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Brazil

Play trailer Poster for Brazil R Released Dec 18, 1985 2h 22m Comedy Sci-Fi Play Trailer Watchlist
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98% Tomatometer 55 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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Brazil

Brazil

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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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Critics Reviews

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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 Full Review Joe Morgenstern Wall Street Journal [A] darkly funny and truly visionary retro-futurist fantasy. Mar 12, 2011 Full Review Variety Staff Variety Brazil offers a chillingly hilarious vision of the near-future. May 30, 2007 Full Review 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 Full Review Paul Kanieski KSQD Community Radio From our post-9/11 viewpoint, Brazil’s biting social commentary comes across like an unheeded polemic against the slippery slope of surveillance and information gathering done in the name of national security. Jul 24, 2023 Full Review Howard Waldstein CBR What the film lacks in terms of a pandering narrative, it makes up for in lush backdrops, fantastic practical effects, and very real observations on surveillance states. Jul 18, 2023 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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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 Full Review 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 Isa B An excellent satire on how unnecessarily complicated government can be. Sam Lowry is a low ranking bureaucrat with little-to-no ambition. His powerful mother is constantly pushing him to move up, while Sam is content to live in his dreams. One critique I have with Brazil is it's unnecessarily long. It could stand to lose 30 minutes or so, mainly of the dream material where Sam is sword fighting that monster. I found that to be a bit excessive. Had it been a bit shorter and more to the point, I would give the film a higher mark. Don't get me wrong, Brazil is a very good film just the way it is. Though, in my opinion, there is a great film in there, just not this edit. I still definitely recommend it. 90/100 Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 12/01/24 Full Review Alejandro E If the idea was to adapt Orwell's dystopia -1984- then the result is as close as possible. Set in a bureaucratic tyranny, the story looks like a madman's dream, and fits quite well into the fiction genre. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 10/18/24 Full Review Mequias F A wonderful criticism of modern bureaucracy, “Brazil” underscores the need for humanity and reasoning to accompany the soulless and heartless machine we are running. Believe it or not, Capitalism has a place for the consumer; one of respect and consideration; one where the client is correct, their needs are tended to, and all parties profit from it. Have you been to a McDonald’s recently? Doubtless their servers have made a mistake or two in your order from time to time. If you report these errors to their management, they tend to immediately replace your purchase, for free, and apologize. Charity does exist in business and can even lead to more profit. Brazil’s absurdity magnifies the issues of paperwork and administrators, but not as excessively as you’d imagine. Many working people are incredibly detached from reality, and are desperate to return to human nature (or to a semblance of reason and security). It’s no surprise, then, that the heroes of this story are those who calmly defy the current order. In contrast, the film also presents incredibly immature people in positions of incredible power, demonstrating the immense harm they can do if not confronted. After all, the protagonist has the mental development of a fifteen year old, exactly like so many of our current day politicians and celebrities! Brazil’s brilliant use of props, environments, color and lighting allow us to detach from existence, while still delivering an entertaining, deeper meaning regarding our reality and the people in it. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/15/24 Full Review Second C Must watch absolutely Rated 5 out of 5 stars 08/02/24 Full Review Read all reviews
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Brazil

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Movie Info

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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