
    Although the uncut version of the film was justly praised, it was the awful "Love Conquers All" version that dominated U.S. screenings. When the film flopped in the U.S., it was its' critical success abroad that brought American critics to the uncut version. In the years since ...( read more)this post-production interference, Brazil has become a cult film, in no small part due to the reputation Gilliam developed as the lone iconoclast who stood up against Hollywood compromise.

    That being said, this futuristic vision is a movie now considered a 20th century masterpiece of the imagination, on par with Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Brazil is a "love it or hate it" experience, but whatever your opinion, one can't argue that it's a unique film from an imaginative director. Gilliam's original vision was to extend a view of the future as seen from the past. Just like all of those "Popular Science" magazines in the 40s and 50s which pictured the world we would someday live in coupled with beauracracy. Surely one of the most original films ever made, Terry Gilliam's Brazil remains his most influential work. It's not only a collection of marvelous images, it's a thinking person's movie that has things to say about individualilty.
    Photobucket
  • hugenymetsfan
    November 2, 2009
    hugenymetsfan
    weird, but different
  • bonasjsb
    October 27, 2009
    bonasjsb
    crazy, but so entertaining. very funny. Jonathan Price was amazing, so funny and absolutely nuts. Not enough Robert De Niro, I liked Tuttle and wished they used him more in the movie. Ian Holm was another good one. Some of the dream scenes went on a bit too long, they could ...( read more)have cut that down a bit.
  • dipa89
    October 21, 2009
    dipa89

  • honey88foru
    September 26, 2009
    honey88foru
    It's hard for me to define what Brazil is. It's a strange movie, imaginative (and fantastical if I dare say so), in it's approach in depicting totalitarianism and red tape as largely the consequence of impersonal, Goldberg's governmental machinery. How this machinery uses fear mo...( read more)ngering, consumerism and an absurdly bureaucratic and overcomplicated framework to hide or suppress it's own shortcomings and mistakes and continue doing what it does best - prey on the people - is the central theme of the movie. It is very heavy on symbolism but that never pulls you down thanks to the opposing force of dark humor which is in ample and appropriate amount. Jonathan Pryce as the hero trying to save his damsel in distress (yeah, that too) from this machinery when he himself is a part of it, was simply superb. What sets this brilliant mess of a story in motion is a fly that meets it's doom at the hands of a bored worker drone of this machine. All in all, a great movie.

    Oh and stay away from the "Love Conquers All" version. This movie is better taken with a hint of gloom.
  • Arianeta
    September 23, 2009
    Arianeta
    "Brazil is a 1985 film directed by Terry Gilliam. It was written by Gilliam, Charles McKeown, and Tom Stoppard and stars Jonathan Pryce. The film also features Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond, Bob Hoskins, and Ian Holm. John Scalzi's Rough Guide to Sc...( read more)i-Fi Movies describes the film as a "dystopian satire".
    ?Brazil? is realy a visual feast and looks great. Just beautiful with attention paid to every tiny detail, making this future world vivid and full of impace. Surrealistic nightmare vision where technology reigns supreme. Everyone is monitored by secrete from the government. Film also is a black comedy and one of the most audacious fantasies ever made still unique after all these years

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Critic Reviews

January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Very hard to follow. full review

View more Brazil reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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