The only American in the British comedy troupe Monty Python, Terry Gilliam stood out for his quirky and abstract animation sequences that came between some of the comedy sketches in their Monty Python's Flying Circus shows. Gilliam would often appear in the sketches sometimes as a small part where in the 70s when Monty Python branched out into films, Gilliam would co-direct the films like Monty Python & the Holy Grail and 1983's Monty Python & the Meaning of Life. When Monty Python disbanded shortly after the Meaning of Life, Gilliam went on his own to direct his own films after doing two solo features for 1977's Jabberwocky based on Lewis Carroll's story and Time Bandits in 1981 that included Python-mates Michael Palin and John Cleese (who wrote the film with Gilliam and Python's Eric Idle) along with Sean Connery. With the year 1984 looming and its relevance to the bleak, totalitarian novel of George Orwell, Gilliam decided to make his own version of 1984 with a bit of the over-the-top, surreal style of Federico Fellini that would become his masterpiece, 1985's Brazil.

Set in the 20th Century in a different world, Brazil is a grand, otherworldly film that combined Orwell's bleak, Metropolis-like vision of 1984 with many of Gilliam's Python's hijinks in tow. It's part sci-fi, part-comedy, part-drama, part-fantasy, and part-action all rolled into one. Though the film is called Brazil, it doesn't set itself in the country of Brazil or has anything to do with Brazil except for its song that is played throughout the film. What the film is about is an oppressed, meek man named Sam Lowry who often dreams into another world whenever he's feeling oppressed by his bleak world around him. After a mistake that has an innocent man killed, Lowry investigates to correct an error where he bumps into the girl of his dreams, a terrorist, and all sorts of people including those he works for at the Ministry of Information. Playing Lowry is Jonathan Pryce who makes a cowardly, meek man into an unlikely hero. With a cast that includes Gilliam's Python-mate Michael Palin along with Jim Broadbent, Katherine Helmond, Bob Hoskins, Kim Greist, Ian Holm, Ian Richardson, Peter Vaughn, Charles McKeown, and Robert de Niro. Brazil is a flat-out masterpiece that proves that there's no escape to imagination.

It's a typical day in the Ministry of Information when a technician (Ray Cooper) kills a fly in the ceiling, only to have that dead fly drop into a mechanized typewriter where an error occurs. The error forces a group of police-like guards to take a man named Mr. Buttle (Brian Miller) to have him be executed by the Information Retrieval group. Witnessing the capture is a woman named Jill Layton (Kim Greist) who notices that it's an error. The next day, a nervous office manager named Kurtzmann (Ian Holm) keeps peeping through his employees as he notices glitches in his computers where workers would watch movies. He calls for one of his loyal employees in Sam Lowry, only that he has overslept in his dream where he's a superhero, flying to find his dream girl. He wakes up to learn that he's overslept and the electricity in his apartment isn't working. He arrives where he bumps into his friend Jack Lint (Michael Palin) who works at the Information Retrieval office.

Lowry fixes Kurtzmann's computer problems as he heard that Lowry is up for a promotion at the Retrieval group but Lowry has turned it down because he enjoys his anonymity. He learns that his promotion has been pressured by his own mother Ida (Katherine Helmond), who knows the boss Eugene Helpmann (Peter Vaughn). Ida, who is currently getting a plastic surgery procedure to look young by Dr. Jaffe (Jim Broadbent) takes Sam to have dinner with friend Mrs. Terrain (Barbara Hicks) and her braces-wearing daughter Shirley (Kathryn Pogson). Ida and Mrs. Terrain hopes to have the two to get together but neither have any interest in another where Sam often feels pressured by his mother to not work for Information Retrieval. The problems with his mother, only makes Sam escape into his own dream world where he suddenly wakes up to learn that his air conditioning has broken down.

He calls Central Services to have his air conditioning fixed, only to learn that it will take them days to arrive. Then, a few minutes later, a man named Harry Tuttle (Robert de Niro) has arrived to fix the air conditioning since he intercepted Sam's call. Tuttle, who used to work for Central Services, fixes Sam's air conditioner without dealing with papers and claims, it's all for the work and to help someone. During the fixing, Central Services suddenly arrives with its fix-it guys Spoor (Bob Hoskins) and Dowser (Derrick O'Connor) to check up but because they didn’t have the forms to fix things, they’re forced to come back. Tuttle thanks Sam as he escapes through gliding down a wire as Sam learns he’s a terrorist because he fixes things without papers or money.

