Brazil (film)

A dystopian black comedy feature film directed by Terry Gilliam. It was written by Gilliam, Charles McKeown, and Tom Stoppard and stars actor Jonathan Pryce. The film also features Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond, Bob Hoskins, and Ian Holm.
Brazil evokes the melancholy, dreamlike quality of its theme song, an English translation of a 1939 Brazilian song, "Aquarela do Brasil," featured in Disney's Saludos Amigos (1942). In that escapist film, Brazil is represented as a romantic, fantasy location that is the opposite of gloomy, northern countries. Gilliam was inspired by this song to create the fictional totalitarian government and the overall dystopian mood of the film.

Cast

Jonathan Pryce - Sam Lowry

Robert De Niro - Archibald 'Harry' Tuttle

Katherine Helmond - Mrs. Ida Lowry

Ian Holm - Mr. M. Kurtzmann

Bob Hoskins - Spoor
Michael Palin - Jack Lint
Ian Richardson - Mr. Warrenn
Peter Vaughan - Mr. Helpmann

Kim Greist - Jill Layton

Jim Broadbent - Dr. Jaffe
Barbara Hicks - Mrs. Alma Terrain
Charles McKeown - Harvey Lime

Derrick O'Connor - Dowser
Kathryn Pogson - Shirley
Bryan Pringle - Spiro
Sheila Reid - Mrs. Buttle
John Flanagan - T.V. Interviewer / Salesman
Ray Cooper - Technician
Brian Miller - Mr. Buttle
Simon Nash - Boy Buttle
Prudence Oliver - Girl Buttle

Simon Jones - Arrest Official
Derek Deadman - Bill--Dept. of Works
Nigel Planer - Charlie--Dept. of Works
Terence Bayler - T.V Commercial Presente
Gorden Kaye - M.O.I. Lobby Porter
Tony Portacio - Neighbour in Clark's Pool
Bill Wallis - Bespectacled lurker
Winston Dennis - Samurai Warrior
Jack Purvis - Dr. Chapman
Elizabeth Spender - Alison / 'Barbara' Lint
Anthony Brown - Porter - Information Retrieval (as Antony Brown)
Myrtle Devenish - Typist in Jack's Office
Holly Gilliam - Holly
John Pierce Jones - Basement Guard
Ann Way - Old Lady with Dog
Don Henderson - First Black Maria Guard
Howard Lew Lewis - Second Black Maria Guard
Oscar Quitak - Interview Official
Harold Innocent - Interview Official
John Grillo - Interview Official
Ralph Nossek - Interview Official
David Gant - Interview Official
James Coyle - Interview Official
Patrick Connor - Cell Guard

Roger Ashton-Griffiths - Priest
Russell Keith Grant - Young Gallant at Funeral
Sue Hodge
Dominic Ffytche - Office boy
Terry Forestal - Running Trooper

Terry Gilliam - Smoking man at Shang-ri La Towers
John Hasler - Naughty little boy
Peter Sands - Ida's boyfriend

The film centers on Sam Lowry, a young man trying to find a woman who appears in his dreams while he is working in a mind-numbing job and living a life in a small apartment, set in a dystopian world in which there is an over-reliance on poorly maintained (and rather whimsical) machines. Brazil's bureaucratic, totalitarian government is reminiscent of the British government depicted in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, except that it has a buffoonish, slap-stick quality totally lacking in that particular novel.

Jack Mathews, movie critic and author of The Battle of Brazil (1987), characterized the film as "satirizing the bureaucratic, largely dysfunctional industrial world that had been driving [Gilliam] crazy all his life." While the film was a flop upon its initial release, it has since become a cult classic.

Plot synopsis
Brazil (which takes place "Somewhere in the 20th Century") recounts the story of Sam Lowry, a low-level government employee who is conflicted about his role in an overreaching bureaucracy. We learn that he is initially happy with his "dead end job" and simple life, and that he habitually escapes into a fantasy world of romantic struggles. His contented but lonely life becomes complicated by his mother's attempts to secure him a promotion, the intrusion of a renegade heating engineer, and the real-life appearance of the woman of his dreams.

The nonchalance of the characters often manifests itself in satirical ways. A receptionist, for example, is seen casually transcribing an off-screen conversation. When interrupted by the main character, she tilts her headphones off of her ears, allowing us to hear the pained sounds of someone undergoing severe torture. After cheerfully addressing the main character, she continues to dutifully record the nearly unintelligible pleas and screams. Terry Gilliam makes sure to point out in the DVD commentary that she is an example of "those kind of people."

Sam, throughout the story, becomes increasingly involved in complicated and life-threatening attempts to secure himself happiness, while also developing a strong hatred for the system of which he is a part. Ultimately, his efforts culminate into a violent and tragic climax, the outcome of which depends entirely on his friends' loyalty to Sam over their loyalty to the system that controls them.

