Brazil is a 1985 film directed by Terry Gilliam. It was written by Gilliam, Charles McKeown, and Tom Stoppard and stars Jonathan Pryce. The film also features Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond, Bob Hoskins, and Ian Holm. John Scalzi’s Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies describes the film as a “dystopian satire”.

The film centers on Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce), a young man trying to find a woman who appears in his dreams while he is working in a mind-numbing job and living a life in a small apartment, set in a dystopian world in which there is an over-reliance on poorly maintained (and rather whimsical) machines. Brazil’s bureaucratic, totalitarian government is reminiscent of the government depicted in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, except that it has a buffoonish, slap-stick quality and lacks a ‘Big Brother’ figure.

Jack Mathews, movie critic and author of The Battle of Brazil (1987), described the film as “satirizing the bureaucratic, largely dysfunctional industrial world that had been driving Gilliam crazy all his life”.[1] Though a success in Europe, the film was unsuccessful in its initial North America release. It has since become a cult film.

The film is named after the recurrent theme song, “Aquarela do Brasil”, as well as referring to the originally intended opening the film, which dealt with the destruction of a rain forest.

Trivia:

• Terry Gilliam tested more than half a dozen actors to play the part of Jill, interviewing or testing Jamie Lee Curtis, Rebecca De Mornay, Rae Dawn Chong, Joanna Pacula, Rosanna Arquette, Kelly McGillis, Ellen Barkin, and he even considered Madonna. Gilliam’s personal favorite was Barkin.
• Robert De Niro wanted to play the role of Jack, but Gilliam had already promised this to Michael Palin. De Niro still wanted to be in the film, so he was cast as Tuttle instead.
• Jonathan Pryce’s role as Sam was written years earlier with him in mind. The character was originally designed to be in his mid-twenties (Pryce was only about 30 when Gilliam was developing the script), but after many years in limbo, Gilliam changed the character’s age to mid-to-late thirties so that then-37-year-old Pryce could still play the role.
• Director Terry Gilliam was reported to have been rather unhappy with Kim Greist’s performance, and as a result many of her scenes were drastically cut and/or trimmed down. Some of these were added for the Sid Sheinberg “Love Conquers All” studio version.
• Gilliam had trouble with studio producers over the black ending he wanted on the film. The producers wanted a “happy Hollywood” film which eliminated (among other things) the final transition and a critical line of dialogue which reveals the fate of Jill. These changes were made, and this “butchered” version was shown on US television at least once. Gilliam threatened to disown the film, and consequently the cinematic release and all videotape versions show the film essentially as he intended it to be seen (although the US cinematic release still omitted the line about Jill).
• When Mr. Helpman spells out the code that Sam’s father used to get to Helpman’s floor on the elevator, the letters are ERE I AM JH. When you rearrange those letters it spells JEREMIAH, Sam’s father’s name.
• Lots of significant names: – Mr. Kurtzman: (German for “short man”): small in stature and success. Named after the editor of “Help” (Harvey Kurtzman), a magazine that director Terry Gilliam worked for in the mid-60s. It was at a photo shoot for this magazine that Gilliam met John Cleese, who would later invite him to join the Monty Python team. – Mr. Helpman: “helped” Sam – Mr. Warrenn: works in a rabbit-warren style place: a maze of corridors – Harvey Lime: possibly a reference to Harry Lime in The Third Man (1949).
• The “young Mrs. Lowry” was played by both Kim Greist and Katherine Helmond.
• The samurai warrior’s suit was covered in electronic components such as resistors and volume knobs. In an early version of the film, all of the samurai warrior’s scenes were in one block.
• The theme song (which Sam listens to in his car) was also featured in Brazil (1944).
• The technician who, right at the start of the film, swats the fly which falls into the printer causing the fatal misprint is Ray Cooper, the percussionist who, among other things, accompanied Elton John on his famous Russian concerts in 1979.
• Director Cameo: [Terry Gilliam] the smoker in the Shangri-La tower who bumps into Sam.
• Director Trademark: [Terry Gilliam] [burst] SWAT teams enter through ceiling.
• During the climactic shootout at Information Retrieval, the janitor is killed and her vacuum cleaner rolls down the steps as the storm troopers walk and fire their weapons in a skirmish line formation. This is a reference to Sergei M. Eisenstein’s film, Bronenosets Potyomkin (1925), when the Cossacks march down the steps of the Port of Odessa, firing away as a baby carriage rolls by.
• Kim Greist is mistakenly billed as “Kim Griest” in various locations, including the early DVD packaging. In the Criterion single-disc reissue of the film, the error is corrected.
• This was River Phoenix’s favorite movie, and he had been filming Dark Blood (1993) with Jonathan Pryce. As a gift, Pryce arranged for Phoenix to meet Terry Gilliam, his hero. The meeting was set to happen the day he died outside the Viper Room. Phoenix never met him.
• Director Trademark: [Terry Gilliam] [burst] at the diner.
• Charles McKeown, who shared the co-credit in writing the film, wrote most of the propaganda slogans that can be seen in the background throughout the film.
• Jack’s daughter Holly is played by Terry Gilliam’s daughter, Holly Gilliam.
• In the autumn of 1985, Terry Gilliam and Robert De Niro appeared on “Good Morning America” (1975) to promote this film which was finished but not yet released. Gilliam was struggling with the studio and the studio head, Sid Sheinberg, quite publicly. De Niro rarely made television appearances to but agreed to help Gilliam out. According to Gilliam “Bobby [De Niro] said very little, he was talkative that day so we might have gotten him to ten words.” Host Joan Lunden asked Gilliam “I hear you’re having trouble with the studio, is this correct?” Gilliam responded with “No, I’m having trouble with Sid Sheinberg, here is an 8×10 photo of him,” and showed the entire nation his photograph. Sheinberg was reportedly furious with this incident, and it helped Gilliam get the release of the film done the way he wanted.
