Editing Brazil (1985 film)

{{Short description|1985 film by Terry Gilliam}}
{{EngvarB|date=October 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Brazil
| image          = Brazil (1985 film) poster.jpg
| caption        = UK theatrical release poster by Bill Garland
| alt            = A man in a suit of armour with wings, against a seemingly endless wall of filing cabinets
| director       = [[Terry Gilliam]]
| producer       = [[Arnon Milchan]]
| screenplay     = {{Plainlist|
* Terry Gilliam
* [[Tom Stoppard]]
* [[Charles McKeown]]
}}
| starring       = {{Plainlist|
* [[Jonathan Pryce]]
* [[Robert De Niro]]
* [[Katherine Helmond]]
* [[Ian Holm]]
* [[Bob Hoskins]]
* [[Michael Palin]]
* [[Ian Richardson]]
* [[Peter Vaughan]]
* [[Kim Greist]]
}}
| music          = [[Michael Kamen]]
| cinematography = [[Roger Pratt (cinematographer)|Roger Pratt]]
| editing        = [[Julian Doyle (filmmaker)|Julian Doyle]]
| production_companies = {{Plainlist|
* [[Regency Enterprises|Embassy International Pictures]]<ref name="brazil-bfi-classics">{{cite book|first=Paul|last=McAuley|title=Brazil|publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]]|year=2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aEKVBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT71|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200712093411/https://books.google.com/books?id=aEKVBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT71|url-status=dead|archive-date=12 July 2020|isbn=1844577953}}</ref>
* Brazil Productions<ref name="mfb">{{cite journal|journal=[[Monthly Film Bulletin]]|title=Brazil|volume=52|issue=612|year=1985|publisher=[[British Film Institute]]|last=Pym|first=John|pages=107–108|quote=''dist''— 20th Century Fox. ''p.c.''— Brazil Productions}}.</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=British Science Fiction Cinema|last=Hunter|first=I.Q.|publisher=[[Routledge]]|date=2002|isbn=1134702779|page=182|quote=''pc'' production company (distributors not given)}}.</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=British Science Fiction Cinema|last=Hunter|first=I.Q.|publisher=Routledge|date=2002|isbn=1134702779|page=206|quote=''pc'' Brazil Productions}}.</ref>}}
| distributor    = {{Plainlist|
* [[Universal Pictures]] (North America)
* [[20th Century Fox]] (International)<ref name="mfb" />
}}
| released       = {{Film date|df=yes|1985|2|20|France|1985|2|22|United Kingdom|1985|12|18|United States}}
| runtime        = 142 minutes<!-- 142m 41s --><ref>{{cite web |title=Brazil |url=http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/brazil-1970-3 |publisher=[[British Board of Film Classification]] |access-date=20 January 2015 |archive-date=20 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150120115159/http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/brazil-1970-3 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
| country        = {{Plainlist|
* United Kingdom
* United States<ref name="brazil-bfi-classics" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b69aed562|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120711195714/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b69aed562|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 July 2012|publisher=[[British Film Institute]]|title=Brazil (1985)|access-date=21 August 2015|location=London}}</ref>}}
| language       = English <br />French <br />German
| budget         = $15 million<ref>{{cite web |title=BFI Screenonline: Brazil (1985) |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/514534/index.html |publisher=[[Screenonline]] |access-date=20 January 2015 |archive-date=27 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141227042843/http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/514534/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
| gross          = $9.9 million (US){{refn|group=nb|This is US-only box office from the Universal release, and does not include the 20th Century Fox release in the rest of the world.}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Brazil (1985) |url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=brazil.htm |website=[[Box Office Mojo]] |access-date=20 January 2015 |archive-date=13 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130213170414/http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=brazil.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
}}

'''''Brazil''''' is a 1985 [[Dystopian film|dystopian]] [[Science fiction|science-fiction]] [[black comedy film]]<!--Do not change these three descriptors without discussion on Talk page. They are all supported by cited sources.--><ref name=scifi>{{cite web|url=http://io9.com/5619137/25-classic-science-fiction-movies-that-everybody-must-watch|title=50 Brilliant Science Fiction Movies That Everyone Should See At Least Once|last=Anders|first=Charlie Jane|date=19 October 2015|work=[[Gizmodo]]|access-date=29 October 2015|archive-date=28 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151028201806/http://io9.com/5619137/25-classic-science-fiction-movies-that-everybody-must-watch|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="dys">{{cite web|title=Dystopia and Science Fiction: Blade Runner, Brazil and Beyond|url=http://dc-mrg.english.ucsb.edu/WarnerTeach/E192/bladerunner/Dystopia.Blade.Runner.Hoffpauir.htm|access-date=29 October 2015|publisher=University of California Press|location=Santa Barbara|archive-date=9 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109215111/http://dc-mrg.english.ucsb.edu/WarnerTeach/E192/bladerunner/Dystopia.Blade.Runner.Hoffpauir.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> directed by [[Terry Gilliam]] and written by Gilliam, [[Charles McKeown]] and [[Tom Stoppard]]. The film stars [[Jonathan Pryce]], [[Robert De Niro]], [[Katherine Helmond]], [[Ian Holm]], [[Bob Hoskins]], [[Michael Palin]], [[Ian Richardson]], [[Peter Vaughan]], and [[Kim Greist]].

The film centres on Sam Lowry, a low-ranking [[bureaucrat]] trying to find a woman who appears in his dreams while he is working in a mind-numbing job and living in a small flat, set in a dystopian world in which there is an over-reliance on poorly maintained (and rather whimsical) machines and where people found guilty of crimes are liable for the costs of their interrogation by [[torture]]. ''Brazil''{{'}}s satire of [[technocracy]], [[bureaucracy]], [[hyper-surveillance]], [[corporate statism]] and [[state capitalism]] is reminiscent of [[George Orwell]]'s 1949 novel ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'',<ref name="NAU">{{cite journal|first=Richard A.|last=Rogers|url=http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/rar/papers/RogersTPQ1990.pdf|title=''1984'' to ''Brazil'': From the Pessimism of Reality to the Hope of Dreams|journal=[[Text and Performance Quarterly]]|volume=10|number=1|pages=34–46|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|location=Abingdon, England|date=1990|doi=10.1080/10462939009365953|access-date=22 January 2012|archive-date=15 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120715081909/http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/rar/papers/RogersTPQ1990.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="NODAK">{{cite thesis |first=Rob|last=Bartz|url=http://www2.dsu.nodak.edu/users/langlit/SeniorProjects/BARTZ/Brazil%20and%201984.doc | title=Dystopia: A Look at Utopian Societies in Literature | publisher=[[North Dakota State University]] | location=Fargo, North Dakota|access-date=22 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120713222432/http://www2.dsu.nodak.edu/users/langlit/SeniorProjects/BARTZ/Brazil%20and%201984.doc|archive-date=13 July 2012|url-status=dead|format=DOC}}</ref><ref name="gemsbok">{{Cite web|url=https://thegemsbok.com/art-reviews-and-articles/thursday-theater-brazil-terry-gilliam/|title=''1984'' with a Sense of Humor: The Surreal, Wonderful, and Haunting Humor of Terry Gilliam's Absurdist Masterpiece, ''Brazil''|last=Podgorski|first=Daniel|date=7 January 2016|website=The Gemsbok|access-date=30 July 2019|archive-date=8 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108121005/https://thegemsbok.com/art-reviews-and-articles/thursday-theater-brazil-terry-gilliam/|url-status=live}}</ref> and it has been called "[[Franz Kafka#"Kafkaesque"|Kafkaesque]]"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/brazil-terry-gilliam-influences|title=Brazil: five films that may have influenced Terry Gilliam's dystopian masterpiece|last=Puddicombe|first=Stephen|date=4 July 2017|website=British Film Institute|access-date=30 July 2019|archive-date=19 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220619224521/https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/brazil-terry-gilliam-influences|url-status=live}}</ref> as well as [[Absurdist fiction|absurdist]].<ref name="gemsbok" />

