The Battle of Brazil

Autechre · Feb 12, 2003, 03:47 PM

heres an article i found about what Terry Gilliam had to go through to get his vision made:

If you're a Terry Gilliam fan, then you'll already know the legend of the Battle of Brazil. But for the young and uninitiated, then gather round the campfire and huddle up close, for the story goes something like this...

"Once upon a time, in a land far away (North London, actually), a handsome filmmaker from across the sea dreamed up an extraordinarily dark fantasy called Brazil about a totalitarian future in which a schlubby executive gets his body and mind tortured and trampled unto death, but his soul takes flight in dreams of an impossible heaven. If the movie had a message, it was this: that the spirit of the human imagination is ultimately indestructible - even when everything else turns to ****.

Sadly, the big bad movie studio in America, who were paying for the film, didn't want stories that said that everything else was ****. Nor did they care too much about the indestructibility of the 'human imagination' either. They wanted lovely love stories which told people that everything was marvellous and that "love conquers all" because they knew that these stories made people give them their money.

Then, somehow the film escaped from the tower and fell into the hands of a roaming band of critics who declared it to be the very best film in all the land, and demanded to know why the big bad studio had been lacerating it so. And in their shame, the big bad studio was forced to release the prince's film (with a few minor alterations) just the way the prince liked it, and it was indeed the best film in all the land, and all the people cheered and said, "Hooray, hooray, the handsome prince has triumphed, his film is wonderful and we shall all live happily ever after." And they did. And as for the big bad studio, they went on to make Howard the Duck and that was the end of them..."

OK, so it's not quite that simple, but in essence the story is true. Terry Gilliam's heroic battle against the lunatic whims of the Universal suits, in particular Mr Sid Sheinberg, were indeed fought in the public arena of newspaper columns and critical reviews, and Gilliam's ultimate victory in getting his version of Brazil released in the US seemed for a while to have changed the shape of the movie-making industry.

By risking everything (most notably his professional reputation) to protect a work in which he believed passionately, Gilliam proved that valour and artistic integrity still had a role to play in an industry primarily concerned with turning **** into money. And although modern film-criticism can often be little more than cynical publicity dressed up as editorial comment, the LA Film Critics Association's decision to award Brazil their Best Picture gong despite Universal's apparent efforts to bury the damn thing was an act of genuine heroism which eventually got the film out into the cinemas.

As Kenneth Turan said of the LAFCA jury meeting in which the "unreleasable" Brazil swept the board; "I believe that what we wanted to do is what we did do. One of the purposes of criticism is to bring recognition to good films, the desire to spread the good news. We did a tangible piece of good work that day". Hear hear.

More important than any of this, however, is the simple fact that Terry Gilliam was right and Sid Sheinberg was wrong, and in this case, right prevailed. Gilliam's cut of Brazil (or cuts, for there are at least two existent versions which bear his stamp of approval) is one of the twenty best films of all time, a stunning dystopian fantasy blessed with the kind of visual imagination which reminds us just what cinema was invented for.

Like the finest fairy tales, from the Brothers Grimm to Harry Potter (which Gilliam came close to helming on screen, only to be passed over in favour of - God forbid! - Chris Columbus), Brazil shrouds its shining message in a cloak of darkness, using horror as a vehicle to bring us closer to an ultimately uplifting truth; that the imaginative, individual soul will endure even though the corporeal, physical world may falter. And, as with all truly great and groundbreaking films, Brazil was largely overlooked at the Oscars (the official voice of the movie 'industry') which failed to recognise The Exorcist and Psycho as classics in their time but once voted Driving Miss Daisy the very best picture in all the land. Says it all.

On the other hand, Sid Sheinberg's version of Brazil (now available for all to marvel at on the Criterion Laser Disc Box Set and a recent DVD reissue) is a genuinely insane item, a monstrosity worth catching if only for the grim spectacle of seeing a work of art implode before your eyes. Like those crazed literary evangelists who took to rewriting Shakespeare's plays after his death in order to give his tragedies more saleable 'happy' endings, the executives at Universal created something far more horrifying that anything Gilliam had ever dreamed of when they recut Brazil.

