• Brazil is Terry Gilliam’s magnum opus, one of the truly great films of the 1980’s, and very best films of the sci-fi and fantasy genres
  • It is the middle film in Gilliam’s imagination trilogy- starting with Time Bandits in 1981 and ending with The Adventures of Baron Munchausen in 1988
  • Riddled with production/financing and creative-control difficulties—clearly Gilliam is an iconoclast in the school of Orson Welles. De Niro, though impeccable in the small role, apparently was a bit of a headache with his method acting as well during production
  • A savage comedy featuring there’s terrorism, paranoia—veiled shots at the Reagan/Thatcher conservative dominance in the 1980’s. A designed dystopia that also is consistent (and the pinnacle) of Gilliam’s garbage/hoarder art (the ducts going through each set is so inspired) expressionism. Jean-Pierre Jeunet, a clear acolyte of Giliam’s, called it “retro-futurism”

A designed dystopia that also is consistent (and the pinnacle) of Gilliam’s garbage/hoarder art

the ducts going through each set is so inspired-expressionism. Jean-Pierre Jeunet, a clear acolyte of Giliam’s, called it “retro-futurism”

  • Talent all over the place, De Niro, Jim Broadbent, Bob Hoskins in a small role, Tom Stoppard the co-writer with Gilliam
  • Like Lanthimos’ fisheye lens in 2018 for The Favourite– Gilliam uses the wide angle camera lens here to emphasis the sheer madness of the place. A trademark of his you’d see more and more in his work following
  • Gilliam also uses the overhead camera to mimic surveillance – a way to acknowledge an emphasis the Orwellian nightmare—this is 1984, or Kafka—Welles’ own The Trial would be a good double-billing with Brazil. Characters are constantly captured behind lines or prisons like Rivette’s The Nun

using the camera to create the idea of surveillance- a stunner of a hallway here- very Kubrickian

another shot that perfectly matches… this is The Shining

Gilliam also uses the overhead camera to mimic surveillance – a way to acknowledge an emphasis the Orwellian nightmare—this is 1984, or Kafka

  • The references fly at you- the poor Buttle (or is it Tuttle?) family reading Dickens while Kim Greist is watching the Marx brothers
  • 143 minute directors cut here- there are a few different versions – again a historical study/money vs. artist/director battle
  • A comedy and sci-fi horror (those baby masks) at the same time—bureaucracy and receipts—hard not to think of Ikiru
  • Gilliam brilliantly employs the tracking shot to introduce us to the department of records—the camera backpedals to show us the sea of suits and paperwork (and elaborate all-time great production design work of Norman Garwood). Gilliam then cuts and moves the camera forward for another tracking shot before introducing us to Ian Holm’s character. Well done.

Gilliam brilliantly employs the tracking shot to introduce us to the department of records—the camera backpedals to show us the sea of suits and paperwork (and elaborate all-time great production design work of Norman Garwood). Gilliam then cuts and moves the camera forward for another tracking shot before introducing us to Ian Holm’s character.

  • Like say the flashbacks in Midnight Cowboy, Hiroshima Mon Amour or the scene of the cast walking down the empty road in The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie– Gilliam’s formal connective tissue here includes weaving in the surrealism sequences. Jonathan Pryce, absolutely genius as everyman Sam Lowry, is flying through the clouds, battling demons, escaping reality (he has a picture of Dietrich in his room and the film often has characters escaping reality through the movies- Casablanca).

Jonathan Pryce is absolutely genius as everyman Sam Lowry

Like say the flashbacks in Midnight Cowboy, Hiroshima Mon Amour or the scene of the cast walking down the empty road in The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie– Gilliam’s formal connective tissue here includes weaving in the surrealism sequences.

  • A very tough 2/4 stars for Ebert https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/brazil-1986 “The movie is very hard to follow. I have seen it twice, and am still not sure exactly who all the characters are, or how they fit”
  • A critique of high society (plastic surgery), commercialism (the little girl asking Santa for a credit card, consumers for Christ)- Bunuel would be proud
  • Gilliam echoes both Metropolis and Blade Runner in his square block designed dystopia. Detailed miniatures (there’s even a little inside joke with an old man building a miniature in the film) and set pieces—this is a marvelously inventive world

Gilliam echoes both Metropolis and Blade Runner in his square block designed dystopia– the achievement in world-building is on that level

  • The score really is a long list of variations on the title song- absolutely flawless
  • Overhead shots again and again as part of the visual form—66 minutes information retrieval, shots of Pryce’s character in jail, when he and the Kim Greist character make love

Overhead shots again and again as part of the visual form

in jail

at information retrieval

  • A stunner as Pryce’s character walks into Hellman’s office at the 115 minute mark- a miracle of lighting and framing as the doors create a doorway and a frame within a frame
  • Heavy use of the wide angle lens in the torture room sequences at the 125 minutes. What bravura a set piece. The dreadful smile of Michael Palin (pitch perfect) wearing the baby mask walking towards him as the resistance (led by De Niro) repel down on ropes like the James Bond movie Thunderball

Like Lanthimos’ fisheye lens in 2018 for The Favourite– Gilliam uses the wide angle camera lens here to emphasis the sheer madness of the place. A trademark of his you’d see more and more in his work following

Heavy use of the wide angle lens in the torture room sequences at the 125 minutes. What bravura a set piece.

  • It is definitely De Niro’s Harry Lime The Third Man performance—perhaps not on that level but a few minutes, in a gigantic masterpiece, an important character talking about most of the film
  • The pink neon background stunner at 132 minutes, 134 minutes he’s running into the monument, and how about the detail in the frame for the 134 minute funeral.

The pink neon background stunner at 132 minutes

134 minutes he’s running into the monument

how about the detail in the frame for the 134 minute funeral— this is Greenaway meets Baz Luhrmann

  • The silent fake happy ending finale –sublime—reality comes crashing back down to the torture chair and final set piece as a lobotomized Pryce hums the song. Flawlessness.
  • An enormous masterpiece