If Franz Kafka had been an animator and film director--oh, and a member of Monty Python's Flying Circus--this is the sort of outrageously dystopian satire one could easily imagine him making. However, Brazil was made by Terry Gilliam, who is all of the above except, of course, Franz Kafka. Be that as it may, Gilliam sure captures the paranoid-subversive spirit of Kafka's The Trial (along with his own Python animation) in this bureaucratic nightmare-comedy about a meek governmental clerk named Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) whose life is destroyed by a simple bug. Not a software bug, a real bug (no doubt related to Kafka's famous Metamorphosis insect) that gets smooshed in a printer and causes a typographical error unjustly identifying an innocent citizen, one Mr. Buttle, as suspected terrorist Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro). When Sam becomes enmeshed in unraveling this bureaucratic glitch, he himself winds up labeled as a miscreant.

Better with each viewing

I just purchased the Criterion Collection version. All I can say is "wow"! I have been more or less obsessed with this film ever since I first saw it 20 years ago in 1986. It's a "thinking" film: I realize that some of the ignorant spoon-fed masses may be more in the same mindset as the hideous "Love Conquers All" edition which I think is one the points Gilliam was lampooning in the first place anyway. It's a brutally honest film and frighteningly prophetic for its time. Even the glamour is revealed as smoke and mirrors - in Gilliam's universe, nothing is gauzy or beautiful - it simply is what it is, like it or hate it. I'm no film critic, but I am fascinated by the level of detail in this film. Gilliam is a veritable artist and I have loved everyone of his films, maybe simply because they portray the grime beneath the finely-polished facade. Pryce is perfect as Sam Lowry; the part really was written for him. DeNiro is great in any part he takes - a true genius. Being two decades older has not diminished my love of this film. What I did not realize was that there was such a battle to get Gilliam's cut released! The film bears repeated viewings, just to capture the full scope of all that is there - a joke here, a minor detail there. Some of the characters may seem 2-dimensional, but isn't that just a sad-commentary on how we all see other people around us and are also in danger of becoming ourselves? I used to live in Brazil, and that experience actually helped me see this film for the gem it truly is. If at first the movie does not impact on you favourably, watch it again 2 weeks later after something really crappy has happened to you or someone you know. It grows on you, if only because of how honest it is.

Tedious, Tedious. Did I mention it was tedious?

I found Brazil somewhat interesting for 30 or 45 minutes. After about an hour, you want it to end. After 90 minutes, you really, really want it to end. The movie is aimless and overblown. It meanders horribly. It descends into a series of set pieces and not-so-funny gags. The fantasy sequences, where our hero slays a golden Japanese-looking giant, try to shed some light on the gloom. But the movie has no direction, and the romantic scenes have no passion. The movie is a reworking of "1984" and Chaplin's "Modern Times." We get lots of making- fun-of-socialism and modern gadgetry humor. Everyone hates bureacracy, surely, but the movie is repetitive in its jokes about waiting in line without the proper forms. making fun of cardboard bureacrats is easy and not inherently funny. One can take only some many scenes of dark-uniformed, jackbooted thugs smashing into rooms with machine guns before he gets exhausted. This movie is about as fun as standing in a long line at the DMV. At 142 minutes, Brazil is way too long. Gilliam has been better at fantasy (see The Adventures of Baron Munchausen) and character development (see The Fisher King). Gilliam's major fault as a director is in his tendency to lose control over his material. Brazil spins totally out of control, like a ship with no captain.

ARTHOUSE GARBAGE.

Really this satirical take on Orwells 1984 is nothing more than a messy arthouse flick. I first saw this movie back in the 80s, my ex-brotherlinlwa was raving about it,to be honest I thought it wasa load of crap back.
Acouple of weeks ago, I picked it up for ten bucks at movie warehouse, and thought I would give it another go, well I really struggled to stay awake when I watched it last sunday, and my verdict is the same as it was back in the 80s, "a load of old toss". Don't waste your money.