Brazil: The Final Cut: The Criterion Collection #51 DVD Review

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Title: Brazil: The Final Cut: The Criterion Collection # 51

Region: One

Genre: Dystopian Sci-fi Dark Comedy Satire

Stars: Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Michael Palin, Kim Greist, Jim Broadbent, Barbara Hicks, Charles McKeown, and Jack Purvis

Writers: Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard, and Charles McKeown

Director: Terry Gilliam

Feature length: 142 minutes

Extras: Feature Length Audio Commentary By Writer And Director Terry Gilliam, Ten Page Booklet With Essay By Film Critic And Author Jack Mathews

Languages: English Dolby Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Subtitles For The Deaf And Hearing Impaired

Packaging: Amaray Keep Case

Chapter Stops: 36

Sound: Dolby Surround Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 1985/DVD Release: 2006

Theatrical Distributor: Universal Pictures

Home Video Distributor: The Criterion Collection

MPAA Rating: Not Rated

Reviewer: Archibald (Harry) Tuttle

Brazil is another of the group of genre films that have seen a major re-release on DVD this season that also include the recent limited edition DVD debuts of the original Star Wars Trilogy, The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, and Blade Runner: The Director’s Cut and Brazil is every bit as influential on several levels as the others because beyond the surface style is a film that reminds us frighteningly so “we’re all in this together…” Some images in the film are eerily reminiscent of recent global tragedies and nothing in the film despite the stylized appearance is something that does not have some real life counterpart that inspired Terry Gilliam whether it is mass consumerism for the sake of consumerism, ecological destruction masked behind advertisement, western dreams of how life should be gone awry, adolescent fantasies that shield us too much from the real world and a real world that strips are humanity in the process so we deal with it at times with some form of escape through our imaginations or vices or both. What is the cost of progress? How do we define happiness? Brazil is like an onion with endless layers to be discovered by the viewer and no easy answers if there are any at all. The reality is you get back what you put into it.

Bureaucracies are so painfully run in manner like Brazil in the world we live in now to make sure everyone is protected and everything works as it should, but ultimately we know very often certain changes whether it is in social security reform and universal health care do not always make things better. Even the recent breakthroughs in nano technology, which makes everything smaller has yielded problems that no one could foresee when everyone was complaining everything was getting too big. I have noticed in many offices that desktop PCs are looking more like the ones featured in Brazil and some are just as ugly with a crude metal both held by another piece of metal that supports an LCD monitor on the other side that is supposed to mask the ugliness of the unit and the price for saving space. Very often these PCs don’t seem to work very well either.

Despite the move to create a paperless work environment, more often more paper is still wasted since often documents must be printed in order to get a signature and go into many state, city, or federal agencies and look at the desks of case workers in just about every background imaginable and you will no doubt see piles of files that need to be updated with one piece of paper or another and even now receipts and papers count more when it comes to dealing with any agency of authority because it provides a hardcopy proof that can be traced, catalogued, and recalled provided it’s filed right in the first place. Even private industry has its problems especially when it is merged with the public sector. That’s when real chaos can occur.

Yet it is a miracle we get along as well as we do considering. In Brazil no one can escape the system. You can only cope with it and hopefully survive it. There are so much background details and character quirks that the film lends itself to multiple viewings. Brazil has been described, as having a retro futuristic look despite the fact the film is a satire of the modern world. So popular was Gilliam’s vision that when 12 Monkeys came around ten years later, the production designers looked toward Brazil in part for inspiration. Brazil is a visually stunning film and yet I can also see a certain naiveté within it as if Gilliam were working out the frustrations of his inner child like a rebellious teenager acting up against his parents and in that way I find that the film has changed for me as I have got older because when I first saw the film, I never caught that aspect of it. In fact the first time I saw it was on VHS and I hated it, but Brazil stays with the viewer long after one sees it and then it grows on you. So don’t be put off on it if you don’t appreciate it the first time around since I think Brazil is the rare film that gets better with repeated viewings. New angles begin to appear and also the reality that this film appeals and repels equally on various levels based on one’s own age, experience, and self-understanding. Ultimately Brazil is not the perfect classic film for the masses, but it is a flawed masterpiece and I think the flaws much like the world the film depicts work better for the film in spite of them.

