Cheap Brazil - The Criterion Collection - (Single Disc Editon) (DVD) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Brazil - The Criterion Collection - (Single Disc Editon)

Another prediction of the future proven wrong
Every century has spawned its own genre of art and literature. The 20th century saw the rise of many genres; the most notable being works about the future. Many of these have become respectable mainstays of popular culture and include the likes of The Time Machine, 1984, Blade Runner, I Robot, and this cult classic by Terry Gilliam; Brazil. Based in the early 21st century, it is a paean to the common man's fight against bureaucracy, red tape, and an intrusive government whose powers have no limits. Overall, this movie is a more tragic and more comedic version of 1984. <
> <
>This movie can be viewed in two ways. If one approaches it as pure entertainment, it is a very good movie. The acting is good and the plot line is interesting and very original. The comedy is funny and unique; not quite British in style, but more of a synthesis of many forms. The action scenes and special effects look real enough, and the ending is unexpected. <
> <
>If one views the movie as social commentary, as a prediction of what the future might be, then this movie fails on many accounts. First of, the primal point of this movie; the rise of an overarching and all-powerful government, is totally misplaced. If anything, government agencies in modern industrial societies are often weak and serve the whims of the private market. The US provides many great examples. The US Department of Agriculture is nothing more than a communal office for multinational food product corporations. Likewise, most national legislatures are run by corporate lobbyists. <
> <
>Second, the movie portrays government as highly responsive to any threat real or imagined; one phone call and government agents are at your door in 5 minutes. Ask anyone who has filed a complaint to their city about a water main leak, or an open manhole, or a downed electricity line; and chances are they waited for hours or days, not minutes. Even the 9/11 attackers left tons of clues that were reported to authorities, but nothing ever happened. So the image portrayed by this movie of a lightning fast government that can disappear its citizens at will is utterly false. Third, the character played by Robert DeNiro is totally unreal. His character is a plumber - janitor, and leads an underground resistance to the government. Political revolutionaries have historically been either close to the power base or are academic thinkers; not blue-collar workers. Last, this movie is presumably commenting on the future of Western society. A visit to any Western city will reveal a melting pot of races, ethnicities and languages. If anything, cities are only going to become more heterogenous with time. Yet somehow everyone in this society is white; Western European white most likely. <
> <
>The point is that the social commentary provided by this movie is all wrong. Overall, an entertaining movie, but not too accurate in its portrayal of the future.

---

Rating for the DVD, not the movie.
Let's be clear on one thing: The movie Brazil gets SIX stars out of FIVE in my book. This review is not about the movie, but the DVD. <
> <
>I already owned the standard Brazil DVD but wanted the Criterion Edition because I'd heard good things about their releases. I am very disappointed because there isn't a dime's difference between the Criterion and the regular DVD. All I can see from the box cover is a slightly different widescreen aspect ratio and the time is a bit longer (perhaps some added scenes?). The sound is still in lame 2.1 stereo, not 5.1 Dolby Digital or DTS . I see no excuse for this; Even the H.G. Wells' "First Men In The Moon" DVD, a movie filmed in 1964, is in 4.0 discrete surround. <
> <
>Brazil, excellent movie, but buy the regular release and a couple of other movies instead of the Criterion version.

---

The Horrors and Humor of Modern Bureaucracy.
After various European and American versions, this is the "fifth and final version of 'Brazil'". Scenes have been restored and the ending is in tact as director Terry Gillam intended. "Somewhere in the 20th century", Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is a distinctly unambitious bureaucrat with the Ministry of Information. He works in Records and stubbornly resists advancement in spite of his mother's (Katherine Helmond) prodding. Sam is a romantic at heart, a knight in shining armor in his dreams, where he struggles heroically to reach his damsel in distress. When Sam spots Jill Layton (Kim Griest), the woman from his dreams, in real life, he agrees to a promotion to Information Retrieval so that he might track her down. But Jill's persistent complaints about the wrongful arrest of a neighbor have made her a terrorist suspect, along with freelance heating engineer Harry Tuttle (Robert DeNiro) and everyone else who exposes the system's inefficiency. <
> <
>The most memorable and amazing aspect of "Brazil" is undoubtedly its overloaded visual style. Gillam puts so much information in every shot that the audience can hardly take it all in. Wide angle lenses are required. I don't think I've ever seen wide angles used this extensively. The actors must have been inches from the lens. The result is that we are placed in the middle of this busy production design, a mass of modern amenities and ubiquitous, intrusive ductwork. "Brazil"'s bureaucracy assails the audience as it satirizes the modern systems that both enable us and bind us. We feel as trapped by it all as Sam does. Gillam drew on real and fictional settings in creating "Brazil"'s intricate, despotic realm: the technophilia and haberdashery of post-WWII America, Fritz Lang's "Metropolis", Margaret Thatcher's Britain, Orwell's 1984, and Nazi Germany. <
> <
>"Brazil" expresses Gillam's feelings about the film studios that he has fought with for most of his career and a cynicism toward the improved efficiency that technology is supposed to bring us. In its lighter moments, "Brazil" is quite funny. In its creepier moments, it is consciously repulsive. The only fault I find with this version of "Brazil" is its length. The longer dream sequences slip into tedium and could have been shortened. Apart from that, I think that Gillam made the right decisions in this edit. The intent, the humor, and the visual banquet are preserved. The characters are fleshed out as much as possible. And we get the point. This extraordinary achievement in visual impact and sly humor is a must-see for all film lovers. <
> <
>The DVD (Criterion Collection Single Disc 2006): The single disc edition contains the final version of "Brazil" and an audio commentary by director Terry Gillam that was recorded in 1996. Gillam's discussion is thoughtful and constant. He compares different versions of the film, tells us why the film is called "Brazil", talks about his inspirations, the film's' themes, sets , actors, and how the shots were accomplished. English subtitles are available for the film by pressing the "subtitle" button on your remote.