One of my favorite movies of all time 😎 Terry Gilliam is great

Brazil is a great movie, but one I haven't watched in decades. Your review makes me want to rewatch it. Geoff Muldaur contributed the theme song to the score, hearing of which always makes me smile.

In my top 5 movies of all time.

@danieluren8737

4 ай бұрын

Hear hear

A film that affected me deeply, back in the day!

As a Brazilian, I don't think the movie comments on socialism, despite the clear inspiration in 1984 (and Kafka's The Trial as well). I think that in addition to the carnivalesque aesthetic in the movie scenes and the music, the film comments on the extreme right-wing military dictatorship that took place in Brazil between 1964 and 1985. Intense bureaucracy, state persecution, terrorism and torture of prisoners were frequent during this period

The ghost in the machine

Thanks for sharing this! I first heard about the film, Brazil, from a poster for an early screening at CalArts in 85. I thought it was about the country, Brazil, because I would soon be traveling to Brazil for the first time in Jan 86. Brazil represented an exotic mythic place filled with nature, beauty, romance and tropical sensuous music or a South American Shangri-La! So after the surprise of seeing something completely unique and different than what I expected, the metaphoric symbolism behind the film's title resonated. "Brazil is a State of Mind". I was also completely mind blown after having witnessed a true masterpiece and a work of art like no other film I had ever seen. The style and world of Gilliam's Brazil changed and influenced filmmaking instantly. So, by chance and by mistake, I was at that clandestine guerilla controversial protest screening to generate momentum in order to promote Director Gilliam's desired cut. What a masterpiece?! This film wipes the floor with today's artsy movies like the weak plot in Poor Things!

Being one of the few people who have covered this and always wanted to get into film, you have made a sub out of me

@LearningaboutMovies

6 ай бұрын

Thanks, and welcome

Great job distilling the movie’s themes and qualities in a short video. “Brazil” has been one of my favorite movies since I first saw it back in its original theatrical run in 1985. For some reason it hasn’t quite achieved the cult classic status of others of that era like “Blade Runner,” and that’s probably due to its bumbling, hapless protagonist Sam Lowry, who certainly lacks the traditional hero credentials, and the irreverent, sometimes manic tone. That’s too bad, because this movie deserves the classic status as much as any movie of the 20th century.

@elevenseven-yq4vu

8 ай бұрын

Sam Lowry is perfect for Brazil.

@MartinParsons-tr6wi

3 ай бұрын

It could be that everyone doesn't get it, or (imo) more plausibly, the authorities wanted to neuter its pertinence

Can recall my double-take on discovering Robert De Niro as the maintenance/mechanic .

One of my favorite 80’s movies.

Still in my top 10 since the 1st view by 1999

This is my personal favorite of Gilliam's films, I really like it a lot! Since many of his other films have been getting the 4K treatment from Criterion, I REALLY hope that Brazil gets a 4K release as well. The Criterion Blu Ray transfer seems outdated as this point, and the film could really use a proper, full 4K restoration (and their 4K transfers of the other Gilliam films have been great)

An absolute gem.

I watched back-to-back showings of Brazil on a Friday night (w/ my girlfriend) the week it opened in our local theater in 1985. Then went back on Saturday night and watched it again, by myself! To this day -- I've never experienced quite the same level of mental, physical and visceral engagement w/ a film as I did (do) w/ this movie. There are at least 30 movies in my all time Top 10 :) .... but Brazil is the only movie ever to occupy the #1 spot.

@MartinParsons-tr6wi

3 ай бұрын

Same here

@MartinParsons-tr6wi

3 ай бұрын

.... Dr Strangelove and 2001, contenders for 2nd and 3rd spot (with 27 others ; ) )

@LearningaboutMovies

3 ай бұрын

thank you

@MartinParsons-tr6wi

3 ай бұрын

@@LearningaboutMovies Thank you. I liked your critique

Apparently the U. S. distributors required a different ending than the original version (and Director's Cut). I distinguish Totalitarian Socialism, ala the USSR, and other forms such as the Democratic Socialism of Scandinavia. It is certainly critical of the former. The film is rare genius, personally I think it's his best.

@KCatalano88

Жыл бұрын

Scandinavian nations aren't 'socialist states' as such. It is true that Orwell was a Fabian Socialist (e.g. -George Bernard Shaw) and this group had no affection for Stalinism.