Within the keep case there is a ten-page booklet with an essay by Critic Jack Mathews, author of The Battle Of “Brazil” as well as film scene selection information, and cast and crew listing as well as DVD production credits, notes on the transfer, special thanks and a listing of the fascist poster statements seen about the film. As listed in the booklet, Brazil is presented an aspect ratio of (1.78:1) made from a new high-definition digital transfer created on a Spirit Datacine from a new 35mm interpositive under the supervision of Director Terry Gilliam. Thousands of instances of dirt and scratches were removed using the MTI Digital Restoration System. To maintain optimal image quality through the compression process, the picture on this dual-layer DVD-9 was encoded at the highest possible bit rate for the quantity of material included. The soundtrack was mastered at 24-bit from the 35mm Dolby stereo magnetic tracks, and audio restoration tools were used to reduce clicks, pops, hiss, and crackle.

Now in my own words, everything listed above is true. The new DVD transfer made from a new high definition source material blows away the previous letterboxed DVD editions that had been released both as a part of The Criterion Collection and as a movie only edition from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. I watched this new DVD release of Brazil on my Toshiba HD DVD Player HD-XA1, which can upconvert standard definition DVDs to 1080i via HDMI to near HD or virtual HD picture quality and I have to state that Brazil looks so damn good that I can’t wait to see a true HD DVD version be released hopefully in cooperation between both Universal and Criterion because I am already wondering just how much better would a true 1080p optical disc version of Brazil would look on my HDTV. The English Dolby Stereo Surround is crystal clear though I felt the surround effect was somewhat subdued at times. English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired are encoded onto the DVD as an option too. This DVD is available as either a single disc release or in a three-disc set, but if you already have the previous Criterion three-disc set, you do not have to buy it the three-disc set again since the other two discs are identical. Just upgrade to the new anamorphic widescreen DVD and you have everything. What is also great is that if you never purchased the film before and don’t need the extra value materials found in the Criterion set, you can buy the single disc release and have what is most important in the end, which in my opinion is the best legally and commercially available and Director approved home video version of Brazil available in Region One, North America at the time of this writing. The interactive menus are well rendered and easy to navigate with scenes presented in the old fashion mini-monitors seen in the film and appropriately not presenting the scenes in a perfect way since nothing quite works the way one might think in the film Brazil. There is even an index for the audio commentary by Terry Gilliam according to the topic he discusses therein.

Terry Gilliam delivers a detailed retrospective feature length audio commentary that was originally recorded for the 1996 laserdisc release and at times certain statements Gilliam makes dates the commentary, but still like the film itself, Gilliam’s commentary for the most part is amazingly timely because Brazil is a film that depicts the contemporary world as it is today in all it’s absurdity, fury, danger, and denial. The difference between Brazil and other films that fall into the mixed subgenre of dystopian sci-fi is that Brazil disarms the viewer in delivering a story that is ultimately darker and more unrelenting as well as defying expectations through satire and seemingly exaggerated setups that strike the viewers off guard and resonates in ways now that I doubt anyone could ever predict. Thus Brazil continues to stand the test of time after twenty years for better or for worse depending upon what you get from it. Personally I am amazed at how much Brazil still holds up today and also frightened by it. In fact I think our world is more like Brazil than any other vision of a dark future whether it is V For Vendetta, Blade Runner, 1984, or Fahrenheit 451 not because these films hold any less validity in cautionary storytelling that is not also timely today, but the difference is in the perception as Gilliam might say. When 1984 was published, Orwell was writing about the dangers he foresaw happening to humanity in the future. Gilliam tells us in Brazil that it’s too late. We’re already living in Brazil, but most of us are just not aware of it. Brazil: The Final Cut: The Criterion Collection #51 is available on DVD-Video now in either a single disc or three-disc gift set at retailers on and offline courtesy of Central Services.

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