When Sam goes to work with Kurtzmann, Kurtzmann learns that an error did occur with Buttle when really, it was supposed to be Tuttle that should've been executed. Kurtzmann wants to deliver a check to Mrs. Buttle (Sheila Reid) but nerves have driven Kurtzmann to the edge. Sam will deliver the check personally as his fellow workers are secretly watching Casablanca. When Sam goes to deliver the check, Mrs. Buttle wants to know what has happened to her husband as he is attacked by her children as he witnesses Jill, wondering who she is since she resembles the girl in his dreams. He saw her earlier as she is now being suspected for being in cahoots with the terrorist group. Sam wants to know who she is but because he can't get information from his office, he has a reason now to take the promotion at Information Retrieval.

Upon returning home to his apartment, he learns that Spoor and Dowser has made things worse, especially when they learned that Tuttle was here. They have the paperwork where everything is screwed up. Sam goes to sleep to dream more where he battles a samurai warrior (Winston Dennis) to save his dream girl. Sam is waken up when a singing telegram girl (Diana Martin) arrives to tell him that his mother has invited him to a party. Sam doesn't want to go at first until he learns that Helpmann will be there. Sam arrives where he sees his mother, looking younger than ever while Mrs. Terrain looks worse thanks to an acid-like experimental procedure made by Dr. Chapman (Jack Purvis). Sam finally sees the wheelchair-bound Helpmann as he helps go into the bathroom and Helpmann decides to return a favor for Sam’s father by giving Sam the job which Sam accepts.

Sam takes his first day at Information Retrieval where he works with a talkative boss named Warrenn (Ian Richardson) and borrowing the computer of his neighbor Lime (Charles McKeown) where he finds more information on Jill, who is suspected for all sorts of crime and is a fugitive. He goes to Jack for guidance as he learns that Jack's job is to torture people as Jack suggest to change into a better suit with his daughter Holly (Holly Gilliam) watching. Sam, in a new suit, goes to find Jill where he sees her at the reception board where he goes after her and tries to tell her about Mr. Buttle. Jill doesn't trust Sam at first, only to give in when he doesn't give up, especially since he loves her. She takes him to a plant where she’s carrying a delivery but after an explosion, she is suspected for the bombing as she and Sam are captured. Sam, is returned to his office where Warrenn forces him to work overtime.

Sam comes home to find his apartment a complete mess that he cannot control as Spoor leaves him out. Then, Tuttle arrives to help Sam where after Tuttle's escape, Jill arrives as Sam decides to sneak into Helpmann’s secret elevator to delete Jill's files as the two fall in love, only to be captured by the Ministry. There, Sam wonders what is going on, where is Jill, and what is going to happen to him.

With an original screenplay written by Gilliam, Charles McKeown, and Tom Stoppard, Brazil has many elements that aren't just cerebral but also filled with downright humor. The credit really goes to Gilliam for his extraordinary vision by bringing Orwell's bleak, totalitarian vision of bureaucracy that is almost inescapable and find humor in it. Imagine living in a world where like in Brazil where you're living in poverty, all the machines don’t work well, and forced to live in this state. It's a bleak film but one that has humor and spectacular visions. Gilliam and his fellow writers really create a fantastic story in which, our protagonist is someone an audience can connect with. Lowry is a dreamer, who doesn't want to be noticed and wants to live in his dream without facing any kind of realities or responsibility. It's a fantastic screenplay that deserved its recognition by the Oscars even though they were just nominated.

If the script of Brazil is intelligently witty, Gilliam as a director pulls all the stops into his vision. Here, he perfectly captures a totalitarian bleakness that is very otherworldly and now, it makes sense with our own American idealism where the American dream is over and we're forced to live in a country run by idiots. Gilliam is really a storyteller like Fellini that uses extravagance to advance a story that blurs the line of reality and fantasy. It's top-notch directing at its best and as for the film's ending. I won't reveal it but it is a happy ending when you think about but it makes you really think and it's one that Gilliam fought over for when he made Brazil and it’s true to his vision.