[[Sarah Street]]'s ''British National Cinema'' (1997) described the film as a "fantasy/satire on bureaucratic society", and [[John Scalzi]]'s ''Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies'' (2005) described it as a "dystopian satire". Jack Mathews, a film critic and the author of ''The Battle of Brazil'' (1987), described the film as "satirizing the bureaucratic, largely dysfunctional industrial world that had been driving Gilliam crazy all his life".<ref name="essay">{{cite AV media notes |title=Brazil |others=Gilliam, Terry (director) |chapter=Dreaming Brazil |last=Matthews |first=Jack |year=1996 |publisher=[[The Criterion Collection|Criterion Collection]]}}</ref> Despite its title, the film is not about the country [[Brazil]] nor does it take place there; it is named after the recurrent theme song, [[Ary Barroso]]'s "[[Aquarela do Brasil]]", known simply as "Brazil" to British audiences, as performed by [[Geoff Muldaur]].<ref>{{cite web|first=Simon|last=Kinnear|url=http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/re-viewed/feature/a554073/re-viewed-terry-gilliams-prescient-sci-fi-brazil/|title=Re-Viewed: Terry Gilliam's Prescient Sci-Fi Brazil|website=[[Digital Spy]]|publisher=[[Bauer Media Group]]|location=London, England|date=8 March 2014|access-date=27 November 2015|archive-date=12 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151212073937/http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/re-viewed/feature/a554073/re-viewed-terry-gilliams-prescient-sci-fi-brazil/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Although a success in Europe, the film was unsuccessful in its initial North American release. It since has become a [[cult film]]. In 1999, the [[British Film Institute]] voted ''Brazil'' the [[BFI Top 100 British films|54th greatest British film of all time]]. In 2017, a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics for ''[[Time Out (magazine)|Time Out]]'' magazine saw it ranked the 24th best British film ever.<ref>{{cite magazine |first1=Dave |last1=Calhoun |first2=Tom |last2=Huddleston |first3=David |last3=Jenkins |first4=Derek |last4=Adams |first5=Geoff |last5=Andrew |first6=Adam Lee |last6=Davies |first7=Paul |last7=Fairclough |first8=Wally |last8=Hammond |url=https://www.timeout.com/london/film/100-best-british-films#tab_panel_4 |title=The 100 best British films |magazine=[[Time Out (magazine)|Time Out]] |publisher=Time Out Group Ltd. |location=London |date=17 February 2017 |access-date=24 October 2017 |archive-date=3 April 2019 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20190403073405/https://www.timeout.com/london/film/100-best-british-films%23tab_panel_4 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Plot==
In a dystopian, [[polluted]], hyper-[[consumerism|consumerist]], overbearing, bureaucratic, [[totalitarian]] future based on elements of the [[alternate history|20th century]], Sam Lowry is a low-level government employee who frequently dreams of himself as a winged warrior saving a [[damsel in distress]]. One day, shortly before [[Christmas]], an insect becomes jammed in a [[teleprinter]], which misprints a copy of an arrest warrant it was receiving. This leads to the arrest and death during interrogation of cobbler Archibald Buttle instead of suspected terrorist Archibald Tuttle.

Sam discovers the mistake when he finds that the wrong bank account has been debited for the arrest. He visits Buttle's widow to give her the refund where he catches a glimpse of her upstairs neighbour Jill Layton, a truck driver, and is astonished to discover that Jill resembles the woman from his dreams. Sam frantically tries to approach Jill, but she disappears before he can find her. Jill has been trying to help Mrs Buttle establish what happened to her husband, but her efforts have been obstructed by bureaucracy. Unbeknownst to her, she is now considered a terrorist accomplice of Tuttle for attempting to report the wrongful arrest of Buttle.

Meanwhile, Sam reports a fault in his apartment's air conditioning. Central Services are uncooperative, but Tuttle unexpectedly comes to his assistance. Tuttle explains that he used to work for Central Services but left because of his dislike of the tedious and repetitive paperwork, and now illegally works as a [[freelancer|freelance]] [[Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning|heating engineer]]. Tuttle repairs Sam's air conditioning, but when two Central Services workers, Spoor and Dowser, arrive, Sam has to stall to let Tuttle escape.

Sam discovers that Jill's records have been classified and the only way to access them is to be promoted to Information Retrieval. He had previously turned down a promotion arranged by his high-ranking mother Ida, who is obsessed with the rejuvenating [[plastic surgery]] of cosmetic surgeon Dr Jaffe. Sam retracts his refusal by speaking with Deputy Minister Mr Helpmann at a party hosted by Ida. After obtaining Jill's records, Sam tracks her down before she can be arrested. Sam clumsily confesses his love to Jill, and they cause mayhem as they escape government agents. They stop at a mall and are frightened by a terrorist bombing (part of a campaign that has been occurring around the city), then government agents arrive and take Sam. He awakens briefly detained in police custody.

At work, Sam is chastised by his new boss Mr Warrenn for his lack of productivity. Sam returns home to find that Spoor and Dowser have repossessed his apartment. Tuttle appears in secret and helps Sam exact revenge on the two Central Services workers by filling their environment suits with raw sewage. Jill finds Sam outside his apartment, and the two take refuge in Ida's unoccupied home, where they share their first kiss. Sam falsifies government records to indicate her death, allowing her to escape pursuit. The two have sex overnight, but in the morning are apprehended by the government at gunpoint. Sam learns that Jill was killed during his arrest. Charged with treason for abusing his new position, Sam is restrained in a chair in a large, empty cylindrical room, to be tortured by his old friend Jack Lint.

As Jack is about to start the torture, Tuttle and other members of the resistance break into the Ministry, shooting Jack, rescuing Sam and blowing up the Ministry building. Sam and Tuttle flee together, but Tuttle mysteriously disappears amid a mass of scraps of paperwork from the destroyed building. Sam stumbles into the funeral of Ida's friend, who has died following botched cosmetic surgery.

Sam discovers that his mother now resembles Jill and is too busy being fawned over by young men to care about her son's plight. Government agents disrupt the funeral, and Sam falls into the open casket. Through a black void, he lands in a street from his daydreams and tries to escape police and monsters by climbing a pile of [[Duct (flow)|flex-ducts]]. Opening a door, he passes through it and is surprised to be in a truck driven by Jill. The two leave the city together.

However, this "happy ending" is a delusion: it is revealed that Sam is still strapped to the torture chair. Realising that Sam has descended into irrecoverable insanity, Jack and Mr Helpmann declare him a lost cause and leave the room. Sam remains in the chair, smiling and humming "[[Aquarela do Brasil]]" to himself.

