Brazil

Year: 1985

Grade: C

Country: UK

Director: Gilliam

Review

i really don’t know why this is so highly regarded. it’s the only single movie to get a three disc treatment from criterion. wtf? the major accomplishment of the film is clearly the atmosphere – and that is mostly accomplished through set design. so the production designer should get major props (ha ha), but the rest isn’t all that amazing. good, but not amazing. clearly there’s a commentary here about modernization and technology. i think of it as a monty python treatment of 1984. city of the lost children is the only other film that i can remember, off the top of my head, that has sets as good as this. the ubiquitous posters warning “don’t suspect someone, report them” etc. were funny and good for the atmosphere, but unfortunately you can’t make a good movie with set pieces alone. i felt that the surrealist aspect of it didn’t really add to the film. deniro was a nice addition. there were some laughs, but overall the film probably should have been cut by 30 minutes.