Brazil (1985)

Brazil (1985) — directed by Terry Gilliam — is a darkly comic, surreal dystopia about a meek civil servant named Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) who becomes entangled with the machinery of an absurdly overbearing state while pursuing the woman who haunts his dreams. When a clerical error leads to the arrest and death of an innocent man, Sam’s attempt to fix the mistake brings him to the attention of the very bureaucracy he rotefully serves — and into the orbit of Jill Layton (Kim Greist), the real-life woman from his fantasies. The film blends satire, melodrama and science-fiction: the world looks and sounds like a retro-future nightmare — endless ducts, clanking machines, mountains of paperwork and omnipresent, officious officials — yet the technology often feels deliberately anachronistic. Gilliam layers slapstick absurdity over Kafkaesque horror, so moments of laugh-out-loud bureaucracy sit beside tense chases, black comedy and surreal fantasy sequences in which Sam imagines himself a soaring hero rescuing Jill. As a viewer you’ll experience a strong visual and tonal contrast: lavish, often grotesque production design and striking camera compositions; a soundtrack that alternates between cheerful propaganda music and discordant menace; and performances that range from quietly human (Pryce’s Sam) to icily officious (the film’s many bureaucrats) with a memorable turn by Robert De Niro as the rogue heating engineer Harry Tuttle. The pace alternates between bureaucratic tedium and sudden bursts of chaotic action, keeping you off-balance in a way that fits the story’s themes. Thematically, Brazil examines the individual's attempt to keep sanity and imagination alive under crushing institutional control. It’s a film about the power of fantasy, the absurdity of systems that prioritize process over people, and the personal costs of rebellion. Expect sharp satire rather than tidy answers; the film is more about feeling and atmosphere than conventional plot resolution. If you like visually daring, intellectually provocative movies with a wicked sense of humor and a melancholic heart, Brazil delivers: it’s bleak and funny, beautiful and unsettling, and stays with you after the credits roll.

Actors: Jonathan Pryce, Kim Greist, Robert De Niro

Director: Terry Gilliam

Runtime: 132 min

Genres: Drama, Sci-Fi

7.3 /10 84 /100 7.8 /10 7.8 /10