==Cast==
===Main cast===
* [[Jonathan Pryce]] as Sam Lowry. Pryce has described the role as the highlight of his career, along with that of [[Lytton Strachey]] in ''[[Carrington (film)|Carrington]]''.<ref>{{cite web|first=Terri|last=Paddock|url=http://www.whatsonstage.com/interviews/theatre/london/E8821084788789/20+Questions+With%85Jonathan+Pryce.html|title=20 Questions With ... Jonathan Pryce|website=Whatsonstage.com|date=17 May 2004|access-date=19 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140417192253/http://www.whatsonstage.com/west-end-theatre/news/05-2004/20-questions-withjonathan-pryce_25160.html|archive-date=17 April 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Tom Cruise]] was also considered for the role.<ref>{{cite web|first=Simon|last=Kinnear|url=http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/at-the-movies/a554073/re-viewed-terry-gilliams-prescient-sci-fi-brazil.html|title=Re-Viewed: Terry Gilliam's prescient sci-fi ''Brazil''|website=[[Digital Spy]]|publisher=[[Bauer Media Group]]|location=London, England|date=8 March 2014|access-date=11 March 2014|archive-date=10 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140310193728/http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/at-the-movies/a554073/re-viewed-terry-gilliams-prescient-sci-fi-brazil.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Kim Greist]] as Jill Layton. Gilliam's first choice for the part was [[Ellen Barkin]]; also considered were [[Jamie Lee Curtis]], [[Rebecca De Mornay]], [[Rae Dawn Chong]], [[Joanna Pacuła]], [[Rosanna Arquette]], [[Kelly McGillis]] and [[Madonna]].<ref name="SciFlicks">{{cite web|url=http://www.sciflicks.com/en/brazil/facts.html|title=Brazil – The Facts|work=sciflicks.com|access-date=19 August 2012|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304080113/http://www.sciflicks.com/en/brazil/facts.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Gilliam was reportedly dissatisfied with Greist's performance and chose to cut or edit some of her scenes as a result.<ref name="SciFlicks"/>
* [[Robert De Niro]] as Archibald "Harry" Tuttle. De Niro still wanted a part in the film after being denied that of Jack Lint, so Gilliam offered him the smaller role of Tuttle.<ref name="CriterionCommentary"/>
* [[Katherine Helmond]] as Mrs Ida Lowry. According to Helmond, Gilliam called her and said, "I have a part for you, and I want you to come over and do it, but you're not going to look very nice in it." The make-up was applied by Gilliam's wife, Maggie. During production, Helmond spent ten hours a day with a mask glued to her face; her scenes had to be postponed due to the blisters this caused.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/katherine-helmond|title=Katherine Helmond|date=8 December 2010|work=Television Academy Foundation|series=The Interviews|access-date=19 August 2012|archive-date=14 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181014152812/https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/katherine-helmond|url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[Ian Holm]] as Mr Kurtzmann, Sam's boss.
* [[Bob Hoskins]] as Spoor, a government-employed heating engineer who resents Harry Tuttle.
* [[Michael Palin]] as Jack Lint. Robert De Niro read the script and expressed interest in the role, but Gilliam had already promised the part to Palin, a friend and regular collaborator. Palin described the character as "someone who was everything that Jonathan Pryce's character wasn't: he's stable, he had a family, he was settled, comfortable, hard-working, charming, sociable—and utterly and totally unscrupulous. That was the way we felt we could bring out the evil in Jack Lint."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wideanglecloseup.com/palin.html|title=Michel Palin on BRAZIL|last=Morgan|first=David|website=Wideanglecloseup.com|access-date=19 August 2012|archive-date=21 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120721195056/http://www.wideanglecloseup.com/palin.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[Ian Richardson]] as Mr Warrenn, Sam's new boss at Information Retrieval.
* [[Peter Vaughan]] as Mr Eugene Helpmann, the Deputy Minister of Information.

===Supporting cast===
{{Cast listing|
* [[Jim Broadbent]] as Dr Louis Jaffe
* [[Brian Miller (actor)|Brian Miller]] as Mr Archibald Buttle
* [[Sheila Reid]] as Mrs Veronica Buttle
* [[Simon Nash]] as Boy Buttle 
* [[Barbara Hicks]] as Mrs Terrain
* [[Kathryn Pogson]] as Shirley Terrain
* [[Bryan Pringle]] as Spiro
* [[Derrick O'Connor]] as Dowser
* [[Elizabeth Spender]] as Alison "Barbara" Lint
* [[Derek Deadman]] and [[Nigel Planer]] as Bill and Charlie
* [[Ray Cooper]] as Technician 
* [[Gorden Kaye]] as the M.O.I. porter
* [[John Pierce Jones]] as Basement guard 
* [[Ann Way]] as Old lady with dog 
* [[Myrtle Devenish]] as Jack's secretary
* [[Simon Jones (actor)|Simon Jones]] as Arrest official 
* [[Bill Wallis]] as Bespectacled lurker 
* [[Don Henderson]] as Black Maria guard
* [[Howard Lew Lewis]] as&nbsp;Black Maria guard 
* [[Oscar Quitak]] as Interview official 
* [[Harold Innocent]] as Interview official 
* [[John Grillo]] as Interview official 
* [[Patrick Connor (actor)|Patrick Connor]] as guard 
* [[Roger Ashton-Griffiths]] as the Priest
* [[Jack Purvis (actor)|Jack Purvis]] as Dr Chapman
* [[Sue Hodge]] as performer
}}

===Cameos===
* Co-writer [[Charles McKeown]] as Harvey Lime, Sam's co-worker
* Director [[Terry Gilliam]] as the smoking man at Shang-ri La Towers

==Production==
===Writing===
Gilliam developed the story and wrote the first draft of the screenplay with [[Charles Alverson]], who was paid for his work but was ultimately uncredited in the final film. For nearly 20 years, Gilliam denied that Alverson had made any material contribution to the script. When the first draft was published and original in-progress documents emerged from Alverson's files, however, Gilliam begrudgingly changed his story. This was too late for either credit on the film or a listing on the failed Oscar nomination for Alverson; he has said that he would not have minded the Oscar nomination, even though he didn't think much of the script or the finished film.<ref>{{cite book |editor-first= Bob |editor-last= McCabe |title= Brazil (The Evolution of the 54th Best British Film Ever Made) |publisher= Orion Books Ltd. |location= London, England |date=2001 |isbn= 0-7528-3792-3}}</ref>

Gilliam, McKeown and Stoppard collaborated on further drafts. ''Brazil'' was developed under the titles ''The Ministry'' and ''1984&nbsp;½'', the latter a nod to not only Orwell's original ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' but also to ''[[8½]]'' directed by [[Federico Fellini]]; Gilliam often cited Fellini as one of the defining influences on his visual style.<ref>{{cite web |first= Rumsey |last= Taylor |url= http://sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/gilliam |title= Terry Gilliam |website= Senses of Cinema |date= December 2003 |access-date= 22 January 2014 |archive-date= 7 January 2014 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140107101840/http://sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/gilliam/ |url-status= live }}</ref> During the film's production, other working titles floated about, including ''The Ministry of Torture'', ''How I Learned to Live with the System—So Far'',<ref name="dirks">{{cite web |first= Tim |last= Dirks |url= http://www.filmsite.org/braz.html |title= Brazil (1985) |website= AMC Filmsite.org |access-date= 4 January 2009 |archive-date= 3 April 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110403091640/http://www.filmsite.org/braz.html |url-status= live }}</ref> and ''So That's Why the Bourgeoisie Sucks'',<ref>{{cite news |first= Wesley |last= Morris |url= http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/e/a/1999/04/30/WEEKEND4051.dtl |title= Brazil: Paranoia with a dash of Python |newspaper= [[San Francisco Examiner]] |publisher= [[Black Press Group]] |location= San Francisco, California |date= 30 April 1999 |access-date= 5 January 2009 |archive-date= 26 December 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111226021456/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fe%2Fa%2F1999%2F04%2F30%2FWEEKEND4051.dtl |url-status= live }}</ref> before settling on ''Brazil'', relating to the name of its escapist [[Brazil (1939 song)|signature tune]].

