Criterion Collection: Brazil [Blu-ray] [1985] [US Import]

A very good film.Picture and sound of a very good quality.Extras gave an interesting insight about the film.

If, like me, you're a big fan of Terry Gilliams' Brazil then do yourself a favour and avoid the UK Blu ray editions of this magnificent film and pick up the US Criterion version. It is, head and shoulders, the best edition out there at this time.I like to think of Brazil as Terry Gilliams' take on George Orwells' 1984. Certainly more humorous than the magnificently bleak 1984 it is a definite study of the insanity of bureaucracy and totalitarian states. Boasting incredible production design, beautiful sets, a great cast including De Niro and Ian Holm and a quite wonderful score from Michael Kamen, Brazil is a modern(ish) classic.While the transfers of the movie are apparently, almost, if not entirely identical (and the film does look as good as I've seen it) it's the extras on offer on the Criterion release that win the day.First up a brilliant, as always, commentary from Gilliam, a half hour documentary entitled What Is Brazil?, The Production Notebook, which is a collection of discussions, visual essays and unfilmed storyboards and the 'Love Conquers All' version which was edited for syndicated TV and is interesting but clearly a watered down version. BUT.....best of all we have The Battle For Brazil documentary which is just a fascinating look at the troubles the film had in getting a release. Thankfully Brazil was released. And for me, it's Gilliams' masterpiece. Thank you Criterion for such an exhaustive package covering a brilliant film which is still influencing directors today.

i saw this film or rather both version s on the criterion three disc set and its weird but very enjoyable especially kim griest dont buy the one disc version get the criterion one two diffrent versions plus the third disc has special features each film has a informative commentary on it especialy the edited version by a film historian well worth getting

Terry Gilliam is one of my all-time-favourite directors. From a contemporary stand-point at least, the Python films were his least ambitious adventures, even though they were perhaps his funniest. It was after he left the fold of that inimitable crew that he really came into his own, not just as 'the-guy-who-did-those-funny-British-pictures', but as one of the greatest film maestros to ever walk the face of the earth.Brazil is one of his crowning achievements, from a contemporary stand-point or otherwise. The story encapsulates every pessamistic idea ever dreamt up by the world's grumpiest old men, Orwell's '1984' being the most obvious. What Gilliam brings to this tried and tested form is not the usual straight-laced satirist tendancies, but instead the creation of a somewhat opaque and entirely interpretable cinematic world simply derived, rather than copied from works such as Orwell's.The protagonist, Sam Lowry, is unhappy for sure; trapped even. But he never displays the same reactionary zeal that Smith develops in '1984'. There is a certain resignation to Lowry's character; a symptom of the society that he was born into, but also it seems, a symptom of his own unshakably sheepish nature. Jonathan Pryce, as usual, never falls short of the director's vision, persistantly surprising us with just how cowardly he can be, whilst at the same time seeming to constantly ask, "well, what would you do?".Robert DeNiro is tremendously funny as Harry Tuttle; a superbly realised character, classified in my mind as a 'guerilla heating engineer'. This fellow is the epitome of a rebel in an oppressive world; lots of thumbs-up and 'cheer up, champ' kind of behaviour. Fantastic.The film meets, at it's ending, with it's originators. No hope of rescue from that most desperate of species; the human race. Gilliam always leaves open the hope of a happy ending, even until the bitter end...I shan't give it away, but be prepared for a horrowing resolution to an otherwise quite uplifting film.If there was any justice in the world, this film would appear beside all possible synonyms of the word 'great' that the dictionary of English speech has to offer.

A great job on re-releasing the best film ever .This is the one to buy.Fab, fab, fab

I loaned my copy of Brazil out and never got it back. Buying a used copy in "Very Good" condition made cost-per-value sense. I was very satisfied with my purchase.

Uba verdadera gema en la historia cinematográfica. Excelente pelicula con temas tan simples, pero reales. Una crítica que perdura aún en estos tiempos

This is one of the most widely requested Blu-Ray transfers from the Criterion collection and it does not disappoint. There's no point going into the details of one of the great, critically acclaimed films in Terry Gilliam's body of work, there's already massive amounts of critique and analysis dedicated to that. What's important is that Criterion finally stepped up and gave fans of the movie an alternative to the bare bones, Universal edition that came out previously.While both transfers are generally comparable in quality, the new Criterion edition still slightly edges out the Universal transfer for overall quality. There's still a layer of film grain apparent, especially in effects heavy portions like Sam's dream sequences, where the softness of the shots due to optical effects really stands out now. Also for sticklers of digital noise reduction, if there is any used here, it's not as apparent to scrutiny at it was in the Universal release. Best of all of course, is the gamut of Criterion extras included here, all of which come from the previous DVD release, including the studio "Love Conquers All" version and the attendant documentaries. For fans of Brazil, there is simply no question; this is the best the film has ever been to date. For people that have somehow never seen this movie, this is a good place to start.

Ce film d'une très grande sensibilité enchaine les trouvailles, les situations délirantes et les personnages atypiques, le tout avec une virtuosité encore jamais atteinte. Derrière cela ,une histoire particulierement bien montée, et jouée par des acteurs d'exceptions. Brazil est une gigantesque métaphore retroactive de notre mode de vie , une histoire avec une ambiance bien particulière , dont on sort marqué à jamais.LE chef d'oeuvre alternatif.

The future is now.