Thoughts on Brazil

 

Courtesy Midnight Only/Universal Pictures

"He hadn't done anything. He was good! *tears refund check* What have you done with his BODY?! *prolonged hysterical sobbing*"
"This isn't being very helpful. ... I didn't have to come here you know, Mrs. Buttle."

If you've ever wanted proof that great comedy can come from dark places, well, here we are. Brazil, directed and co-written by Terry Gilliam, is ingenious, poignant, timeless, often hilarious and dazzling. Any of those qualities would make it worth seeing and the fact that they all are accomplished is a credit to Gilliam, co-writers Charles McKeown, Tom Stoppard and an uncredited Charles Aversion, technical teams who seem to be having a field day and a cast led by Jonathan Pryce, perfect as the in over his head dreamer Sam Lowry. Brazil has one strike, for being rather long, but even that works in its favor. 

An innocent man with a heart condition, Archie Buttle, is mistaken for Archie Tuttle (Robert De Niro). The matter is pursued bureaucratically by Sam and on behalf of the Buttles by their neighbor Jill (Kim Greist). While friend Jack Lint (Michael Palin) is both a torturer and family man, his plastic surgery-obsessed mother Ida (Katherine Helmond) is meddling in his future and he puts up with people like the easily flustered Kurtzman (Ian Holm) or menacing heating engineers Spoor (Bob Hoskins) and Dowser (Derrick O'Connor), Sam dreams of fantastic heroics like rescuing an angelic woman (Greist again).

Best Original Screenplay nominees at the 58th Academy Awards included three diverse fantasies. Back to the Future, pleasing crowds by claiming "If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything." The Purple Rose of Cairo, reminding us that life's not like the movies. Brazil, which Tasha Robinson said "is about a man fighting to escape an intolerable system, failing, and surviving by going mad." And to think, they and The Official Story all lost to Witness*. It took me a bit to engage with Brazil, which seems to be a common reaction. Gilliam, to Rolling Stone in 2014, recalled mass audience walkouts.

*I've got nothing against Witness, but boy, is it easy to pick on. 

"Excuse me, Dawson, can you put me through to Mr. Helpmann's office?"

"I'm afraid I can't, sir. You have to go through the proper channels."

"And you can't tell me what the proper channels are, because that's classified information?"

"I'm glad to see the Ministry's continuing its tradition of recruiting the brightest and best, sir."

Sam's awkward encounter with Mrs. Buttle (Sheila Reid) is an effective encapsulation of Brazil. Life is cruel, even excessively cruel, sometimes. There's too many rules. People who see themselves as heroes can easily be self-serving. Oh, yes, and there's no guarantee of a timeout at Christmas. Pauline Kael found Pryce charmless, but I think she was missing the point. I don't think Sam was supposed to be a true hero. If we want that, we've got Tuttle, and even he's apparently a terrorist**. Brazil should be seen if only to catch De Niro playing Batman, and well, too! For Kael, De Niro was the life of the party.

**It's not confirmed Tuttle is the actual serial bomber, right? All we know is what we see, that he's illegally making repairs and that he may have killed Spoor and Dowser. Remember, the Ministry of Information bombing is part of Sam's fantasy. Mike D'Angelo, A.V. Club: "... it suggests that in this society, even the most rebellious souls are locked into the system to some degree."

I'm amused that there's a "Love Conquers All" edit of Brazil -- where, among other things, Sam is unaware that Buttle has died as a result of torture -- because there's little to no reason for Sam and Jill to share a happy ending. They barely know each other. I certainly didn't think she actually loved him. It's not like he loves her either. He loves an idealized version of her. In that vein, I'm glad that Tom Cruise and Ellen Barkin, to name two people considered, didn't star in Brazil. Especially in his case, I'd have felt way too much baggage seeing movie stars playing such hapless characters. At the same time, I admit that I actually thought of a product of the Golden Age of Hollywood watching Brazil's climax. 

The movie in question is An American in Paris. Sam's vision of escaping Jack, losing Harry (never has litter been so terrorizing!) and ending up free with Jill is more than a dream, it's a dream ballet! Michael Kamen's score is fabulous here and to be honest, you don't even need the brief bits of dialogue or the sound effects. Then again, who am I to deny Ida her very sacred moment? Few things are sacred in Brazil, a movie where an aged, feeble leader (Peter Vaughan) can claim terrorism is a product of "poor sportsmanship." Gilliam et al. seem to be laughing at what would otherwise make anyone cry. Or perhaps they're doing the reverse?

"Don't fight it, son, confess. Quickly! If you hold out too long, you'll jeopardize your credit rating."

Recommended.

Thoughts:

-- "(encountering Mrs. Terrain) My God, what on earth's happened to you now?" "My complication had a little complication. But Dr. Chapman says I'll soon be up and bounding about like a young gazelle."

-- Box Office: Grossing $9.9 million on a $15 million budget, this came in at No. 85 for 1985.

-- Critic's Corner: "A superb example of the power of comedy to underscore serious ideas, even solemn ones," Janet Maslin wrote. Kael: "Visually, it's an original, bravura piece of moviemaking." "Until it goes sour at the end, (it's) often very funny, sometimes awe-inspiring and frightening," according to David Denby. 

-- Awards Watch: Besides the screenplay losing to Witness, Norman Garwood and Maggie Gray's art direction lost to Out of Africa at the Oscars. Garwood, nominated as a production designer, scored a BAFTA. The visual effects, credited to George Gibbs and Richard Conway, also won a BAFTA. Brazil itself was nominated for the Hugo (for science fiction or fantasy), but lost to Back to the Future.

-- Memorable Music: The score is 64-47, with points for "Brazil" and the score.

-- Of all things, I laughed most at the anti-littering woman's dog having tape over its butt. Coming in second was the sight gag of Sam and Lime (McKeown) fighting each's entitled half of a desk. But let's also hear it for the array of slogans in this world, everything from "Loose talk is noose talk" to "An empty desk is an efficient desk."

-- "You see? The population census has got him down as 'dormanted.' Uh, the Central Collective Storehouse computer has got him down as 'deleted.' ... Information Retrieval has got him down as 'inoperative.' And there's another one: security has got him down as 'excised.' Administration has got him down as 'completed.'" "He's dead."

-- Next: The posting schedule has changed slightly and may change again.

Sunday, Dec. 27: The Trip to Bountiful

Monday, Dec. 28: Murphy's Romance

Tuesday, Dec. 29: The Stuff

Wednesday, Dec. 30: The Bride

Thursday, Dec. 31: Smooth Talk

Friday, Jan. 1: Trouble in Mind

Saturday, Jan. 2: A Chorus Line

Sunday, Jan. 3: Grand finale, with my Best and Worst of 1985 Awards and some surprises. 

-- If you'd like to join me, here are the categories:

Best and Worst Picture

Best and Worst Director

Best and Worst Screenplay

Best and Worst Actor

Best and Worst Actress

Best and Worst Supporting Actor

Best and Worst Supporting Actress

Best Ensemble

Best Original Song