In an interview with [[Salman Rushdie]], Gilliam stated:
{{blockquote|''Brazil'' came specifically from the time, from the approaching of 1984. It was looming. In fact, the original title of ''Brazil'' was ''1984 ½''. Fellini was one of my great gods and it was 1984, so let's put them together. Unfortunately, that bastard [[Michael Radford]] did [[Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984 film)|a version of ''1984'']] and he called it ''1984'', so I was blown.<ref name="SRInt">{{cite journal |title=Salman Rushdie talks with Terry Gilliam |url=https://www.thebeliever.net/an-interview-with-terry-gilliam/ |journal=[[The Believer (magazine)|The Believer]] |publisher=[[University of Nevada, Las Vegas]] |location=Las Vegas, Nevada |volume=1 |issue=1 |date=March 2003 |access-date=21 August 2023 |archive-date=21 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230821212653/https://www.thebeliever.net/an-interview-with-terry-gilliam/ |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

Gilliam sometimes refers to this film as the second in his "Trilogy of Imagination" films, starting with ''[[Time Bandits]]'' (1981) and ending with ''[[The Adventures of Baron Munchausen]]'' (1988).<ref name="essay" /> All are about the "craziness of our awkwardly ordered society and the desire to escape it through whatever means possible".<ref name="essay" />

All three movies focus on these struggles and attempts to escape them through imagination—''Time Bandits'', through the eyes of a child; ''Brazil'', through the eyes of a man in his thirties; and ''Munchausen'', through the eyes of an elderly man. In 2013, Gilliam also called ''Brazil'' the first instalment of a [[dystopia]]n satire trilogy it forms with 1995's ''[[12 Monkeys]]'' and 2013's ''[[The Zero Theorem]]''<ref>{{cite news|first=Andrew|last=Pulver|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/02/terry-gilliam-zero-theorem-internet-breakdown-real-relationships|title=Terry Gilliam blames internet for the breakdown in 'real relationships'|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|location=London, England|date=2 September 2013|access-date=7 September 2013|quote=Calling it the third part of a trilogy formed by earlier dystopian satires ''Brazil'' and ''12 Monkeys'', Gilliam says ...|archive-date=7 September 2013|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130907164743/http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/02/terry-gilliam-zero-theorem-internet-breakdown-real-relationships|url-status=live}}</ref> (although he later denied having said this<ref>{{cite web|first=Alex|last=Suskind|title=Interview: Terry Gilliam On 'The Zero Theorem,' Avoiding Facebook, 'Don Quixote' And His Upcoming Autobiography|url=http://www.indiewire.com/2014/09/interview-terry-gilliam-on-the-zero-theorem-avoiding-facebook-don-quixote-and-his-upcoming-autobiography-272204/|website=[[IndieWire]]|publisher=[[Penske Media Corporation]]|location=Los Angeles, California|date=17 September 2014|access-date=16 October 2017|quote=Well, it's funny, this trilogy was never something I ever said, but it's been repeated so often it's clearly true [laughs]. I don't know who started it but once it started it never stopped ...|archive-date=28 April 2018|archive-url=https://archive.today/20180428082442/http://www.indiewire.com/2014/09/interview-terry-gilliam-on-the-zero-theorem-avoiding-facebook-don-quixote-and-his-upcoming-autobiography-272204/|url-status=live}}</ref>).

Gilliam has stated that ''Brazil'' was inspired by [[George Orwell]]'s ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''—which he has admitted never having read<ref name="CriterionCommentary">{{cite AV media |people=Gilliam, Terry (Director) |title=Brazil |chapter=Audio commentary |publisher=[[The Criterion Collection]] |year=1985 }}</ref>—but is written from a contemporary perspective rather than looking to the future as Orwell had. In Gilliam's words, his film was "the ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' for 1984". Critics and analysts have pointed to many similarities and differences between the two,<ref name="gemsbok" /> an example being that contrary to [[Winston Smith (Nineteen Eighty-Four)|Winston Smith]], Sam Lowry's spirit did not capitulate as he sank into complete [[catatonia]].<ref name="NAU" /><ref name="liq">{{cite book |first=Sean|last=Redmond| title=Liquid metal: the science fiction film reader | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ha5O_0BCCrgC | publisher=Wallflower Press| year=2004 | pages=66–69 | isbn=1-903364-87-6}}</ref>

The film's ending bears a strong similarity to the short story "[[An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge]]" by [[Ambrose Bierce]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cineleet.com/2008/03/23/when-the-dead-dream-films-inspired-by-an-occurrence-at-owl-creek-bridge/|title=When the Dead Dream: Films Inspired by 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge'|website=Cineleet|access-date=14 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170207172447/http://cineleet.com/2008/03/23/when-the-dead-dream-films-inspired-by-an-occurrence-at-owl-creek-bridge/|archive-date=7 February 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> The [[Tragicomedy|tragicomic]] tone and philosophy of the film bear many resemblances to [[Theatre of the Absurd|absurdist drama]], a genre for which ''Brazil'' co-writer [[Tom Stoppard]] is widely acclaimed.<ref name="gemsbok" />

===Production design===
[[File:Brazil-MOI-logo.svg|thumb|Logo of the Ministry of Information]]
[[Michael Atkinson (writer)|Michael Atkinson]] of ''[[The Village Voice]]'' wrote, "Gilliam understood that all futuristic films end up quaintly evoking the naïve past in which they were made, and turned the principle into a coherent comic aesthetic."<ref name="vvoice">{{cite web |first=Michael |last=Atkinson |url=http://www.villagevoice.com/1998-09-01/film/bravo-new-worlds/1 |title=Bravo New Worlds |work=[[The Village Voice]] |publisher=Voice Media Group |location=New York City |date=1 September 1998 |access-date=4 January 2009 |archive-date=13 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130613142819/http://www.villagevoice.com/1998-09-01/film/bravo-new-worlds/1/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the second version of the script, Gilliam and Alverson described the film's setting: "It is neither future nor past, and yet a bit of each. It is neither East nor West, but could be [[Belgrade]] or [[Scunthorpe]] on a drizzly day in February. Or [[Cicero, Illinois]], seen through the bottom of a beer bottle."<ref>{{cite web |first=David |last=Morgan |url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2600-the-evolution-of-brazil |title=The Evolution of Brazil |publisher=[[The Criterion Collection]] |website=Criterion.com |year=2012 |access-date=11 February 2016 |archive-date=4 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160404071906/https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2600-the-evolution-of-brazil |url-status=live }}</ref> In the 1988 documentary ''The Birth of Brazil'', Gilliam said that he always explained the film as taking place "everywhere in the 20th century, whatever that means, on the Los Angeles/Belfast border, whatever that means".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5gZW_GgAms| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190220114859/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5gZW_GgAms&gl=US&hl=en| archive-date=20 February 2019 | url-status=dead|title=Terry Gilliam and THE BIRTH OF BRAZIL (BBC, 1988)|website=[[YouTube]]|access-date=2 May 2018}}</ref> [[Pneumatic tube]]s are a frequent sight throughout the film.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://intowner.com/2020/01/05/pneumatic-tubes-technological-innovation-and-politics-in-boss-shepherd-era-washington-dc/|title=Pneumatic tubes: technological innovation and politics in Shepherd-era Washington DC|author=Matthew B. Gilmore|date=5 January 2020|publisher=The InTowner|access-date=16 February 2020|archive-date=27 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200927160210/https://intowner.com/2020/01/05/pneumatic-tubes-technological-innovation-and-politics-in-boss-shepherd-era-washington-dc/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The result is an [[Anachronism|anachronistic]] technology, "a view of what the 1980s might have looked like as viewed from the perspective of a 1940s filmmaker"<ref name="reel">{{cite web |first=James |last=Berardinelli |author-link=James Berardinelli |url=http://preview.reelviews.net/movies/b/brazil.html |title=Brazil |website=reelviews.net |access-date=28 September 2017 |archive-date=7 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190207071838/http://preview.reelviews.net/movies/b/brazil.html |url-status=live }}</ref> that has been dubbed "[[retro-futurism]]" by fellow filmmakers [[Jean-Pierre Jeunet]] and [[Marc Caro]].<ref name="vvoice" /> It is a mixture of styles and production designs derived from [[Fritz Lang]]'s films (particularly ''[[Metropolis (1927 film)|Metropolis]]'' and ''[[M (1931 film)|M]]'') or [[film noir]] pictures starring [[Humphrey Bogart]]: "On the other hand, Sam's reality has a '40s noir feel. Some sequences are shot to recall images of Humphrey Bogart on the hunt and one character (Harvey Lime) may be named as an homage to ''[[The Third Man]]''{{'s}} [[Harry Lime (character)|Harry Lime]]."<ref name="reel" />

