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Brazil(1985) is a great SCIFI feature that's one of the most visually rewarding films to watch. The movie deals with a computer error that causes havoc for the protagonist, Sam Lowry. Sam Lowry is someone who dreams of living as an individual, away from the system of Big Brother. The movie is heavily influenced by George Orwell's classic novel, 1984. Brazil(1985) is the closest thing to a perfect adaptation of 1984 for the big screen.

Brazil(1985) is more well known for what happened behind the scenes than anything that happens in the film. There was a bitter battle between the director and producer that ended up in the cutting of the film much to Terry Gilliam's disapproval. As a result there are three cuts of the film(director, studio, TV). I've seen both the 142Minute and 132Minute version. In my opinion, the 142Minute edition is the definite one to watch.

Jonathan Pryce as Sam Lowry does a great act in showing someone who is imprisoned by the system. Robert De Niro plays Sam Lowry's alter ego, Harry Tuttle in an eccentric role for the actor. At first De Niro wanted the role of Sam's best friend but instead got the role of the spy Harry Tuttle. The film retains the forbidden love affair between Sam Lowry and Jill Layton that is an important element in 1984. A lot of scens that involved Kim Griest were cut due to the dissatifaction of her performance from the director.

Brazil(1985) is Terry Gilliam's masterwork and a well directed piece by the filmmaker himself. The set designs are dazzling and the depiction of city life is nothing short of amazing. The title song is one of the most famous tunes. Much better then 12 Monkeys(1996) because this is a more complete film. Brazil(1985) is part of a trilogy that includes Time Bandits(1981) and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen(1988).

This trilogy is really about the progression of life that begins in Childhood, continues in Middleage, and ends with Old age. Brazil(1985) is really about the uncertainties of middleage. The samurai dream sequences are a marvalous example of the symbolisms they provide for the movie. Bob Hoskins gives a dark humorous act as a government plumber. The dream sequences with Sam Lowry and his dream girl are beautifully romantic.

Terry Gilliam is a raider, a looter, a thief, a borrower by definition. So here like in most his other films he borrows, with the intention of not giving anything back, something from about everyone. He borrows from the Bible and an Archangel Michael killing some dragon. He borrows from the Chinese and one of their bad spirits living in some mountain and spitting fire. He borrows from 1984, I was going to say of course, and of course it is evidently of course. He borrows from Fritz Lang and his Metropolis. The list would be long and probably neverending. And I have not touched the words that seem to be a long series of quotations interspierced here and there with some original phrases though all the words are of course borrowed from some dictionary, but this latter defect is a common disease. Terry Gilliam is settling some accounts with everyne you can imagine. First with his mother who is only concerned by her skin and looking younger than she is, but also by the future of her son and this enables her to pull some strings and she loves that, and of course with the desire to marry her own son with the daughter of het best friend who shares the same desire to look younger everyday and ends up as a pack of rotting and rotten bones in a casket, in a coffin, in a death box. Then he settles so many accounts with bureaucracy and administrative or police hassling that I would not have enough of three days and fifty five pages just to enumerate the evils he exposes here, and yet without gving any details. But he also settles some accounts with his own vision of the world, but -this time without maybe knowing it. All structures in the shape of corridors crossing or not, tunnels, byways, bridges but all designed from straight lines are doomed to fail leading anywhere, are mazes and labyrinths. Salvation, and Terry Gilliam believes in comedy hence in happy endings, can only come from the very melting-pot of suffering and torturing, from the big womb opening up onto the sky, but also to the saviours that are air-lifted into this womb of evel to rescue their friend. But this salvation will have to go through a small door at the bottom of this womb, nearly at the back of it, and then through some labyrinth to come back out into the sunshine through a double gaping door. But this would not be finished if I did not mention the major culprit he is settling accounts with, the city, the metropolis, the city and suburban sprawl-drawl-crawl, the fire of the factories and the gold of the rich, that urbanized humanity that necessarily hosts and nurtures rebellion, subversion, urban guerrilla warfare and so many clandestine, moonshining, black market, unofficial and underground activities, commercial, industrial or political as you like it. That's Brazil. It is serious and yet it is funny, though the afterdinner mint is missing and big brother has nothing of a big brother at all. In a way, it is true, some scene make me think of some industrial district in London or Berlin or Leipzig thirty years ago, the East End before the rehabilitation of the Docks for example.