Scenes missing in the British cut
These are scenes missing in the UK release of the film and what Americans saw in US theaters. The reasons for excluding these scenes from the UK version and adding them to the US version are unknown.

Clouds open and close the film in the American Release, some of the footage of these clouds was extraneous footage from The Never Ending Story. The clouds were in fact present in the original script; Gilliam confesses that he used the opportunity of the American edit to put them back in, because he actually liked it both ways. Furthermore, it gave him the opportunity to play the first bars of the song 'Brazil' as background music, as a reminder to the viewers who had trouble understanding the film's title.
After watching Mrs. Lowry's first plastic surgery treatment, Sam sarcastically exclaims "My God, it works!"
Jack says "You look like you've seen a ghost, Sam-" to Sam at the entrance of the Ministry of Records when Sam sees Jill Layton. This scene is also present in the Sheinberg cut of the film.

Scenes missing in the American cut
These are scenes missing in the US release of the film and what British audiences saw in UK theaters. These scenes were edited for the US release by Sheinberg because he thought that an American audience would be highly disturbed and unsettled by their content and length.

Shortly before the troops storm Mrs. Buttle's home, her daughter says to her "Father Christmas can't come if you haven't got a chimney." Mrs. Buttle replies with "You'll see."
A brief scene involving Sam and his mother, Ida, entering the restaurant where they meet Mrs. Terrain and Shirley. They have to pass through a metal detector in order to gain entrance, and Ida's present to Sam (one of the "Executive Decision Makers", seen later in the movie) sets off the alarm.
Part of the beginning of the first "Samurai" dream sequence, where Sam explores through the concrete labyrinth he finds himself in. The American version makes this sequence three separate ones while the UK release is one whole sequence.
A scene where Sam and Jill lie in bed after the implied consummation of their relationship. Jill has taken off the wig she was wearing in the scene before, and has a silver bow tied around her naked body. She says to Sam: "Something for an executive?" and he unties her.
The "Interrogation" scene, where Sam is charged with all of the violations of the law he committed throughout the film, including "wasting Ministry time and paper."
The "Father Christmas" scene where Helpmann visits Sam after his booking, Helpmann is dressed as Santa Claus. Among other things, Helpmann informs Sam that Jill Layton has been killed-twice.
The European release begins abruptly with the "Central Services" advert about ducts, and ends with a held shot of Lowry in the cooling tower without clouds present in the American release.

The movie that Sam's employees watch has stock music from the DeWolfe music library that also appears in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (from Lancelot's assault on the castle to save the prince), which Gilliam co-directed. This music has been deleted from the Sheinberg edit of the film.
During the escape from the ministry building near the end of the film, government soldiers parody the famous "Odessa Steps" sequence from the film The Battleship Potemkin. Instead of a baby carriage rolling down the stairs after the Tsar's soldiers kill the mother, it is a janitor's cleaning machine that rolls down the stairs soon after the janitor is killed.
The film often mentions an ambiguous form called 27B-Stroke-6. 27B was the number of George Orwell's apartment in London.

Production Design inspiration from Brazil can be seen in the Steven Soderbergh film Kafka and the Coen Brothers film The Hudsucker Proxy[citation needed]
In the video game Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Sam Fisher tells a security guard "Pretend I'm Harry Tuttle", "I'm an ill-tempered, heavily-armed heating engineer asking about your ventilation system" and "The adventure, the travel" in a reference to his work as a spy and his ability to enter areas without recognition by anyone. A response given by a guard when asked "Is there anything else?" has been "Yeah, don't forget your 27B(stroke)6".
Hot Hot Heat's video for their song Bandages features a spa with a face stretching scene reminiscent of the facelift scene.
The opening line of the British gothic metal band Cradle of Filth song "Lord Abortion" ("Care for a little necrophilia?") is a quote from Brazil (voiced by Kim Greist in the film but delivered here by Toni King, Dani's wife). The torture room scene in the "From the Cradle to Enslave" video is also a Brazil homage.
Minneapolis geek rock band Psychopop recorded "Harry Tuttle (Man of Intrigue)", a song about the Robert De Niro character and his adventures in the film.
The WikiScanner has a link to a web form they call "Wired's 27bstroke6" to submit your favorite anonymous edits to the Wired magazine website.
The anime A Detective Story of Animatrix was made on a world that resembles the film.
The complex bureaucracy that employs Hermes Conrad in Futurama bears intentional similarities to Brazil.
In film p, the technology of Brazil inspired the design of Max Cohen's apartment.

Tagline

It's only a state of mind.

We're all in it together.

It's about flights of fantasy. And the nightmare of reality. Terrorist bombings. And late night shopping. True Love. And creative plumbing.

Have a laugh at the horror of things to come.

Suspicion breeds confidence.

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