A number of reviewers also saw a distinct influence of [[German expressionist cinema|German Expressionism]], as the 1920s seminal, more nightmarish, predecessor to 1940s film noir, in general in how Gilliam made use of lighting and set designs.<ref>{{cite journal |first=C. Jerry |last=Kuttner |url=https://brightlightsfilm.com/beyond-golden-age-film-noir-since-50s/ |title=Beyond the Golden Age: Film Noir Since the '50s |journal=Bright Lights Film Journal |publisher=Studio Hyperset, Inc. |location=Oakland, California |issue=12 |date=Spring 1994 }}</ref> A brief sequence towards the end, in which resistance fighters flee from government soldiers on the steps of the Ministry, pays homage to the [[Battleship Potemkin#The Odessa Steps sequence|Odessa Steps sequence]] in [[Sergei Eisenstein]]'s ''[[Battleship Potemkin]]'' (1925).<ref name="CriterionCommentary" /> Strong references exist to the overcomplicated humoristic machinery of British illustrator [[W. Heath Robinson]], published between 1915 and 1942.<ref>{{cite web|first=Andrew|last=Blair|title=Looking back at Terry Gilliam's Brazil|url=http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/18483/looking-back-at-terry-gilliams-brazil|website=[[Den of Geek]]|publisher=[[Dennis Publishing]]|location=New York City|date=13 December 2011|access-date=2 July 2018|archive-date=2 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180702151803/http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/18483/looking-back-at-terry-gilliams-brazil|url-status=live}}</ref> The grotesque sets were based on [[George Grosz]]'s paintings of 1920s [[Berlin]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.criterionchannel.com/videos/brazil-commentary |title=BRAZIL Commentary - the Criterion Channel |access-date=31 October 2020 |archive-date=24 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024154002/https://www.criterionchannel.com/videos/brazil-commentary |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The lighting and set design was coupled with Gilliam's trademark obsession for very wide lenses and tilted camera angles; going unusually wide for an audience familiar with mainstream Hollywood productions, Gilliam made the film's wide-angle shots with 14mm (Zeiss), 11mm and 9.8mm (Kinoptik) lenses, the latter being a recent technological innovation as one of the first lenses of that short a focal length that did not [[Fisheye lens|fisheye]].<ref name="sheehan">{{cite journal |last=Sheehan |first=Henry |date=Fall 2006 |title=Welcome to Brazil |journal=DGA Quarterly: Craft Journal of the Directors Guild of America |volume=II |issue=3 |url=https://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-Articles/0603-Fall-2006/Shot-to-Remember-Brazil.aspx |access-date=31 October 2009 |archive-date=17 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110917065815/http://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-Articles/0603-Fall-2006/Shot-to-Remember-Brazil.aspx |url-status=live}}</ref> In fact, over the years, the 14mm lens has become informally known as "The Gilliam" among filmmakers due to the director's frequent use of it since ''Brazil''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Stubbs |first=Phil |url=http://www.smart.co.uk/dreams/tidegill.htm |title=Terry Gilliam talks ''Tideland'' |date=30 November 2004 |publisher=dreams |access-date=6 October 2009 |archive-date=11 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511132608/http://www.smart.co.uk/dreams/tidegill.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

Many of the film's exterior scenes were filmed in ''[[Les Espaces d'Abraxas]]'' in [[Noisy-le-Grand]] near [[Paris]], a monumental apartment complex designed by [[Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura]].<ref>{{cite web |website=ArchDaily |author=James Taylor-Foster |title=A Utopian Dream Stood Still: Ricardo Bofill's Postmodern Parisian Housing Estate of Noisy-le-Grand |url=https://www.archdaily.com/774578/a-utopian-dream-stood-still-ricardo-bofills-postmodern-parisian-housing-estate-of-noisy-le-grand |date=1 October 2015 |access-date=27 February 2021 |archive-date=1 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301095907/https://www.archdaily.com/774578/a-utopian-dream-stood-still-ricardo-bofills-postmodern-parisian-housing-estate-of-noisy-le-grand |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |website=Sansible |title=Abraxas Spaces, Time's Doors |url=https://sansible.fr/en/abraxas-spaces-times-doors/ |author=Maïm Garnier |date=November 2017 |access-date=27 February 2021 |archive-date=27 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127165922/https://sansible.fr/en/abraxas-spaces-times-doors/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The numbering of form {{vanchor|27B/6}}, without which no work can be performed by repairmen with the Department of Central Services, is an allusion to [[George Orwell]]'s flat at 27B [[Canonbury Square]], London (up six half-flights of stairs), where he lived while writing parts of ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''.<ref>{{cite book | first1=George | last1=Orwell |author-link= George Orwell|first2=Sonia|last2=Orwell|first3=Ian|last3=Angus | title=The Collected Essays, Journalism, & Letters, George Orwell: As I please, 1943–1945 | volume=3 | publisher=David R. Godine | page=400 | quote=27b Canonbury Square, Islington, London N1, 18 August 1945 [as return address in correspondence] | year=2000}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last=Jura | first=Jackie | title=Canonbury Photos | publisher=Orwell Today | url=http://www.orwelltoday.com/canonburyphotos.shtml | date=14 July 2003 | access-date=24 October 2011 | archive-date=30 October 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111030055003/http://www.orwelltoday.com/canonburyphotos.shtml | url-status=live }}</ref>

===Music===
[[Geoff Muldaur]] performed a version of [[Ary Barroso]]'s most famous 1939 song "[[Aquarela do Brasil]]" ("Watercolor of Brazil", often simply called "Brazil" in English). The song is a musical ode to the Brazilian motherland. [[Michael Kamen]] uses the song as a [[leitmotif]] in the film, although other background music is also used. Kamen's arrangement and orchestration of Barroso's song for ''Brazil'' made it more pliable to late 20th-century tastes, to the extent that film trailer composers often used it in contexts that had little to do with Brazil and more to do with Gilliam's dystopian vision.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Goldschmitt|first1=Kariann|chapter=From Disney to Dystopia: Transforming "Brazil" For A U.S. Audience|title=The Routledge Companion to Screen Music and Sound|chapter-url=https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:16523/|date=2017|pages=363–374|isbn=978-1-138-85534-2|publisher=Routledge|ref=57|access-date=25 December 2023|archive-date=25 December 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231225014115/https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:16523/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Kamen, who scored the film, originally recorded "Brazil" with vocals by [[Kate Bush]]. This recording was not included in the film nor on the original soundtrack release. However, it has been subsequently released on re-releases of the soundtrack. Gilliam recalls drawing the inspiration to use the song:<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Vugman|first1=Fernando Simão|title=From master narratives to simulacra: analysis of Orwell's 1984 and Terry Gilliam's Brazil|url=https://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/157973|website=repositorio.ufsc.br|year=1995|publisher=Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina|access-date=16 February 2018|archive-date=7 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190107015741/https://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/157973|url-status=live}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|This place was a métallurgie city, where everything was covered by a gray metallic dust... Even the beach was completely covered by dust, it was really dusky. The sun was going down and was very beautiful. The contrast was extraordinary. I had this image of a man sitting there in this sordid beach with a portable radio, tuned in those strange escapist Latin songs like Brazil. The music took him away somehow and made the world seem less blue to him.}}

