Brazil
(1985)
review by Sal Skellington

Horror purists and pedants have kept Terry Gilliam’s Brazil out of the limelight for too long. Certainly, it takes a special kind of non-horror film to find its way into the annals of horror history. For instance, Peter Jackson’s glorious true crime opus Heavenly Creatures is often cited alongside yer Hellraisers and Blair Witches. It is accepted for its ability to disturb and to create true feelings of terror. Yet Pulp Fiction, another indisputable classic (and much gorier than Heavenly Creatures) is hardly ever associated with horror. It does not make us shiver (or even chuckle at that man in the really bad zombie costume) so it’s out. Brazil takes in elements of sci-fi, fantasy and comedy. It is not a horror, but it is, in many ways, scarier than most.

Gilliam’s grim comic fantasy takes place in an unspecified future, when houses are overtaken by smoke-spewing pipes, terrorists roam the streets, convicted criminals pay for their own torturous ‘information retrieval’, and bureaucracy is all. Caught up in this bureaucratic nightmare is civil servant nobody Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce). When he isn’t stamping, re-stamping, signing and filing very important documents, he fantasizes about flying through the sky – some sort of winged knight or metallic angel
– and rescuing a beautiful woman from grotesque masked captors. When a housefly falls into a typewriter in the Information Retrieval department, changing a ‘t’ to a ‘b’, the ensuing chaos threatens to swallow Lowry. The victim of circumstance, he encounters superhero electricians, the girl of his dreams (Kim Greist) and the ever-more-real ramblings of his own imagination before he finally escapes forever…at a price.

Although this could hardly be called a ‘nice’ film – gloomy as hell would be closer to the truth – it is at heart the blackest of black comedies. The humble animator of winged pigs and giant feet from Monty Python’s Flying Circus is not completely unrecognisable here. In fact, some lines are laugh-out-loud funny. The film is littered with such throwaway lines, which elevate the mood of a film that threatens to be simply depressing. For
instance, when Lowry tells his friend (Michael Palin in surely his darkest role) to give his love to the twins, and said friend informs him that they are, in fact, triplets, Lowry says absent-mindedly, ‘Triplets? My, how time flies!’.

However, these comic moments never dampen the effect of the horrific ideas and images that this film has to offer. From the mindless violence of terrorism to the grotesque results of obsessive plastic surgery, our protagonist is constantly surrounded by ugliness and contamination. This is saddening, since Lowry himself is a naïve innocent, searching for true love
in an age in which such things of purity may no longer be possible. Even his dreams, generally informed by the events of his real life, become increasingly dark, and the masks worn by his dream-enemies (resembling horribly bloated baby faces) are enough to give anyone nightmares.

Brazil’s cast is formidable, and the acting is every bit as good as one would expect. Greist is charming as the ‘is-she-real-or-did-he-imagine-her’ love interest, Jill Layton. Palin turns in a chilling performance as Lowry’s treacherous ‘friend’, and there are also great performances by Robert De Niro (as that superhero electrician) and Jim Broadbent (who is nerve-crunchingly repulsive as a slimy plastic surgeon). There’s also a not unwelcome but rather unremarkable appearance by Bob Hoskins. Nevertheless, none of these great turns can take our attention from Pryce, who is consistently sympathetic and likeable as the supposedly doomed rose among the thorns. Incidentally, if you’re wondering why the film is called Brazil,
it is because the bouncy Xavier Cugat tune of the same name is Lowry’s favourite song (he listens to it in the car and hums it to himself), and is the backdrop for his fantasies. The soundtrack is worth seeking out for a lovely rendition of the song by Kate Bush, which does not feature on the film.

Brazil is not a film for everybody, but I would go so far as to say that it’s one everyone should at least try to watch. It’s certainly depressing and not for the faint hearted. It’s also not suitable for anyone who likes their films in nice little ‘beginning – killings – sensible ending’ packages. The lines between fantasy and reality are very blurred in this film, which does not make for an easy watch. But Brazil is a very good movie and deserves to be given a chance, if only for its shock ending, guaranteed to leave you numb.