91) Brazil

Brazil (1985)

Director: Terry Gilliam

Starring: Jonathan Pryce, Kim Greist, Robert De Niro, Ian Holm, Katherine Helmond, Michael Palin, Bob Hoskins, Ian Richardson, Peter Vaughan, Jim Broadbent

After Bad Lieutenant I needed something a bit lighter to get that taste out of my mouth. I didn't know a great deal about Brazil. I knew it was directed by Terry Gilliam, I knew it was a kind of dystopian future type film and I knew it had a pretty impressive cast, so I thought I'd give it a crack.

Sam Lowry (Pryce) is a civil servant in a futuristic society bureaucratic state which is hopelessly convoluted and inefficient. He is assigned to investigate a computer mix-up which has seen a shoe repairman, Mr. Buttle, arrested and accidentally killed in the place of a wanted terrorist, renegade air-conditioner repairman Harry Tuttle (De Niro). Buttle's neighbour Jill Layton (Greist), has been trying to report the mistake to the authorities, but the hopeless inefficiency of the bureaucracy makes the process tedious. When Sam crosses paths with Jill he realises that she is the woman who has been appearing in his dreams, the object of his affection, who he wishes to escape his life with.

The first question that strikes you once you've watched Brazil is why on earth is it called Brazil? It isn't set in Brazil. There is no mention of the country. There is no character or thing called Brazil in the picture. So why is it called Brazil? The title for the film was originally going to be '1984 and a 1/2' intended to reference both George Orwell's 1984, an obvious influence on the film's plot, as well as Federico Fellini's 8 1/2. However when Michael Radford's film version, Nineteen Eighty-Four, was released the decision was made to change the title. The title, Brazil, comes from a song called 'Aquarela do Brazil' which is used throughout the film. Why that song is significant though, I have no idea.

Terry Gilliam had a terrible time trying to get Brazil into cinemas. Universal was unhappy with Gilliam's cut of the film and ordered him to re-edit it. When he did, they still weren't happy with it and refused to release it. This led to a very ugly, very public feud with then Universal head Sid Sheinberg. In an example of how public this feud was, Gilliam and De Niro appeared on 'Good Morning America' while the film was still awaiting a release. When the host asked Gilliam, "I hear you're having trouble with the studio. Is this correct?" he responded with, "No, I'm having trouble with Sid Sheinberg, here is an 8x10 photo of him." He then produced a photo of him for the cameras. Gilliam managed to screen his cut of the film to a film class at USC under the guise of it being an 'audio visual aid'. He screened it multiple times there over a fortnight. During the screenings a number of film critics saw the film and it was awarded the Los Angeles film critics Best Picture of the Year award, which provided enough leverage for Gilliam to get the film released the way he wanted it.

It is interesting that the film seems to be very much a part of that dystopian future genre which gave us films like Blade Runner, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Mad Max 2. It has a kind of retro-futuristic feel to it however the film is not actually set in the future. A title comes up at the beginning of the film to say that it is "Somewhere in the 20th century." This film was made in 1985, so there still was a bit of future 20th century to come, but it seemed to suggest that rather than a dystopian future we were supposed to read the film as an alternate, dystopian version of today.

The storyline is at times hard to follow. That is not due to it being an overly complex or convoluted narrative, rather there are just moments in the film where you aren't quite sure how this relates to the story.

One aspect of the film which resonates a bit more today is it's focus on terrorism. In the film terror attacks have become so frequent that they are almost a part of everyday life. There is a scene in which Sam is at a restaurant with his mother and her friend when a bomb goes off. The staff's response is simply to come and set up a fold out screen beside their table so they can continue their lunch without having to look at the destruction. Sam seems to be one of very few characters in the film who is actually still genuinely emotionally effected by terrorism. It was interesting to watch today living in a world where terrorist attacks seem so frequent on the news that unless they are really big, they just get passed over as just another everyday event.

I have to confess I was a bit disappointed with this one. There are wildly differing opinions on Brazil. Some rate it as a classic, a masterpiece, while others don't quite get it. I think I fall in the latter camp. It just didn't grip me. I'm not sure if it didn't grip me because I was having trouble following the story or whether I was having trouble following the story because it wasn't gripping me, but either way I didn't really engage with the film. It has some interesting moments, some funny moments, but it's not one that I can't wait to watch again.