If Gilliam's directing is in its imaginative form, complementing that vision is cinematographer Roger Pratt who brings in a diverse approach to the film's vision, with little color in many of the film's bleakest scenes and productions while bringing a lot of colorful lighting in Lowry’s dream sequences, including the samurai battle scene with its mix of gray and color. Helping out in the visual department is production designer Norman Garwood along with art directors Keith Pain and John Beard for capturing the bleak, utopian nightmare of the Metropolis-like city with its poverty-stricken city and its upper class styles that really shows the contrast of the rich and poor, even in the building where Sam and Jack Lint works at.

For the film's retro-30s look, costume designer James Acheson brings in a costume style of 1930s-like suits for the males except for Robert de Niro's Tuttle character while most of the women wear these wonderful clothing with boot-like hats along with Gilliam's wife Maggie Weston for creating strange makeup and hair for Katherine Helmond's character. With a wonderfully diverse score from the late Michael Kamen, the orchestral arrangements that are filled with rich strings play up to the film's suspense and dreamy tone along with dreamy layers for the song of "Brazil".

Credit for capturing the behavior of the bureaucracy of Brazil is its cast that includes several fine small performances from Brian Miller, Ray Cooper, Barbara Hicks, Shirley Pogson, Jack Purvis, Diana Martin, Derrick O’Connor, Holly Gilliam, Charles McKeown, and Sheila Reid. While Bob Hoskins and future-Oscar winner Jim Broadbent had small roles, both actors delivers some hilarious standout moments in their respective roles as repairman and surgeon in their own unique way. Playing against type in a role that now stands as ironic is Robert de Niro as Harry Tuttle, who only appears in a few scenes but he is extremely funny whenever he's on board.

Ian Richardson and Peter Vaughn are great in their roles as the superiors of the building that Sam Lowry works for while Ian Holm really stands out with his neurotic performance as Kurtzmann. Katherine Helmond gives a funny, aloof performance as Sam Lowry's mother while Kim Greist does fine in her role as Jill Layton with her tough-as-nails attitude and beauty. Of the supporting cast, the real standout is Michael Palin for his eccentric, strange performance as Jack Lint, with his nice guy, ignorant role as a man who doesn’t think torture is a bad thing.

In terms of performance from the whole cast, no one stands out better as Jonathan Pryce as the protagonist Sam Lowry. Pryce brings a complex and human performance as a man that couldn't stand the oppression he's living in and all the gadgets he has to be surrounded with. Pryce brings sympathy to Lowry in scenes involving his mother and her friends. Lowry is the guy we know and when he's in the dream sequence, Pryce is larger than life. He brings both comedy and drama into a great performance as this will be the role he will be remembered for as he continues to do great films like most recently, Pirates of the Caribbean.

When Brazil was released in 1985, the film drew massive acclaim in Europe but when it was test-screened for American audiences, it fared poorly. The then-chairman of Universal Studios Sid Sheinberg decided to re-cut Brazil without Gilliam or producer Arnon Milchan's consent where the film became a 94-minute love movie known as Love Conquers All. Gilliam was angry at the new cut of the film that featured more love moments and a happy ending that he despised along with more moments of actress Kim Griest's performance, whose performance Gilliam didn't really like since he favored Ellen Barkin after several screen tests that included Kelly McGillis, Jamie Lee Curtis, Rebecca de Mornay, and Madonna. Gilliam and Milchan decided to take their cut of the film and screened it for critics where the L.A. Critics Association fought for Gilliam's cut and in the end, Gilliam won with a 137-minute version of the film as opposed to his original 143-minute version (that can be seen in the Criterion Collection DVD along with Sheinberg's version). This incident would lead to have Gilliam be marked as a very difficult director to deal with for several years to come with films like The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King, 12 Monkeys, and Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas.

Twenty years since its release, Brazil still stands out as Terry Gilliam's masterpiece thanks to his unique, humorous vision on Orwell's 1984 that includes a great performance from Jonathan Pryce. With its great visuals, spectacular cinematography, sweeping score, and hilarious look of the world, Brazil is a film that doesn't look dated or looks ridiculous after twenty years. Fans who know Gilliam's work of Monty Python will find Brazil to be a great introduction to his mad vision. If there's only one movie from Terry Gilliam that you want to escape from with a character you can connect with, Brazil is the film to see.

Lost in La Mancha (2002):

http://www.epinions.com/content_128566005380

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older