• Terry Gilliam was asked to do a film class during the battle of this film at USC. Terry agreed, and took advantage of the situation by preparing to bring an “audio visual aid”, which was his cut of the film, which would have been allowed. Unfortunately, two days before the event, students advertised a free screening of the film. When he arrived it was announced that Universal would not allow him to show the film. During his speech to the class, he was interrupted by studio executives’ phone calls. They eventually allowed him to show a clip of the film. He showed the entire film, and repeated the screenings for over two weeks. It was during one of these screenings that Los Angeles film critics saw the film, and awarded it the Best Picture of the Year award, which was responsible for getting the film released the way Gilliam wanted it.
• During his trouble with a studio, Terry Gilliam asked daily variety for a full page ad, which cost around $1,500 at the time. He had it bordered like a funeral invitation and it said: “Dear Sid Sheinberg, when are you going to release my film? Signed: Terry Gilliam.”
• According to Terry Gilliam in the book “The Battle of Brazil”, the toolbelt worn by Tuttle and all of its gadgets were supplied by Robert De Niro himself
• In one of the final scenes of the movie, among Jack Lint’s instruments of torture can clearly be seen a rubber bouncy ball and a pacifier.
• Almost all of the soundtrack music is a variation on the main melody in the song “Brazil”.
• The title song (actually named “Aquarela do Brasil” by Ary Barroso) was used in a movie for the first time in Walt Disney’s 6th full length animation _Saludos Amigos (1943)_.
• According to Maxim magazine, director Terry Gilliam was reportedly so stressed during filming that he lost all feeling in his legs for a week.
• Early title for Brazil was “1984 and a 1/2″, an ode to Federico Fellini, but the film Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) was released and the idea was scrapped.
• The “Brazil” theme is heard several times within the film itself. When Sam types “Ere I am JH” into the secret elevator’s control panel, it plays the first eight notes. This is also what he hums when he sends the refund check up the pneumatic tube at Mr. Kurtzmann’s office. It is playing on the radio in his car, and Tuttle whistles in his flat.
• The very first sound in the film is the Telecaster of famous guitarist Amos Garrett.
• Jack Purvis, a regular in the films of Terry Gilliam appears as “Dr. Chapman”, a reference to fellow Python Graham Chapman, who had a medical degree.
• The samurai sequence was originally conceived to reflect Terry Gilliam’s love for Akira Kurosawa films.
• Archibald Buttle’s wife’s name is Veronica. A reference to Archie and Veronica of Archie Comics.
• Gilliam originally wanted to call the film “1984 1/2″, as a tribute to George Orwell’s book “1984″, a major inspiration behind the film, but was prevented by Orwell’s estate.
• Terry Gilliam and his crew were excited to have Robert De Niro on board at first, but as time wore on they found De Niro’s need for “research” and obsession with details increasingly irritating, saying that he “wanted to strangle him”.
• During the time when the studio was blocking the release of the film and were re-editing it for the infamous “Love conquers all” version copies of the directors cut were circulating on video around Hollywood. At one point a number of critics began asking if a film that had been completed, but not released, could be eligible for a Best Picture Oscar, it’s said that the potential embarrassment of this happening forced the studio to release the original version instead of their new one.
• Mrs. Buttle never blinks during the extended monologue Sam gives when he comes over to her apartment.
• The dream scenes were initially meant to form just one long sequence in the middle of the film, but technical difficulties made this impossible. The most important part of the dream sequence was intended to be a scene where Sam flies over a field of eyes, which then start slowly moving to follow his descent on a pillar. The eyes were made of snooker balls with false irises added; the eye symbol is also seen in other Terry Gilliam films including 12 Monkeys. The decision was later made to split the remaining dream scenes to fill the “empty” spaces between chapters.
• Body count: 25
• When Sam goes to see Jack Lint the elevator in Information Retrieval goes up to floor 84, as in 1984.
• When Sam is escaping at the end of the movie with Harry Tuttle, the female custodian is shot in the eye and the buffer falls down the stairs. This scene is based on Sergei M. Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin – during the Odessa massacre scene a mother is shot in the eye and the baby carriage falls down the stairs.
• The odd little bubble-topped car that Sam drives is a 3 wheeled, two stroke single cylinder Messerschmitt KR200 “Kabinroller” (covered scooter) built in Germany in the late 1950′s and up until 1964.
• During the opening scene where you see the paperwork floor with all of the runners dropping and picking up receipts. There is actually only one row of typing stations they just pass forward and backward along the same set of stations.
• The myth behind the name of the film relates to Terry Gilliam being at a beach in the UK one day. Apparently the weather wasn’t particularly great, but a man was sitting on the beach alone listening to the famous song (on a stereo) that we hear in the film. Gilliam was fascinated by the man sitting there despite all the “adversity”, and this became the theme and name for the film.
• The mask used by the torturer also appears used by several extras in the 1994 music video “Basket Case” by Green Day.
• In the Christmas shopping scene, a woman is carrying a banner outside the store with a cross that says “Consumers for Christ”.
• First cinema feature of Roger Ashton-Griffiths.
• The character of Harry Tuttle is most likely named for a character in the first season of “M*A*S*H” (1972), in which Hawkeye and Trapper “invent” an officer – Captain Tuttle so that they can funnel his salary to an orphanage as well as blame things on. When they are creating his personnel file, they list his father as Harry Tuttle.