Brazil | 
| Actors: Jim Broadbent, Ray Cooper (ii), Robert De Niro, John Flanagan, Kim Greist
Studio: Universal Studios
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $7.06
You Save: $7.92 (53%)
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Rating:  412 reviews
Sales Rank: 1746
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd, Letterboxed, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 132 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: D20168D
ISBN: 0783225903
UPC: 025192016820
EAN: 9780783225906
ASIN: 0783225903
Theatrical Release Date: December 18, 1985
Release Date: March 31, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com essential video
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. The movie presents such an unrelentingly imaginative and savage vision of 20th-century bureaucracy that it almost became a victim of small-minded studio management itself--until Gilliam surreptitiously screened his cut for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, who named it the best movie of 1985 and virtually embarrassed Universal into releasing it. This DVD version of Brazil is the special director's cut that first appeared in Criterion's comprehensive (and expensive) six-disc laser package in 1996. Although the DVD (at a fraction of the price) doesn't include that set's many extras, it's still a bargain. --Jim Emerson
Product Description
The nightmarish futuristic satire brazil effectively blurs all lines between illusion and reality. Jonathan pryce plays a government statistician who chooses to blind himself to the decaying world around him. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 01/09/2007 Starring: Jonathan Pryce Katherine Helmond Run time: 131 minutes Rating: R Director: Terry Gilliam
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| Customer Reviews: Read 407 more reviews...
 A fantastic movie on an awesome 3-Disc Set. June 12, 2009
John Lindsey (Socorro, New Mexico USA.)
In the near future where it's a mix of the retro-eras all combined in one weird alternate futuristic world, bureaucrat are like busy bees in one giantic hive track down many anti-government terrorists. One particular bureaucrat geek named Sam Lowy (Jonathan Pryce) is a daydreamer who dreams of himself as a winged superhero in a world of psychedelic fantasy where she dreams of a beautiful nude girl only sometimes has to return to his daily nightmare. However a huge mistake on a wrong arrested man however creates one hell of a real nightmare for Sam as he seeks out his dreamgirl named Jill (Kim Griest) as he struggles in a battle of good and evil which plays in both real life and his dreams.
A unique and one-of-a-kind dark futuristic fantasy comedy epic from co-writer and director Terry Gilliam is the second movie of his major 80's fantasy trilogy that began with "Time Bandits" and finally ended with "Adventures of Baron Munchausen". The film offers the viewer a retro-esque future that mixes the past of the 40's, 50's, 60's and early 70's in one movie but in a brilliant kind of surreal and weird way that it's just scrumbcous like Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" or Fritz Lang's "Metropolis". The movie is inspired by George Orwell's "1984" and Gilliam's earlier "Time Bandits" here this movie represents a movie that is better then the first of the trilogy as it's also the darkest but most best. The film co-stars Katherine Helmound, Robert DiNero, Bob Hoskins, Michael Palin and Ian Holm for the co-star cast is very solid including the acting and there's a good sense of humor to propell with a few good action sequences and of course imaginative special effects even in these days of CGI.
This 3-Disc criterion collection offers the first Disc which is the Final Cut that combines footage from both Euro and American versions in one including a more somber ending is presented wondefully in excellent picture and sound quality including audio commentary by Terry Gilliam. Disc two offers still galleries, Trailer, featurettes, storyboards including for some more fantasy sequences that didn't make it into the final film, and two documentaries including on the controversy of the U.S. release and the final disc offers an alternate 94 minute syndicated version with alternate score, never before seen footage, shorter pacing and alternate feel good ending presented with optional audio commentary. This is a must have for fans of futuristic movies and fantasy epics.
Also recommended: "Time Bandits", "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen", "Blade Runner", "Metropolis (1927 and 2001)", "The Dark Crystal", "The Matrix Saga", "Batman Begins", "The Dark Knight", "Heavy Metal", "Gattaca", "Alphaville", "City of Lost Children", "Batman (1989)", "Batman Returns", "1984", "Big Trouble in Little China", "Flash Gordon", "Barberella", "V For Vendetta", "The Running Man", "Repo The Genetic Opera", "Inkheart", "Pan's Labyrinth", "Spirited Away", "Donnie Darko", "The Brothers Grimm", "The Wizard of Oz", "Return to Oz", "Making Contact (a.k.a. Joey)", "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", "Watchmen", "Faherenheit 451", "Vanilla Sky", "Total Recall", "Delicatessen", "Dark City", "The Fifth Element", "Tideland", "The Cell", "A Clockwork Orange", "The Golden Compass", "Harry Potter Saga" and "The Spiderwick Chronicles".
