Brazil (1985)

This cult movie from 1985 is set in the future (which looks very different from ours), where everything is controlled centrally. Director for this movie was Terry Gilliam, who later in his career directed 12 Monkeys and Fear and loathing in Las Vegas. The effects in this movie are very well done. Instead of CGI, miniatures and special camera angles are used. Personally I like these type of special effects better as the effects being created on computers. At the end of the eighties it took over the craft fo creating miniatures, which has been used much less afterwards. Adding new CGI effects to old movies is also something that should not be done in my book. A good example is E.T., for which I prefer the original version. E.T. might move less dynamic, but he feels like a real creature. But enough about special effects, back to my Brasil review.

Jonathan Pryce is Sam Lowry, who’s part of the government bureaucracy. He has a recurring dream and then literally meets the woman of his dreams. All of this is the setup for a very interesting story, which I will not spoil. The world that has been created for this movie is very special and has a lot of detail in its sets (for example how the appliances work in the home, the typewriter computers). It’s clear that the movie makes a statement against bureaucracy. This makes the movie still relevant today. The accompanying documentary summarizes this movie perfectly: “Half a dream and half a nightmare”.

Score: 8