Sylvia Albertazzi, in her article "Salman Rushdie's 'The Location of Brazil': The Imaginary Homelands of the Fantastic Literature", stresses even further the importance that the soundtrack had on the movie's plot and meaning. She suggests, "... the opening question 'where is Gilliam's Brazil?', may be answered, quite literally, 'in a song'; just as it is in a song that there is to be found that world where 'all fall down' in children's games."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Albertazzi|first=Silvia|date=16 December 2014 |title=Salman Rushdie's "The location of Brazil": the imaginary homelands of fantastic literature|journal=Acta Neophilologica |volume=47|issue=1–2|pages=25–30|issn=2350-417X|doi=10.4312/an.47.1-2.25-30|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==Release==
The film was produced by [[Arnon Milchan]]'s company [[Regency Enterprises|Embassy International Pictures]]. Gilliam's original cut of the film was 142 minutes long and ends on a dark note. This version was released in Europe and internationally by [[20th Century Fox]] without issue. However, US distribution was handled by [[Universal Pictures|Universal]], whose executives felt that the ending [[Test screening|tested]] poorly.<ref name="SRInt"/>

Universal chairman [[Sid Sheinberg]] insisted on a dramatic re-edit of the film to give it a happy ending, and suggested testing both versions to see which scored higher.<ref name="1987 Mathews" />  At one point, there were two editing teams working on the film, one without Gilliam's knowledge.<ref>{{cite book | last=Haley | first=Guy | title=Sci-Fi Chronicles: A Visual History of the Galaxy's Greatest Science Fiction |publisher=Aurum Press | year=2014 | isbn=978-1781313596 | location=London | pages=402}}</ref>

After a lengthy delay with no sign of the film being released, Gilliam took out a full-page ad in [[Variety (magazine)|''Variety'']] urging Sheinberg to release ''Brazil'' in its intended version. Sheinberg spoke publicly in interviews of his dispute with Gilliam, and ran his own advertisement in ''Daily Variety'' offering to sell the film.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Carmentay |first1=Rudolph |title=Terry Gilliam's Brazil: A Film Director's Quest for Artistic Integrity in a Moral Rights Vacuum |journal=Columbia-VLA Journal of Law & the Arts |date=1989–1990 |volume=14 |page=91 |url=http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/cjla14&page=91&collection=journals |access-date=16 February 2018 |archive-date=18 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180218091121/http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/cjla14&page=91&collection=journals |url-status=live|url-access=limited }}</ref>

Gilliam conducted private screenings of ''Brazil'' (without the studio's approval) for film schools and local critics. On the same night when Universal's award contender ''[[Out of Africa (film)|Out of Africa]]'' premiered in New York, ''Brazil'' was awarded the awards for "Best Picture", "Best Screenplay" and "Best Director" at the [[Los Angeles Film Critics Association]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Terry Gilliam's battle to release Brazil in US |publisher=BBC |date=1 December 2011 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15982986 |access-date=21 June 2018 |archive-date=25 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925154438/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15982986 |url-status=live}}</ref> This prompted Universal to finally agree to release a modified 132-minute version supervised by Gilliam in 1985.<ref name="essay" /><ref name="1987 Mathews">{{cite book |last=Matthews |first=Jack |title=The Battle of Brazil |year=1987 |publisher=[[Hal Leonard Corporation]] |isbn=0-517-56538-2}}</ref>

==Reception==
{{Rotten Tomatoes prose|{{RT data|score}}|{{RT data|average}}|{{RT data|count}}|Brazil, Terry Gilliam's visionary [[Orwellian]] fantasy, is an audacious dark comedy, filled with strange, imaginative visuals.|ref=yes|access-date={{RT data|access date}}}} On [[Metacritic]], the film received a score of 84 based on 18 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/brazil |title=Brazil Reviews |publisher=[[CBS Interactive]] |website=[[Metacritic|metacritic.com]] |access-date=23 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727085952/https://www.metacritic.com/movie/brazil |archive-date=27 July 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref>

''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' critic [[Kenneth Turan]] described the film as "the most potent piece of satiric political cinema since ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]''".<ref name="essay" />

[[Janet Maslin]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' was very positive towards the film on its release, stating, "Terry Gilliam's ''Brazil,'' a jaunty, wittily observed vision of an extremely bleak future, is a superb example of the power of comedy to underscore serious ideas, even solemn ones."<ref>{{cite news |first=Janet |last=Maslin |author-link=Janet Maslin |title=The Screen: 'Brazil', From Terry Gilliam |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=990CE5DC153BF93BA25751C1A963948260 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=18 December 1985 |access-date=27 November 2010 |archive-date=19 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240119151408/https://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/18/movies/the-screen-brazil-from-terry-gilliam.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Roger Ebert]] was less enthusiastic in the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'', giving the film two stars out of four and claiming that it was "hard to follow". He felt that the film lacked a confident grasp on its characters' roles in a story "awash in elaborate special effects, sensational sets, apocalyptic scenes of destruction and a general lack of discipline". However, Ebert did say that "there are several scenes in Brazil that show a lot of imagination and effort". Ebert especially enjoyed one scene in which "Sam moves into half an office and finds himself engaged in a tug-of-war over his desk with the man through the wall. I was reminded of a Chaplin film, ''[[Modern Times (film)|Modern Times]]'', and reminded, too, that in Chaplin economy and simplicity were virtues, not the enemy."<ref>{{cite news |date=17 January 1986 |first=Roger |last=Ebert |author-link=Roger Ebert |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/brazil-1986 |work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |title=Brazil |access-date=25 February 2020 |archive-date=13 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213230759/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/brazil-1986 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Colin Greenland]] reviewed ''Brazil'' for ''[[Imagine (game magazine)|Imagine]]'' magazine, and stated that it was "a daring, exorbitant Vision, sombrely funny and darkly true".<ref name="Imagine26">{{cite journal | last = Greenland|first = Colin |author-link=Colin Greenland| title =Fantasy Media  | type = review | journal = [[Imagine (AD&D magazine)|Imagine]] | issue = 26| pages =47 | publisher = TSR Hobbies (UK), Ltd. |date=May 1985| issn = }}</ref>

===Accolades===
In 2004, ''[[Total Film]]'' named ''Brazil'' the 20th-greatest British movie of all time. In 2005, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' film reviewers [[Richard Corliss]] and [[Richard Schickel]] included ''Brazil'' in an unordered list of the 100 best films of all time. In 2006, [[Channel 4]] voted ''Brazil'' one of the "[[50 Films to See Before You Die]]", shortly before its broadcast on [[FilmFour]]. The film also ranks at number 83 in ''[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]]'' magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Films of All Time".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.empireonline.com/500/83.asp |title=The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time |work=Empire |publisher=Bauer Media Group |access-date=17 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110814081404/http://www.empireonline.com/500/1.asp |archive-date=14 August 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref>

''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]'' ranked ''Brazil'' at number 5 in its list of the top 20 sci-fi movies.<ref name="wired">{{cite magazine |title=The ''Wired'' Sci-Fi Top 20 |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |volume=10 |issue=6 |date=June 2002 |url=https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.06/scifi.html?pg=6 |access-date=5 March 2017 |archive-date=6 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106064907/http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.06/scifi.html?pg=6 |url-status=live }}</ref>

