Brazil - The Criterion Collection - (Single Disc Editon)

Buy This Item Brazil - The Criterion Collection - (Single Disc Editon) by Criterion  Available from Amazon  $26.99  on 8-29-2008     Inspired by Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Terry Gilliam's (1940) black comedy, Brazil (1985), sets the human imagination at odds against the totalitarian bureaucray of the Ministry of Information. Set in a dystopian society "Somewhere in the 20th Century," Brazil tells the story of Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce), a lonely government employee in a dead-end job, who habitually escapes into his fantasy world of romantic adventures (accompanied by the 1939 Brazilian song, "Aquarela do Brasil"), and his quest to find happiness in that impersonal, industrial, oppressive society. Unlike Sam, most of the film's other characters seem oblivious to the labyrinth of bureaucracy in which they live, and seem content merely doing their meaningless jobs in order to avoid a bad credit rating. Katherine Helmond plays Sam's vain mother, Robert Deniro plays a rebel heating engineer, and Kim Greist plays the woman of Sam's dreams, Jill. <br /> <br />Brazil is among my all-time personal film favorites. Criterion has remastered Gilliam's work of genius in both single and three-disc versions. Both include a 142-minute director's cut of the film drawn from both the European and American footage (supervised and approved by Terry Gilliam), with a remastered Dolby stereo surround soundtrack and an audio commentary by Gilliam. The three-disc edition also includes a 30-minute on-set documentary, "What Is Brazil?;" rare behind-the-scenes footage; video interviews; and a 94-minute "Love Conquers All" version of Brazil. Sure to appeal to the Sam Lowry in all of us, this film is highly recommended. <br /> <br />G. Merritt Reader Reviews Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" is an extremely ambitious effort brimming with socio-political criticism. It is filled with intense, chaotic images of a highly centralized, technological, authoritarian society gone horribly sour. It is 1984 brought to flesh, and done with the Gilliam touch where dreams are the only way to escape a reality that is completely insane. What is disturbing is that this world looks so familiar...the endless paperwork to do the simplest things...the failure of gadgetry to make life easier...bureaucracy failing to take into account people...nepotism, vanity, the constant threat of "terrorists" to unite people in fear...mindless consumerism as religion...yes, Gilliam's kinetic visuals are indeed center stage, but much of the world in this film is a prophecy and funhouse refraction of our own world. Welcome to fascism: welcome to Brazil. I would have loved to see the look on face of the studio execs who had to confront this mindfreak when perhaps expecting something more along the lines of "Time Bandits".

Brazil - The Criterion Collection - (Single Disc Editon) Available from Amazon Price: $26.99 Updated on 8-29-2008.

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