How One of The Greatest Dystopian Films Fought Back Against Hollywood

It’s all too easy to find oneself watching dystopian films and wondering how accurately they have predicted our modern hellscape. We turn to pop culture for answers of our current era, from 1984, to Brave New World, to The Handmaid’s Tale.

Brazil, Terry Gilliam's 1985 dystopia, blended Python-esque absurdity, Kafka-inspired satire, and German Expressionism to bring to life a nightmarish vision of a future that feels horribly familiar to 2025 viewers. Nowadays, Brazil is considered a sci-fi classic and one of the great dystopian films, but it almost fell apart thanks to studio meddling and the director’s one-man fight to reclaim his vision.

How Was Brazil Initially Received?

Gilliam, fresh off the success of Time Bandits and best known as the token American of the Monty Python crew, was thinking a lot about the year 1984. It felt like a good time for him to make his own story living under a tyrannical bureaucratic regime. So, he began writing what was initially called 1984 ½ (he also considered the title So That's Why the Bourgeoisie Sucks).

Inspired by George Orwell's landmark novel, Gilliam wanted to offer a version of the '80s depicted in the book but through the scope of the real decade, a time of Reagan and Thatcher and a widening wealth gap. He received his biggest ever budget to bring to life his story of Sam, a lowly employee at the all-consuming Ministry who falls into flights of fantasy to escape his increasingly terrifying reality where a minor clerical error completely destroys everything he knows.

American test audiences hated Brazil, and Universal Pictures got scared. It was too dark, too weird, and had a bummer of an ending. Plus, what was with the title? The movie's not even set in Brazil (it's named after the Ary Barroso song "Aquarela do Brazil," which features prominently throughout.)

Sid Sheinberg, the chairman of Universal, demanded that the film be cut down from 142 minutes and that Gilliam give the story a happy ending. Gilliam refused, and at one point, without his knowledge, the studio had a rival editing team working on a new, more "palatable" cut. Universal then held Brazil from release for months, to the point where Gilliam tried to embarrass them into action through a full-page ad in Variety asking Sheinberg to release Brazil in its intended form. He screened his cut for friends and critics without their permission, to rub salt into the wound. Eventually, Universal relented, but still wouldn't release the full version Gilliam had created. Alas, American audiences still rejected it.

Why is Brazil Important to See Now?

It's maybe a bit too on the nose that a film about the nightmare of being stuck in a petty but cannibalistic nightmare of corporate control would be hijacked by a clueless suit worried about rocking the boat. But such is the genius of Brazil and why it was so prescient. The ruthlessness of The Ministry, combined with the anti-human ineptitude of its methods, is cruel by design but positioned as morally neutral by those in charge. Anyone who’s ever been stuck in a frenzy of endless paperwork or been forced to deal with a soulless bureaucratic system will relate to Sam, who becomes public enemy number one through a computer glitch.

Befitting the man whose unique style inspired the term Gilliamesque, Brazil is also stunning to look at. It’s a blend of Metropolis, Monty Python, and classic film noir. It's designed to look as though it could be any place or any time in the 20th century, neither American nor British but still familiarly both. Gilliam's love of wide lenses and tilted camera angles is present throughout, adding to the disorienting sensation of a world where the ludicrous has become so terrifying.

Beneath the jokes and stylistic magic, however, is a fiercely anti-totalitarian film that firmly believes in the necessity of imagination and rebellion against the system. Gilliam is a proudly messy filmmaker who often overwhelms his work with too many ideas and images, but Brazil is easily his most well-balanced project. His humor strengthens the oppressiveness rather than diluting it, revealing the despair of this world where nobody is truly happy (except, perhaps, for the state’s official torturer, played by a brilliantly against-type Michael Palin.)

The fight for Brazil is now the stuff of movie legend, to the point where there’s even a book about it, but in the end Gilliam won. The 142-minute cut of the film is now the definitive version and Brazil is frequently cited as one of the best dystopian films ever made. It's inspired creatives as varied as Tim Burton, the Coen Brothers, and the writers of Rick & Morty. As we find ourselves stuck in an increasingly ridiculous timeline of fascism, DOGE, and creepy AI-generated videos taking over our screens, Terry Gilliam’s vision of the future is so spot-on and nightmarish that all you can really do is laugh.

What New Features and Upgrades Does the Brazil 4K Blu-ray Release Have?

The new director-approved 4K UHD and Blu-ray release of Brazil from the Criterion Collection has a slew of special features, including:

• New 4K digital restoration of Terry Gilliam’s director’s cut, supervised and approved by Gilliam, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack.
• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and two Blu-rays with the film and special features.
• Audio commentary by Terry Gilliam.
• What Is “Brazil”?, Rob Hedden’s on-set documentary of the film’s production.
• The Production Notebook, a collection of interviews and video essays, featuring a trove of “Brazil-iana” from Gilliam’s personal collection.
• The Battle of “Brazil,” a documentary about the film’s contentious release, hosted by Jack Mathews and based on his book of the same name.
• The “Love Conquers All” version, the studio’s ninety-four-minute, happy-ending cut of Brazil, with commentary by Brazil expert David Morgan.
• Trailer.
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.
• An essay by film critic David Sterritt.

Brazil is available to be purchased now from the Criterion Collection.