Brazil

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Brazil

R

Released Dec 18, 1985

2h 22m

Comedy

Sci-Fi

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

98%

Tomatometer

58 Reviews

90%

Popcornmeter

100,000+ Ratings

Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro), he meets the woman from his daydream (Kim Greist), and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.

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Critics Consensus

Brazil, Terry Gilliam's visionary Orwellian fantasy, is an audacious dark comedy, filled with strange, imaginative visuals.

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Chris Cabin

Slant Magazine

Through its wildly comic, furiously creative, and intensely moving facade, Terry Gilliam’s 1985 film Brazil ponders a future made to sustain a draconian past molded by inequality.

Jun 10, 2025

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Pauline Kael

The New Yorker

It's like a stoned, slapstick 1984: a nightmare comedy in which the comedy is just an aspect of the nightmarishness.

Jan 3, 2018

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Joe Morgenstern

Wall Street Journal

[A] darkly funny and truly visionary retro-futurist fantasy.

Mar 12, 2011

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Nick Rogers

Midwest Film Journal

Inarguably having earned its place among its many inspirations, "Brazil" could simply, and sadly, move up its setting and lose none of its lacerating satirical edge. As the song goes: “The morning found me miles away with still a million things to say.”

Rated: 5/5

Jun 16, 2025

Full Review

Jeff Beck

The Blu Spot

It's one of those remarkably outlandish cinematic experiences that sticks with you from the first time you see it, one that draws you back over and over, even if it's only to feast on its incredible visuals.

Rated: 4/5

Jun 11, 2025

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Yasser Medina

Cinefilia

Gilliam, with a finely tuned aesthetic, constructs it as an Orwellian, nightmarish satire, which always raises its dark tone when it interrogates the omnipotence of the bureaucratic State on the basis of a dystopia. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 8/10

Jan 20, 2024

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Stephen C

Funny in 2 hours and 22 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Starring Robert De Niro as Archibald!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/09/25

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thiago s

Filme ruim, o roteiro é fraco, as cenas são fracas, o elenco é mais ou menos, e ninguém ajuda a melhorar o filme, a história é fraca, e o filme deveria ter cenas bem melhores.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/25

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Roberto T

Almost a great movie. This is a movie that has scenes and details (like the candidate posters) that are just exceptional, but overall it is difficult to get fully stuck in.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/26/25

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Donathan T

An all-time great. No other movie is like this one - terrific special effects, terrific actors, terrific soundtrack, terrific setting. Hits on all marks.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/20/25

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Garrett B

Visually striking and great performances, Brazil is one of the most finest films in cinema history (and a surprising twist ending).

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/15/25

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Kevin P

A severely underrated dark satire that retells George Orwell's 1984 with a post-modern lens in the hands of Monty Python's Terry Gilliam. So much great commentary being shown rapid-fire with all the detailed sci-fi Orwellian urban landscape and surreal imagery. The titular jazzy cover version of Brazil is so catchy and it's no wonder it's still being used in so many movie trailers to this day. Plenty of great performances that are mostly either very deadpan or very serious (sometimes both) that give the movie a unique uneasy vibe, like everything wrong with our ever-increasingly apathetic, materialistic, dysfunctional, dishonest, and invasive modern world.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

12/13/24

Full Review

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Terry Gilliam

Director

Jonathan Pryce

Sam Lowry

Robert De Niro

Archibald "Harry" Tuttle

Katherine Helmond

Mrs. Ida Lowry

Ian Holm

Mr. M. Kurtzmann

Bob Hoskins

Spoor

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Synopsis

Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro), he meets the woman from his daydream (Kim Greist), and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.

Director: Terry Gilliam
Producer: Arnon Milchan
Screenwriter: Terry Gilliam, Charles McKeown, Tom Stoppard
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Production Co: Universal Pictures
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Sci-Fi
Original Language: British English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 18, 1985, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA): $3.7M
Runtime: 2h 22m
Sound Mix: Dolby Stereo, Surround, Dolby A
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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