Kat's Film Reviews: Brazil

Monday, March 10, 2003

Brazil

I own this film and watch it periodically. It's one of my favorites, sort of the "anti-librarian" film or at least the "anti-organization-of-information" film. Ducts filled with paper, clacketing computers overseen by zealous neatniks, persnickety adherence to the letter of the overly-numerous laws. It's hysterically funny, even when people die because of this adherence to the law or are blown up by supposed terrorists. And it's wacky. What film couldn't be if directed by Terry Gilliam? He's read his film theory, too. Watch for the scene towards the end of the film in the Ministry of Information building. The cleaning machine bounding down the steps, the guy shot through his glasses, the soldiers marching with their guns blazing -- this is a direct rip-off of the Odessa Steps scene in Battleship Potemkin, a very famous very early Russian film directed by a very famous very early film theorist, Sergei Eisenstein. Why is the film called Brazil? I really don't know. Although that's the title of the main song, it doesn't seem to fit otherwise. If you know, tell me and I'll post it.

year: 1985
length: 131 min.
rating: 4.0
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088846/combined

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