''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' listed ''Brazil'' as the sixth-best science-fiction piece of media released since 1982.<ref>{{cite news |first=Josh |last=Wolk |title=The Sci-Fi 25: The Genre's Best Since 1982 |newspaper=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |date=7 May 2007 |url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20036782_20037403_20037541_20,00.html |access-date=21 June 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070508041356/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0%2C%2C20036782_20037403_20037541_20%2C00.html |archive-date=8 May 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The magazine also ranked the film number 13 on its list of "The Top 50 Cult Films".<ref name="EWCult">{{cite magazine |title=The Top 50 Cult Films |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |date=23 May 2003}}</ref>

The film was nominated for two [[Academy Award]]s, for [[Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay|Best Original Screenplay]] and [[Academy Award for Best Production Design|Best Art Direction]] ([[Norman Garwood]], [[Maggie Gray]]).<ref name="NY Times">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/6977/Brazil/awards |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301142205/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/6977/Brazil/awards |url-status=dead |archive-date=1 March 2014 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=2014 |title=Brazil (1985) |access-date=1 January 2009 }}</ref>

According to Gilliam in an interview with [[Clive James]] in his online programme ''Talking in the Library'', ''Brazil'' is—to his surprise—apparently a favourite film of the [[Far-right politics|far right]] in America.<ref>{{cite web|title=clivejames.com|url=http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1772825659?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAAASoY90~,_gW1ZHvKG_2w3ir8qufYQAVrtc8j-AVm&bctid=527390744|work=Talking in the Library Series 3 - Terry Gilliam|access-date=4 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304060152/http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1772825659?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAAASoY90~,_gW1ZHvKG_2w3ir8qufYQAVrtc8j-AVm&bctid=527390744|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Home media===
A directors' cut of ''Brazil'' was released on [[LaserDisc]] in the United States in December 1993.<ref>{{Cite magazine|date=November 6, 1993|title=Letterbox Format's Popularity Widens|last=McGowan|first=Chris|url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/90s/1993/BB-1993-11-06.pdf|magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]|page=73|access-date=February 4, 2024}}</ref> It has also been released several times by [[The Criterion Collection]], as a five-disc LaserDisc set in 1996, a three-disc [[DVD]] in 1999, and a two-disc [[Blu-ray]] in 2012, all with the same special features: a 142-minute cut of the film (referred to by Gilliam as the "fifth and final cut"), Sheinberg's 94-minute "Love Conquers All" cut for syndicated television, and various galleries and featurettes.

Criterion also released a one-disc, movie-only edition in 2006, while the three-disc set was revised to be compatible with widescreen televisions.

A Blu-ray of the 132-minute US version of the movie was released in the US on 12 July 2011 by [[Universal Pictures Home Entertainment|Universal Pictures]]. It contains only that version of the film and no extra features.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=6116 |title=Brazil Blu-ray Announced |publisher=Blu-ray.com |access-date=22 September 2012 |archive-date=24 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324190645/http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=6116 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Legacy==
===Film===
Other films that have drawn inspiration from ''Brazil''{{'s}} cinematography, art design and overall atmosphere include [[Jean-Pierre Jeunet]]'s and [[Marc Caro]]'s films ''[[Delicatessen (1991 film)|Delicatessen]]'' (1991) and ''[[The City of Lost Children]]'' (1995),<ref>{{Cite book | year=2006 | title=Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley | author1=Ximena Gallardo C. | author2=C. Jason Smith | publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group | isbn=978-0-8264-1910-1 | page=158 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k_H3vLIRECgC&pg=PA158 | access-date=5 June 2020 | archive-date=19 January 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240119151253/https://books.google.com/books?id=k_H3vLIRECgC&pg=PA158 | url-status=live }}</ref> [[Rocky Morton]] and [[Annabel Jankel]]'s ''[[Super Mario Bros. (film)|Super Mario Bros.]]'' (1993), the [[Coen brothers]]' ''[[The Hudsucker Proxy]]'' (1994) and [[Alex Proyas]]'s ''[[Dark City (1998 film)|Dark City]]'' (1998).<ref>{{cite book | author=[[Ronald Bergan]] | title=The Coen Brothers | url=https://archive.org/details/coenbrothers0000berg | url-access=registration | publisher=Thunder's Mouth Press | year=2000 | isbn=1-56025-254-5 | location=New York City | pages=[https://archive.org/details/coenbrothers0000berg/page/148 148–162]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last=Hicks | first=Adrienne | url=http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/film/dbase/2001/dark.html | title=''DARK CITY'' (1998): Critical Review and Bibliography|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150319161743/http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/film/dbase/2001/dark.html|archive-date=19 March 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Dunne |first=Susan |url=https://www.courant.com/2006/02/23/welcome-to-dystopia-at-trinitys-cinestudio/ |title=Welcome To Dystopia At Trinity's Cinestudio |newspaper=Hartford Courant |date=23 February 2006 |access-date=17 December 2010 |archive-date=2 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402135830/http://articles.courant.com/2006-02-23/entertainment/0602230323_1_blade-runner-dark-city-film |url-status=live }}</ref>

The production design and lighting style of Tim Burton's ''[[Batman (1989 film)|Batman]]'' (1989) have been compared to ''Brazil''.<ref>{{cite news | last=Kehr | first=Dave | title=Effects Make Batman A Stylized, Dark Adventure | work=Chicago Tribune | url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/06/23/effects-make-batman-a-stylized-dark-adventure/ | date=23 June 1989 | access-date=6 February 2011 | archive-date=17 September 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110917030524/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-06-23/entertainment/8902110834_1_love-interest-vicki-vale-batman-tim-burton | url-status=live }}</ref> [[Tim Burton]] and production designer [[Anton Furst]] studied ''Brazil'' as a reference for ''Batman''.<ref>{{cite news | first=Alan | last=Jones | title=Batman in Production | work=Cinefantastique | date=November 1989}}</ref>

The ending of [[Neil Marshall]]'s ''[[The Descent]]'' (2005) is inspired by ''Brazil''{{'s}}, as Marshall explained in an interview:
{{blockquote|The original ending for ''Brazil'' was a massive inspiration for the original ending of ''The Descent'' – the idea that someone can go insane on the outside, but inside they've found happiness.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://io9.gizmodo.com/neil-marshall-explains-what-he-learned-from-the-films-o-1641301024|title=Neil Marshall Explains What He Learned From The Films Of Terry Gilliam|last=Anders|first=Charlie Jane|work=io9|access-date=2018-02-18|archive-date=18 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180218210437/https://io9.gizmodo.com/neil-marshall-explains-what-he-learned-from-the-films-o-1641301024|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

''[[Jupiter Ascending]]'' (2015) features a scene that is deliberately designed to resemble the bureaucracy in ''Brazil'', featuring Terry Gilliam in a cameo role and a reference to a "statute 27B-stroke-6".

