DVD Reviews

Brazil – Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Jul 18, 2011, 14:35 GMT

Jonathan Pryce (Pirates of the Caribbean) Robert De Niro (The Godfather) and Michael Palin (Monty Python and the Holy Grail) star in this landmark cult classic that dazzles and thrills with its Academy Award® nominated groundbreaking art direction and sharply satirical original screenplay. In a future world a government clerk finds his life destroyed when he tries to correct an administrative error that caused a massive chain reaction of mistaken ...more

Terry Gilliam’s dystopian masterpiece finally comes to high definition. The results will impress some and others will demand that Universal be taunted by evil interrogators wearing infant masks.

Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is a low level government employee in a massive, dirty, dark city (inspired by Metropolis, film noir, 1984, German expressionism, etc.) who daydreams of being a flying knight that saves a beautiful maiden.

A clerical error caused by a fly has Archibald Buttle (Brian Miller) secretly arrested, interrogated and killed. The real target of the government order was Archibald “Harry” Tuttle (Robert De Niro) and now Lowry is tasked with straightening out the clerical mess.

Visiting the widow Buttle (Sheila Reid), Sam spies her upstairs neighbor Jill Layton (Kim Greist) who is trying to help Mrs. Buttle find out what happened to her missing husband. Jill also happens to be the spitting image of the woman in Sam’s daydreams so he is smitten.

To learn more about Jill, Sam approaches his plastic surgery addicted mother Ida (Katherine Helmond) to facilitate his transfer to the “information retrieval” department where he will have access to classified records.

Sam will become associated with the subversives that the bureaucratic nightmare of a government will do everything they can to wipe out.

Director Terry Gilliam had found fame on Brit television with the Monty Python troupe as well as flexing his directorial muscles with their movies. He would win acclaim in 1981 with Time Bandits and would follow that with Brazil. Brazil is the second film in his self described trilogy of imagination, the third film being the Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988).

Both Brazil and Munchausen would also be plagued with production worries. Brazil’s behind-the-scenes wrangling would result in three different cuts of the film: a 143 minute original cut, a 132 minute “American” cut, and the 94 minute “Love Conquers All” cut that gives the film a happy ending.

The film’s distribution was a bone of contention and really wasn’t widely released until it started winning awards (mainly from Gilliam showing his personal print since Universal didn’t know what to do with it). It didn’t make much money, but has gained a reputation as a cult film.

Criterion famously put out an expansive DVD edition that had all three cuts of the film (the “Love Conquers All” cut is terrible, but interesting to see how a film can be cut to be completely different).

Unfortunately, that DVD set was in unanamorphic widescreen so a high definition release is a cause for joy. Where the joy is tempered is that this new disc only presents the 132 minute cut, but it looks the best that I’ve ever seen it. Another joy killer is that this disc is special featureless basically.

I would think that Brazil premiering in high definition would be a cause for a special feature celebration, but Universal seems to think otherwise.

Brazil is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (1.85:1). There are no special features besides the disc being BD-Live enhanced.

Universal could’ve thrown us a bone if they didn’t want to try and license the special features from Criterion (who may own the rights to those other cuts maybe?), but what they do give us looks wonderful.

This disc will set on the shelf next to my Criterion set. The Blu-ray for the high def 132 minute cut and the old DVD set for the special features and other cuts. Maybe one day Criterion will recreate their special edition on Blu-ray, but for now this “something old, something new” format combination is the way to go.

This seems some odd homage to the bureaucracy that Brazil skewers in the film. Fans will need to decide if they want to do it this way or just wait for that fabled day when Brazil comes to high def (or the next format?) more akin to the Criterion set.

Therefore, I’m straddling the fence in that rating even though the film rates a full five stars.