In their efforts to make it 'happier', they spawned a foul and depressing vision of one man's battle against corporate oppression being trampled underfoot by (guess what?) corporate oppression. For all its allegedly 'upbeat' elements, the so-called 'Love Conquers All' cut of Brazil is one of the most genuinely frightening films ever made, largely because it is in effect a genuine zombie flick - a load of re-animated dead body parts whose soul has long departed, wandering the earth in search of sustenance, desperate to feed upon your wallet and suck your brains out in the process. It's a real 'nasty' in the truest sense of the word.

When you sit down to watch Terry Gilliam's cut of Brazil! - and watch it you must - take a quiet moment to give thanks to the Movie Gods for blessing us with just one recent example of a David and Goliath struggle in which the little guy with the sling won.

In an age when everyone imagines (with some justification) that the movie industry is entirely run by moneymen and corporate whores, we should stop to remember and rejoice in the rare victories whenever they appear. Watch the film, and then tell your children about the Battle of Brazil. Movies don't have to be bad. There is another way. Here is the proof. Viva Gilliam!

Kell · Mar 13, 2003, 04:48 AM

That's a fine article. I find it odd that, given the apparent purpose of these forums, no-one else has responded to this thread. If you love movies ( heck, if you love art in any form ) Brazil is really what it's all about.
Thanks for posting Autechre.

Ivan · Mar 13, 2003, 05:00 AM

The thing is I knew a lot of these things without this post. I don't need tutorials to like the movies I like.

ThinWLady · Mar 13, 2003, 05:25 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ivanhoe
The thing is I knew a lot of these things without this post. I don't need tutorials to like the movies I like.

Same here, but doesn't those things make those movies even better? At least they may give you another point of view.

Kell · Mar 13, 2003, 05:41 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ivanhoe
I don't need tutorials to like the movies I like.

No, me neither. I totally agree. I just thought it was...odd.

Ivan · Mar 13, 2003, 06:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kell

No, me neither. I totally agree. I just thought it was...odd.

I don't thing that the issue was "what" was posted but rather "who" posted, just wait until you meet Autechre. He is a pilot we all "love to hate".
Because he always has something negative to add, it is like a habit, but strangely this was not the case.

Autechre · Mar 13, 2003, 07:55 AM

By the way, i hated Brazil.

Ivan · Mar 14, 2003, 12:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Autechre
By the way, i hated Brazil.

Splendiferous · Mar 15, 2003, 02:37 AM

You have to give it to him - he had the comedic timing down pat there

So let me get this straight - there's the ordinary cut of Brazil, and Terry Gilliam's director's cut ... so the one I saw, not being a director's cut, must have been the soulless 'zombie flick'. Hmmmm. I liked it. Remind me to check out the Director's cut on DVD sometime ...

Autechre · Mar 15, 2003, 05:36 AM

If you saw the version with Sam sitting in the chair at the end, then that is the RIGHT version. The other version is still floating around and i don't ever want to see it.

Splendiferous · Mar 15, 2003, 09:12 AM

Good. I thought it was a bit bloody harsh to call the movie I saw a soulless zombie flick

I saw the one the above spoiler refers to.

Ender · Mar 16, 2003, 03:04 AM

well i saw the version on dvd with the ending autechre posted. can someone post what the other versions ending was??

Ivan · Mar 16, 2003, 05:23 AM

SPOILER !!!!!!!

The main character was lobotomised in the right version and the last 30 minutes were his mind trip.

Ender · Mar 16, 2003, 08:51 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ivanhoe
SPOILER !!!!!!!

The main character was lobotomised in the right version and the last 30 minutes were his mind trip.

ah now i am confused. i saw sam in a chair, then we see him getting rescued etc. then realize that it really is a mind trip and he was really being torchered. you are saying he was lobotomized then we see his mind trip in the other version?