===Television===
Production design of the Time Variance Authority depicted in the Disney+ series ''[[Loki (TV series)|Loki]]'' is inspired by the "fun sci-fi bureaucracy" and dystopian design elements of ''Brazil''{{'s}} Ministry of Information.<ref>{{Cite web|title="Marvel Studios: Assembled" The Making of Loki (TV Episode 2021)|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14176558/|access-date=21 July 2021|website=IMDb|date=21 July 2021|language=en-US|archive-date=20 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210720175241/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14176558/|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the ''[[Rick and Morty]]'' episode "[[The Ricklantis Mixup]]", the ending of ''Brazil'' is referenced through a subplot involving a character who is attempting to escape the wafer factory where he works. He is captured but lives with the illusion that he has escaped, as with Lowry.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mufson |first=Beckett |date=2017-09-26 |title=Every Pop-Culture Reference (So Far) in Season Three of 'Rick and Morty' |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/every-pop-culture-reference-so-far-in-season-three-of-rick-and-morty/ |access-date=2024-01-28 |website=Vice |language=en}}</ref>

In the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "[[How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back]]", [[Matt Groening]] and others in the DVD audio commentary cite ''Brazil'' as having influenced the depiction of the Central Bureaucracy.<ref>"How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back". ''Futurama''. DVD commentary (2003). Episode no. 11, season 2. 20th Century Fox.</ref>

===Technology===
The highly technological aesthetics of ''Brazil'' inspired the set design of Max Cohen's apartment in the film ''[[Pi (film)|Pi]]''.<ref name="CityPaper">{{cite news | last=Adams | first=Sam | title=Pi Brain | newspaper=Philadelphia City Paper |date=23 July 1998 }}</ref> ''Brazil'' also served as an inspiration for the film ''[[Sucker Punch (2011 film)|Sucker Punch]]'' (2011),<ref>{{cite news | last=Boucher | first=Geoff | url=http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/01/16/sucker-punch-zack-snyder-says-big-crazy-fairy-tale-influenced-by-brazil/ | title='Sucker Punch': Zack Snyder says 'big, crazy fairy tale' influenced by 'Brazil' | work=[[Los Angeles Times]] | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110117002732/http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/01/16/sucker-punch-zack-snyder-says-big-crazy-fairy-tale-influenced-by-brazil/ | archive-date=17 January 2011}}</ref> and has been recognised as an inspiration for writers and artists of the [[steampunk]] subculture.<ref>{{cite news |first=Ruth |last=La Ferla |title=Steampunk Moves Between 2 Worlds |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/fashion/08PUNK.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=8 May 2008 |access-date=6 February 2017 |archive-date=11 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511203417/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/fashion/08PUNK.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Peter |last=Bebergal |url=http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/08/26/the_age_of_steampunk/ |title=The age of steampunk Nostalgia meets the future, joined carefully with brass screws |work=[[Boston Globe]] |date=26 August 2007 |access-date=22 October 2009 |archive-date=14 April 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080414184624/http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/08/26/the_age_of_steampunk/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Brian |last=Braiker |url=http://www.newsweek.com/steampunks-twist-tech-102747 |title=Steampunks Twist on Tech |work=[[Newsweek]] |date=30 October 2007 |access-date=23 January 2014 |archive-date=14 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140114233003/http://www.newsweek.com/steampunks-twist-tech-102747 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The dystopian premise of the 2018 video game ''[[We Happy Few (video game)|We Happy Few]]'' was largely inspired by ''Brazil''.<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/uY5WK5vCt1k Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20160617031621/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY5WK5vCt1k&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite AV media |last= Hatfield |first= Daemon |title= We Happy Few Gameplay Showcase - IGN Live: E3 2016 |url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY5WK5vCt1k |website= IGN |via= YouTube |access-date= 29 June 2016 }}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url = https://www.destructoid.com/we-happy-few-is-a-roller-coaster-of-creepy-vibes-and-eccentric-humor-357304.phtml | title = We Happy Few is a roller coaster of creepy vibes and eccentric humor | first = Ben | last = Davis | date = 24 April 2016 | access-date = 29 June 2016 | work = [[Destructoid]] | archive-date = 27 July 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160727180250/https://www.destructoid.com/we-happy-few-is-a-roller-coaster-of-creepy-vibes-and-eccentric-humor-357304.phtml | url-status = live }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[BFI Top 100 British films]]
* [[List of cult films]]
* [[List of films featuring surveillance]]
* [[List of films cut over the director's opposition]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=nb}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}
<!--|refs=
<ref name=boggspollard>{{Cite book | year=2003 | title = A world in chaos: social crisis and the rise of postmodern cinema | author1=Carl Boggs | author2=Thomas Pollard | publisher=Rowman & Littlefield | isbn=978-0-7425-3289-2 | page=233 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l3ggHHUxWagC&pg=PA233 }}</ref>
<ref name=ettedgui>{{Cite book | year=1999 | title = Production design & art direction,''Screencraft (Series)'' | author1=Peter Ettedgui | publisher=Focal Press | isbn=978-0-240-80400-2 | page=169 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dgb5e-GizOYC&pg=PA169 }}</ref>
<ref name=TIME>{{Cite web | year=1996 | title = TIME | page=69 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rkn1EDkRoRgC&pg=PA69&q=retro-futuristic }}</ref>}}-->

==Further reading==
* Bruce Krajewski, "Postmodernism, Allegory, and Hermeneutics in ''Brazil,'' in ''Traveling with Hermes: Hermeneutics and Rhetoric'' (1992), {{ISBN|0-87023-815-9}}.
* Jack Mathews, ''The Battle of Brazil'' (1987), {{ISBN|0-517-56538-2}}.

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{IMDb title|0088846|Brazil}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes|m/1003033-brazil |Brazil}} 
* {{TCMDb title|23430|Brazil}}
* {{mojo title|brazil|Brazil}}
* [http://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/brazil_film Brazil] at the [[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction|Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]
* [http://www.wideanglecloseup.com/tgfilesindex.html Wide Angle Closeup: The Terry Gilliam Files] – Interviews and production stories on ''Brazil''
* [http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/brazil.html ''Brazil'' Screenplay], Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard & Charles McKeown, [http://www.dailyscript.com/ Daily Script] website
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070703202009/http://www.dga.org/news/dgaq_1006/9-beg_shot2remember-1006.php3 DGA magazine interview with Gilliam]
* Hamel, James Keith. [http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue06/features/brazil.htm ''Modernity and Mise-en-scene: Terry Gilliam and ''Brazil], from ''Images: Journal of Film and Popular Culture''
* [https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2583-brazil-a-great-place-to-visit-wouldn-t-want-to-live-there ''Brazil: A Great Place to Visit, Wouldn't Want to Live There''] an essay by [[David Sterritt]] at the [[Criterion Collection]]
* [https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/dec/11/robert-de-niro-terry-gilliam-jonathan-pryce-brazil-plumber-python ''‘Robert De Niro prepared to play a plumber by watching a brain surgeon’'': Terry Gilliam and Jonathan Pryce on making Brazil]

{{Terry Gilliam}}
{{Tom Stoppard}}
{{Navboxes
|title = Awards for ''Brazil''
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{{BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects}}
{{Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Film}}{{Seiun Award - Best Media}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brazil}}
[[Category:1985 black comedy films]]
[[Category:1980s British films]]
[[Category:1980s dystopian films]]
[[Category:1980s English-language films]]
[[Category:1980s political films]]
[[Category:1980s satirical films]]
[[Category:1980s science fiction comedy films]]
[[Category:1985 films]]
[[Category:20th Century Fox films]]
[[Category:BAFTA winners (films)]]
[[Category:British fantasy drama films]]
[[Category:British neo-noir films]]
[[Category:British political satire films]]
[[Category:British satirical films]]
[[Category:Films about bureaucracy]]
[[Category:Films about dreams]]
[[Category:Films about mass surveillance]]
[[Category:Films about simulated reality]]
[[Category:Films about terrorism]]
[[Category:Films about totalitarianism]]
[[Category:Films based on Nineteen Eighty-Four]]
[[Category:Films directed by Terry Gilliam]]
[[Category:Films produced by Arnon Milchan]]
[[Category:Films scored by Michael Kamen]]
[[Category:Films set in offices]]
[[Category:Films set in the 20th century]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Charles McKeown]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Terry Gilliam]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Tom Stoppard]]
[[Category:Regency Enterprises films]]
[[Category:Retrofuturism]]
[[Category:Santa Claus in film]]
[[Category:Surreal comedy films]]
[[Category:Films about torture]]
[[Category:Universal Pictures films]]
[[Category:British dystopian films]]
[[Category:1985 science fiction films]]
[[Category:English-language black comedy films]]
[[Category:English-language science fiction comedy films]]