WE HAVE OVERTAKEN THE FUTURE! March 31, 2009
Josef Bush (Phoenix, AZ)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
No matter how many times I re-view this movie, I'm captivated by the it's emotonal realism, its hideous beauty, its magnificent sound and its music, and the wonderful acting of the ensemble. But more than any of that, I'm astonished by the inescapable realization that the most intensely unpleasant aspects of what was intended as a satirical pre-view of the futue, has, in the two and a half decades since its inception, come to mordant life. Our dim suspiscion of a decadent idiocy arising from an inbred society of rich money-changers, ruled by an inexpressibly foul and paracitic bureaucratic class rotten with envy, suspiscion and indifference to human suffering, has grown into an inescapable fact of contemporary life. Alas!
But how was BRAZIL conceived? How executed? The mystery of Terry Gilliam's methods (and funding) remain opaque, but the magic of his mastery over the medium grows in a splendor that is dark and excruciating, but irresistable.
What excuse is there for not having viewed this film at leasst once? I cannot conceive of any.
 This Nonsense A Classic? March 31, 2009
Kurt Harding (Boerne TX)
2 out of 13 found this review helpful
After buying and viewing Brazil upon the recommendation of a friend who usually makes good ones, I came away wondering why on earth Criterion saw fit to issue a three-disc set for a film that didn't deserve to be reissued in the first place! I know I am swimming against the tide here, but this is one of the stupidest films I have ever had the displeasure to watch.
Yeah, I know its a parody of life in an all-encompassing bureaucratic state where citizens chafe under the oppressive heel of The Ministry of Information. But there is no real oppression, only mind-boggling incompetence. The story (and the acting) is so jejune that I didn't know whether to sneer or puke. Brazil not even "funny" in a Three Stooges kind of way! Robert de Niro especially ought to be ashamed of having his name attached to this indulgent silliness.
The movie is so bad, I don't know when I'll have the stomach to watch the other two discs. I suppose since I spent the money, I should steel my nerves and do so sometime. I already sat through some nearly unlistenable and insipid commentary on the film where the speakers tried so very hard to project erudition but instead exuded the acrid stench of pseudo-intellectual pretension.
The three discs came housed in a flimsy plastic dust cover that is already cracking like a piece of cheap plastic left too long in the sun. If you already like this movie, then you will probably not pause to reflect on a thing I wrote. But if you have not yet seen this unbearable nonsense packaged as a "cult classic", then I would recommend that you buy and watch a less expensive package before deciding to go whole-hog as I did.
 Different cut 'Brazil' March 26, 2009
Allison Fortuna
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I Love this movie, and the DVD's good and all, but I noticed there's at least one line (a very good, noticeable line) missing, and at least two shots that I've never seen before. Having extra material doesn't bother me at all, but there fact that it was missing stuff made me very angry. I saw this movie at least 10 times before buying the DVD, so I know what I'm talking about. I'm guessing it was just a different cut, but the DVD/its title should be more explanatory and illustrative about that.
"Hi there. I want to talk to you about ducts..." March 17, 2009
Bob (Hingham, MA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
How is one supposed to summarize this movie without egregious use of the phrase `Orwellian?' Let me just say this - It's like Life Of Brian, only replace the Christ story with 1984 and remove about half the cheap jokes. There. I can't put it any simpler than that. Anyways, as you may or may not know, this film exists in three different versions-The original European release (132 Min.) the original U.S. release (92 Min.), and the director's cut (142 Min.). If you wish to own all three, go with the Criterion multi disc deluxe set. If you only want the director's cut with the extra 10 min, Criterion has been kind enough to issue it a la carte, So you don't need to waste extra cash and storage space on a multi-disc behemoth. The cheapest and, in my opinion, best option, is the 132-minute Universal single disc release. I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to film, and it is with heavy heart that I reveal this, but I couldn't tell the difference between the Universal and Criterion single disc versions. The Criterion version has an extra 10 minutes in there somewhere, but I'll be darned if I can find them. So, if you're a casual fan of the film, I recommend the Universal version. It's a more or less complete presentation of the film, and it's anywhere from $5-15 cheaper than the Criterion single disc edition.
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