@inyobill

Жыл бұрын

@@KCatalano88 Clearly the means of production are not owned by the state, so of course you're technically correct. Social support provided by the states are commonly accepted to be Socialist programs.

@KCatalano88

Жыл бұрын

@@inyobill I never bought that, personally. The Roman Republic had a grain dole; were they socialists? It's a fun convo but I'd caution against getting lost in the weeds in the dolldom and depressing avenue of politics when we should be celebrating something way more worthwhile, which is film.

@keemstarkreamstar7069

11 ай бұрын

@@inyobillThe U.S. is a socialist country by that metric, and so is literally every single country because no country provides no social services at all. I’m not sure this is a useful distinction. This movie is less about economic systems and more about a dying society where the people in it are on the verge of being unable to maintain it. I’d argue its a critique from the right wing, as the capable such as the protagonist and De Niro work together, and there is a natural hierarchy, most of the people seem too incompetent to even manage themselves, as well as the state.

@inyobill

11 ай бұрын

@@keemstarkreamstar7069 So what's your point?

I think you got the correlation between Brazil and 1984 right. The aspects of the police state are important where certain groups are myopic while other groups feel the harshness . I saw this when it first came out and was stunned by the terrorist bombing ( and the non reaction) which is more relevant today or should I say more advertised today.

Great review! My personal favourite film of all time. I would just like to add, politics has gotten so confused over the years that leftism has been associated with supporting a big state, even though many early socialists were against such...and many liberals and leftish people DO support a big state, amd even worse, they'll call it socialism (often bringing up Nordic countries). I guess what I'm trying to get at, is that ever since Stalin revised socialism to basically mean whatever his party did, it's never left the public imagination that socialism = what a political party does. And you see this play out in American politics daily, with people voting for the party that is most 'anti-government' (therefore most anti-totalitarianism, right?!?!) even though, say, the Republicans embrace a massive police state. What's been lost in the left political critique, which is essential, is the criticism of both governments and private entities (which, when given enough power, just resemble governments - except you don't get a vote, they are bureaucratic institutions - funny how American libertarians never talk about the vast agonizing bureaucracy of many corporations, but I digress). ANYWAYS, Gilliam's vision is prescient because the merger of the government with corporations seems to be the way the world has been going, which I would argue is an essential left-wing take, maybe let's call it anarchist, libertarian socialist, whatever. Socialism is actually the democratic ownership of private industry, so very much unlike the world of Brazil

@keemstarkreamstar7069

11 ай бұрын

Republicans don’t want a “police state”, they just want the police to function. If you look at the majority of Democrat-ran cities, the crime is out of control, homicide rates especially. Somewhere like Boise or Billings have comparatively low homicide rates. Hell the Democrat mayor of D.C. is asking the National Guard to intervene to deal with crime there. The problem with socialism, much like with your take, is that it assumes an infinite plasticity and equality inherent to humans. Even on a subconscious level, you recognize this isn’t true. Many disorders are hereditary and many people simply not born equal, and so largely is intelligence as well as violent behaviors. Any political system fails when ran by people who on average don’t have the intellectual prowess to read. I thought of Idiocracy as a modern counterpart to Brazil, which would make it a right-wing movie by the traditional definition of right and left wing. A simple look at the average character in Brazil shows someone who is not very competent or aware, or even has the capacity to be so. There doesn’t need to be some efficient authoritarian state to keep the people down or censor them, the state and the people who live under it are in a rotting world they bit by bit cannot maintain. There are only so many De Niros. In fact the constant explosions you hear in the film aren’t the act of sabotage, they are the system falling apart as the last few competent people cannot maintain it.

@MartinParsons-tr6wi

3 ай бұрын

Sure. The 1984 premise was to subdue the population by turning (linguistic) reality on its head ("freedom is slavery" etc). This seems to be the process that is coming(/has come) to pass

Excellent movie for sure

I'm with you in the sense that Brazil lead me into loving Time Bandits, Jabberwocky, Baron von Munchausen, 12 Monkeys etc - but this movie really is an absolute timeless classic. What did you think of The Man Who Shot Don Quixote?

I just watched it and holy heck, i am in shock. I understand and dont understand it all. Its so strange and normal

@MartinParsons-tr6wi

3 ай бұрын

Watch it again ( ! - )

It is one of the best film ever made!

