Krishna
First, I do not know why this movie is called Brazil. It is not about the country but rather in a future world managed completely autonomously. Even though it is a futuristic society, it uses (since this movie was made in 1985) decidedly old world instruments – for instance the typewriter (yes, no kidding) that automatically types out the name of the person to be ‘arrested and eliminated’. Arthur Tuttle is meant to be eliminated but since the person near the ‘typewriter’ was swatting a fly, a letter was changed and Arthur Buttle was asked to be arrested. He is arrested and killed, as requested, and even if the department in charge of execution knows about the mix up, decides to do nothing because, ‘Thank God, it is not our mistake’.
Sam Lowry, the son of a well connected mother, who has a fantastic future in the new society due to his connections, decides to risk all to point out the error and his determination increases when the girl who has been reaching out to him in his dreams (when he flies with the wings of an angel into the bright blue day sky) turns up in real life! She is Buttle’s neighbour, determined to save him too.
The movie is bizarre, and goes from reality, where Sam Lowes is a mousy, meek man reminiscent of the characters made famous by Woody Allen. He dreams of monster giants trying to kill him (and he is full knight like armour) when he is not dreaming of flying in the sky.
And becomes more bizarre every moment. His apartment has lost the heat, but when the government does nothing, the real Arthur Tuttle, who is an illegal heating engineer (really) fixes his problem, getting the government angry. It is a stupid set of sequences, where they play tug of war with a cabinet shared between two rooms, Arthur Tuttle disappears in a pile of rubbish turning into waste paper, people talk as if they are in a comic opera (without the music) etc.
It is so twisted that the little surprise at the end, which is supposed to make you sit up and say ‘Man, this is unexpected!’ gets totally lost in a maze of twists and turns, which make completely no sense. Please save your time and skip this movie.
I cannot believe that Robert de Nero was wasted on this movie. He is Arthur Tuttle, if you are curious.
I would say a 1/10
— Krishna