ThinWLady · Mar 16, 2003, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ender

ah now i am confused. i saw sam in a chair, then we see him getting rescued etc. then realize that it really is a mind trip and he was really being torchered. you are saying he was lobotomized then we see his mind trip in the other version?

Here is more information of different versions and their endings. I'll hope that it helps you...

Feb 12, 2003, 03:47 PM	#1
Autechre Sector Marshall 748 flights since Jan 2002	The Battle of Brazil heres an article i found about what Terry Gilliam had to go through to get his vision made: If you're a Terry Gilliam fan, then you'll already know the legend of the Battle of Brazil. But for the young and uninitiated, then gather round the campfire and huddle up close, for the story goes something like this... "Once upon a time, in a land far away (North London, actually), a handsome filmmaker from across the sea dreamed up an extraordinarily dark fantasy called Brazil about a totalitarian future in which a schlubby executive gets his body and mind tortured and trampled unto death, but his soul takes flight in dreams of an impossible heaven. If the movie had a message, it was this: that the spirit of the human imagination is ultimately indestructible - even when everything else turns to **. Sadly, the big bad movie studio in America, who were paying for the film, didn't want stories that said that everything else was . Nor did they care too much about the indestructibility of the 'human imagination' either. They wanted lovely love stories which told people that everything was marvellous and that "love conquers all" because they knew that these stories made people give them their money. Then, somehow the film escaped from the tower and fell into the hands of a roaming band of critics who declared it to be the very best film in all the land, and demanded to know why the big bad studio had been lacerating it so. And in their shame, the big bad studio was forced to release the prince's film (with a few minor alterations) just the way the prince liked it, and it was indeed the best film in all the land, and all the people cheered and said, "Hooray, hooray, the handsome prince has triumphed, his film is wonderful and we shall all live happily ever after." And they did. And as for the big bad studio, they went on to make Howard the Duck and that was the end of them..." OK, so it's not quite that simple, but in essence the story is true. Terry Gilliam's heroic battle against the lunatic whims of the Universal suits, in particular Mr Sid Sheinberg, were indeed fought in the public arena of newspaper columns and critical reviews, and Gilliam's ultimate victory in getting his version of Brazil released in the US seemed for a while to have changed the shape of the movie-making industry. By risking everything (most notably his professional reputation) to protect a work in which he believed passionately, Gilliam proved that valour and artistic integrity still had a role to play in an industry primarily concerned with turning ** into money. And although modern film-criticism can often be little more than cynical publicity dressed up as editorial comment, the LA Film Critics Association's decision to award Brazil their Best Picture gong despite Universal's apparent efforts to bury the damn thing was an act of genuine heroism which eventually got the film out into the cinemas. As Kenneth Turan said of the LAFCA jury meeting in which the "unreleasable" Brazil swept the board; "I believe that what we wanted to do is what we did do. One of the purposes of criticism is to bring recognition to good films, the desire to spread the good news. We did a tangible piece of good work that day". Hear hear. More important than any of this, however, is the simple fact that Terry Gilliam was right and Sid Sheinberg was wrong, and in this case, right prevailed. Gilliam's cut of Brazil (or cuts, for there are at least two existent versions which bear his stamp of approval) is one of the twenty best films of all time, a stunning dystopian fantasy blessed with the kind of visual imagination which reminds us just what cinema was invented for. Like the finest fairy tales, from the Brothers Grimm to Harry Potter (which Gilliam came close to helming on screen, only to be passed over in favour of - God forbid! - Chris Columbus), Brazil shrouds its shining message in a cloak of darkness, using horror as a vehicle to bring us closer to an ultimately uplifting truth; that the imaginative, individual soul will endure even though the corporeal, physical world may falter. And, as with all truly great and groundbreaking films, Brazil was largely overlooked at the Oscars (the official voice of the movie 'industry') which failed to recognise The Exorcist and Psycho as classics in their time but once voted Driving Miss Daisy the very best picture in all the land. Says it all. On the other hand, Sid Sheinberg's version of Brazil (now available for all to marvel at on the Criterion Laser Disc Box Set and a recent DVD reissue) is a genuinely insane item, a monstrosity worth catching if only for the grim spectacle of seeing a work of art implode before your eyes. Like those crazed literary evangelists who took to rewriting Shakespeare's plays after his death in order to give his tragedies more saleable 'happy' endings, the executives at Universal created something far more horrifying that anything Gilliam had ever dreamed of when they recut Brazil. In their efforts to make it 'happier', they spawned a foul and depressing vision of one man's battle against corporate oppression being trampled underfoot by (guess what?) corporate oppression. For all its allegedly 'upbeat' elements, the so-called 'Love Conquers All' cut of Brazil is one of the most genuinely frightening films ever made, largely because it is in effect a genuine zombie flick - a load of re-animated dead body parts whose soul has long departed, wandering the earth in search of sustenance, desperate to feed upon your wallet and suck your brains out in the process. It's a real 'nasty' in the truest sense of the word. When you sit down to watch Terry Gilliam's cut of Brazil! - and watch it you must - take a quiet moment to give thanks to the Movie Gods for blessing us with just one recent example of a David and Goliath struggle in which the little guy with the sling won. In an age when everyone imagines (with some justification) that the movie industry is entirely run by moneymen and corporate whores, we should stop to remember and rejoice in the rare victories whenever they appear. Watch the film, and then tell your children about the Battle of Brazil. Movies don't have to be bad. There is another way. Here is the proof. Viva Gilliam!

