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List Price: $59.95 | | Label: Criterion
Salesrank: 26309
Released: July 13, 1999 |
| Our Price: $26.63 |
| Used Price: $8.88 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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| Features:
Box set Closed-captioned Color Director's Cut Dolby DVD Letterboxed Widescreen NTSC | |
Editorial Review:
If Franz Kafka had been an animator and film director--oh, and a member of Monty Python's Flying Circus--this is the sort of outrageously dystopian satire one could easily imagine him making. However, Brazil was made by Terry Gilliam, who is all of the above except, of course, Franz Kafka. Be that as it may, Gilliam sure captures the paranoid-subversive spirit of Kafka's The Trial (along with his own Python animation) in this bureaucratic nightmare-comedy about a meek governmental clerk named Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) whose life is destroyed by a simple bug. Not a software bug, a real bug (no doubt related to Kafka's famous Metamorphosis insect) that gets smooshed in a printer and causes a typographical error unjustly identifying an innocent citizen, one Mr. Buttle, as suspected terrorist Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro). When Sam becomes enmeshed in unraveling this bureaucratic glitch, he himself winds up labeled as a miscreant.
The movie presents such an unrelentingly imaginative and savage vision of 20th-century bureaucracy that it almost became a victim of small-minded studio management itself--until Gilliam surreptitiously screened his cut for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, who named it the best movie of 1985 and virtually embarrassed Universal into releasing it. This DVD version of Brazil is the special director's cut that first appeared in Criterion's comprehensive (and expensive) six-disc laser package in 1996. --Jim Emerson
Brazil - Criterion Collection Reviews:
Soft totalitarianism 
2009-12-23 - Filled with startling and grotesque visuals, and dark, surreal humour, 'Brazil' (made in 1985) is highly prophetic in its portrayal of soft totalitarianism and the way it would develop in Western countries like England; more so than '1984', which portrays an overtly Communist society.
'Brazil' is of greater relevance now than when it was made, given that the nanny state/police state is growing stronger day by day. It is relevant, too, in its depiction of highly sophisticated technology which nonetheless keeps breaking down (the machines often appear alive in a demented way), with one technological glitch leading to the arrest of an innocent man for terrorism.
'Brazil' is brilliant satire, but offers no answers. In the end, the central character escapes only through his dreams, while in reality the State remains triumphant. This begs the question - are dreams more real than 'reality'?
Dark Future
2009-09-24 - Nice futuristic work of the future where egocentrism and personal greed has taken absurd heights.
A low profile top official has his life upside down with emotions experienced from the different epoch.
Good work is a bit old-fashioned as too much similar was later created with an advanced audio/visual technology.
Awesome 
2009-09-12 - The first time I watched this video was during a tour in Afghanistan and I saw the cover and my intrest was peaked. I enjoy watching a wide range of movies. After watching for the first time Brazil instantly jumped to one of my top 10 all time favorites. If you are the type of person who only watches blockbusters then don't watch this movie and comlain about it. This movie is for someone that knows a great movie when they see it. But for everyone else watch this movie and enjoy it. watch the Love Conquers All edition first so you can see how bad movie studios butcher films when you sit down and watch the Directer's cut.
Terry Gilliam at his best
2009-09-12 - This movie is fantastic. We had it on VHS and the upgrade to DVD is well worth it.
Brazil
2009-08-02 - It is a great brain and eye pleaser. It is a great classic movie.