Love this movie! It is like 1984 meets Walter Mitty meets the Matrix. Like 1984, the film is set in a totalitarian state, but unlike 1984, people seem to be unaware of how toxic their government is. Everywhere there are screens, magnifiers on screens, surveillance cameras. The affect is that both government officials and citizens seem to be in a trance, both watching screens while unaware of how much they are being surveilled. What appears to be is more important than what is. His mother refuses to age gracefully and downplays the health hazards of her plastic surgeries. When Sam travels out of town, he drives down a road densely lined with billboards, which completely obscures the wilderness from view. There is ever the need to control what is seen, because perception is belief. De Niro plays Sam's alter ego, Tuttle. Tuttle acting as a free agent, is an enigmatic hero. Sam is a desk-bound bureaucrat. When Tuttle works on the bizarre HVAC system of Sam's flat, you see it is a system of hoses that inflate and breathe as if it were a living thing. Throughout the film, you see duct work and pneumatic tube systems. These are the organs of the state, along with its omniscient cameras. It is if the state has come alive in some malignant, self-perpetuating form. Lowry's imagination allows him to escape the state, if only in his mind. The end of the film features Lowry's ultimate triumph over the state, a Borgesian victory played out, not in actuality, but in his mind. Through his dreamscape, Lowry finally breaks free.

@SuperFranzs

3 ай бұрын

It's more realistic in a way. Most people don't care about the surveillance of today, why should people care if it gets worse?

@MartinParsons-tr6wi

3 ай бұрын

Nicely put

Saw this movie about 2 years ago thank you for reminding me of the gem I'm currently working on an animated scifi on my KZread Channel might rewatch Brazil to study some ideas

I’m surprised the author of the video hadn’t realised it was Gilliam’s version of 1984! I’d just finished an end of highschool self-assigned thesis on Dystopia; Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World & 1984 (books - not the films), and as many mention, Brazil is by far superior than the 1984 film. Lowry is of course named after the famous “industrial” British painter, and apparently the entire film was inspired by Gilliam seeing a working-class man on a northern English black coal-soaked beach, sitting on a deckchair with his socks off & trousers up having a “best life” moment on what was actually an utterly depressing vista.

@LearningaboutMovies

2 ай бұрын

Gilliam claims he never read the book.

@clarkcampbell1110

2 ай бұрын

@@LearningaboutMovies the cultural pervasiveness of the themes of 1984 were so prevalent at the time - you didn’t HAVE to read the book. I’ve never read 50 Shades, but probably could write a 5000 word essay on it :)

Top 5 movies for me along with Blade Runner

Great film

this is a favorite of mine. I think its better than the actual 1984 film that they released which is a serious and 'worthy'. This is a world where beaurocracy ruins lives and government is all powerful but is so fragile and the humans are a problem to good government. I've never understood where the title comes from. I thought Gillam was just trying to find an eye-catching title.

I watched this movie when I was 9th grade didn’t understand the themes until I’ve read 1984 and brave new world my 12th grade year

Time Bandits next

I didnt care much for it but that was years ago. I need to watch it again

Brazil is exactly where we wound up.

I remember when Brazil came out, it was the height of Thatcherism in the UK and this and the IRA bombings are very much reflected in the film. While it may benefit from maybe 15 to 20 minutes being left on the cutting room floor, the imagery and production are breathtaking. If you're ever unfortunate enough to sit through Jupiter Ascending then do wake up for the Gilliam cameo shot as a Brazil homage.

I appreciate your review and have to watch Fisher King but for as much I like Gilliam, Robin and Jeff I can't get into that movie. I seen stranger movies by far but struggle with this one.

As 17 year old I used to root for Sam and see the film as the story of a romantic not caring about the messes he caused in a crappy system because he has found his figure of happiness and merely seeing her in dreams gives him so much determination. As an adult I see it quite differently and I feel like the film works as a deconstruction of a romanticized Dystopian story, Sam is actually content with his life as a bureaucracy drone refusing promotions and has no moral dilemmas working for a system that sentences people over a typo. He only decides to rebel when it's convenient for him, he's not that much of a romantic hero, he's quite self-serving and his motive is just as poetic as it is quite vapid, not to mention the messes he leaves behind while searching for Jill. And there's no main big bad or a bunch of "evil people at the top" you can just kill off and then everyone is free and happy like in Equilibrium, Hunger Games, Elysium or similar works, the world of Brazil just seems the outcome of everyone just becoming jaded and disinterested and more prone to blame others than taking responsibility. Isn't that just worse and more horrifying than any Big Brother and stuff? That we're all just playing a role of making life a dystopia by being jaded and unhelpful, even if we're misguided dreamers like Sam? I don't hate Sam now, mind you, I see him as a very complex and human character. It's such a dense script you can find so much readings into. It's a classic that still holds up for a reason.