Mar 13, 2003, 04:48 AM	#2
Kell Wing Commander 163 flights since Mar 2003 Location: The Spaces In Between	Re: The Battle of Brazil That's a fine article. I find it odd that, given the apparent purpose of these forums, no-one else has responded to this thread. If you love movies ( heck, if you love art in any form ) Brazil is really what it's all about. Thanks for posting Autechre.

Mar 13, 2003, 05:00 AM	#3
Ivan formerly known as Ivanhoe 1,573 flights since Nov 2000 Location: Europe - Balkans	Re: The Battle of Brazil The thing is I knew a lot of these things without this post. I don't need tutorials to like the movies I like.

Mar 13, 2003, 07:55 AM	#7
Autechre Sector Marshall 748 flights since Jan 2002	Re: The Battle of Brazil By the way, i hated Brazil.

Mar 15, 2003, 02:37 AM	#9
Splendiferous Old One Pikeman 3,131 flights since Mar 2002 Location: Dreaming in plush R'lyeh	Re: The Battle of Brazil You have to give it to him - he had the comedic timing down pat there So let me get this straight - there's the ordinary cut of Brazil, and Terry Gilliam's director's cut ... so the one I saw, not being a director's cut, must have been the soulless 'zombie flick'. Hmmmm. I liked it. Remind me to check out the Director's cut on DVD sometime ...

Mar 15, 2003, 05:36 AM	#10
Autechre Sector Marshall 748 flights since Jan 2002	Re: The Battle of Brazil If you saw the version with Sam sitting in the chair at the end, then that is the RIGHT version. The other version is still floating around and i don't ever want to see it. Last edited by Autechre : Dec 3, 2003 at 02:12 PM.

Mar 15, 2003, 09:12 AM	#11
Splendiferous Old One Pikeman 3,131 flights since Mar 2002 Location: Dreaming in plush R'lyeh	Re: The Battle of Brazil Good. I thought it was a bit bloody harsh to call the movie I saw a soulless zombie flick I saw the one the above spoiler refers to.

Mar 16, 2003, 03:04 AM	#12
Ender Wing Commander 305 flights since Apr 2002 Location: Israel	Re: The Battle of Brazil well i saw the version on dvd with the ending autechre posted. can someone post what the other versions ending was??

Mar 16, 2003, 05:23 AM	#13
Ivan formerly known as Ivanhoe 1,573 flights since Nov 2000 Location: Europe - Balkans	Re: The Battle of Brazil SPOILER !!!!!!! The main character was lobotomised in the right version and the last 30 minutes were his mind trip.

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