@LearningaboutMovies

Ай бұрын

thank you. great comment!

This is now the world we live in. The only place to find some sanity is to retreat into your own mind. (Just remember kiddies, don't go insane).

Thank you for knowing that Orwell was a socialist. People try to reduce him, but he is sucha complex guy.

I still don't know what this films about

The plastic surgery though. Remember that. That’s so relevant today.

I wouldn’t say sam lowry is incompetent. Rather he has no interest in climbing the ladder. He operates his bosses computer for him

It’s original title was 1984 1/2 ! 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

so is this a darker version of "Idiocracy" because I thought that movie was a parody of 1984?

@LearningaboutMovies

11 ай бұрын

no, idiocracy isn't even a parody. It's a dystopia about civilization becoming dysgenic. I take the opening explanation of the "fall" of civilization to be its plausible scenario. Brazil is a pretty angry view of the world, as its director has admitted.

... co-starring Robert de Niro as Mario™.

De Niro didn’t charge him, he isn’t a capitalist. This is especially evident in how he says “we’re all in this together” continuously. Did you miss the hyper consumerist motifs throughout the film like how a child asks Santa for a credit card. How did you miss that? The bureaucracy serves as a purpose of efficiency as equally distant and abjectly apathetic as its counterpart it services. Please read Max Weber.

@LearningaboutMovies

11 ай бұрын

Don't be a loser. What I said about DeNiro is standard for criticism of this movie. How did you miss that? Please read criticism of this movie, and also books of wisdom so you will stop being a jerk. And learn to write proper grammar, because most people I know reading your comment would think you are partially illiterate.

@jonathanheinze1219

11 ай бұрын

How thin skinned of you to whine at the slightest criticism of your opinions.

@keemstarkreamstar7069

11 ай бұрын

Consumerism can exist without free market capitalism, this movie is about state capitalism. There are many socialistic services relegated to the sprawling, inefficient central government. One could read Brazil as being about dysgenics, hell, even the constant chaos we see in the film is actually due to the complex systems failing, being blamed on a made-up terrorism while the few competent people try to save this rotting society from itself.

@keemstarkreamstar7069

11 ай бұрын

Its not a critique of capitalism, at least not of the free market variety, because this is in a system where there aren’t people smart enough to even run a capitalism not shepherded by a state that is ran by people who largely aren’t competent enough to run it. I don’t think socialism would save most of the denizens of this world, they simply appear intrinsically dysfunctional.

@LearningaboutMovies

10 ай бұрын

you initiate and speak aggressively, and when someone responds they are "thin-skinned"? It's time for a heavy dose of therapy!

I can't recommend it due to the really bad pacing and overly long slapstick moments. It feels dragged out and "pointless" too often for my tastes. It has some really good scenes here and there, though, for sure

@LearningaboutMovies

Жыл бұрын

totally fair. I do think "pacing" needs to be flushed out though, as I never know what people mean -- different standards for different tastes. So what's the right pacing?

@shoheiimamura4067

Жыл бұрын

WHAT!?

@tau-5794

4 ай бұрын

Dragged-out and pointless is exactly the point in a movie with mindless bureaucracy as the antagonist.

it's actually not great, but it has it's points. not worth all the trouble and hype, though.

Brazil is far, far too long, as is 12 Monkeys. Gilliam desperately needed to work with and listen to a good editor less in love with his erratic material. 12 Monkeys is an ungodly 129m long (absurd for an interesting but modest time travel romance) while Brazil clocks in at 132m. Both could lose half an hour, easily. Their runtimes sap Gilliam's wit, unfortunately, like your interesting friend who just has no idea when to stop. A little Jeffrey Goines goes a long way, but Gilliam has no idea when to cut him.

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