Simon Nash Movies
Brazil constitutes Terry Gilliam's enormously ambitious follow-up to his 1981 Time Bandits. It also represents the second installment in a trilogy of Gilliam films on imagination versus reality, that began with Bandits and ended in 1989 with The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. To create this wild, visually audacious satire, Gilliam combines dystopian elements from Orwell, Huxley and Kafka (plus a central character who mirrors Walter Mitty) with his own trademark, Monty Python-esque, jet black British humor and his gift for extraordinary visual invention. The results are thoroughly unprecedented in the cinema.
Jonathan Pryce stars as Sam Lowry, a civil servant who chooses to blind himself to the decaying, drone-like world around him. It's a world marred by oppressive automatization and towering bureaucracy, and populated by tyrannical guards who strongarm lawbreakers. And Lowry is stuck in the middle of this nightmare. Whenever real life becomes too oppressive, Sam fantasizes (to the tune of Ary Baroso's 1930s hit "Brazil") about sailing through the clouds as a winged superhero, and rescuing beautiful Jill Layton (Kim Greist) from a giant, Samurai warrior. The omnipresent computer that controls everything in the "real" world malfunctions, causing an innocent citizen to be arrested and tortured to death. When Sam routinely investigates the error, he meets - and pursues Jill , literally the girl of his dreams. But in real life, she's a tough-as-nails truck driver who initially wants nothing to do with him. It turns out that she is suspected of underground activities, in connection with a terrorist network wanted for bombing public places. The price Sam pays for his association with her is a close encounter with the man in charge of torturing troublesome citizens (Michael Palin). He is rescued - at the last minute - by maintenance man Harry Tuttle (Robert de Niro) who moonlights as a terrorist, but that only represents the beginning of his plight, for now the "system" is onto him.
Gilliam ran into enormous problems with Brazil. Universal - which produced the picture - originally slated it for release in 1984, but the studio - intimidated by the film's whopping length of 142 minutes - demanded that Gilliam trim the film to bring it in under two hours and alter the pessimistic ending. Gilliam refused; Universal shelved the picture for a year. In response, the director took out a full page ad in Variety asking studio president Sid Sheinberg when the film would be released. Sensing tremendous pressure, Universal bowed to Gilliam's insistence on fewer cuts but still demanded a happy ending. Gilliam trimmed only eleven minutes and altered the conclusion just slightly (instead of cutting to black, it fades into puffy white clouds on a blue sky, with a reprise of the title tune). It was thus released in early 1985 at 131 minutes, and of course became a seminal work; many critics regarded it at the time as the best film of the eighties. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
Jonathan Pryce stars as Sam Lowry, a civil servant who chooses to blind himself to the decaying, drone-like world around him. It's a world marred by oppressive automatization and towering bureaucracy, and populated by tyrannical guards who strongarm lawbreakers. And Lowry is stuck in the middle of this nightmare. Whenever real life becomes too oppressive, Sam fantasizes (to the tune of Ary Baroso's 1930s hit "Brazil") about sailing through the clouds as a winged superhero, and rescuing beautiful Jill Layton (Kim Greist) from a giant, Samurai warrior. The omnipresent computer that controls everything in the "real" world malfunctions, causing an innocent citizen to be arrested and tortured to death. When Sam routinely investigates the error, he meets - and pursues Jill , literally the girl of his dreams. But in real life, she's a tough-as-nails truck driver who initially wants nothing to do with him. It turns out that she is suspected of underground activities, in connection with a terrorist network wanted for bombing public places. The price Sam pays for his association with her is a close encounter with the man in charge of torturing troublesome citizens (Michael Palin). He is rescued - at the last minute - by maintenance man Harry Tuttle (Robert de Niro) who moonlights as a terrorist, but that only represents the beginning of his plight, for now the "system" is onto him.
Gilliam ran into enormous problems with Brazil. Universal - which produced the picture - originally slated it for release in 1984, but the studio - intimidated by the film's whopping length of 142 minutes - demanded that Gilliam trim the film to bring it in under two hours and alter the pessimistic ending. Gilliam refused; Universal shelved the picture for a year. In response, the director took out a full page ad in Variety asking studio president Sid Sheinberg when the film would be released. Sensing tremendous pressure, Universal bowed to Gilliam's insistence on fewer cuts but still demanded a happy ending. Gilliam trimmed only eleven minutes and altered the conclusion just slightly (instead of cutting to black, it fades into puffy white clouds on a blue sky, with a reprise of the title tune). It was thus released in early 1985 at 131 minutes, and of course became a seminal work; many critics regarded it at the time as the best film of the eighties. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jonathan Pryce, Michael Palin, (more)
- 1984
Produced for British television, Breakout is a diverting children's tale with mildly melodramatic undertones. Young birdwatchers Simon Nash and John Hassler are pounced upon by a pair of escaped convicts (David Jackson, Ian Bartholomew). The crooks are looking for a cache of stolen money that they've hidden in the vicinity. At first terrified, the kids grow fond of the essentially harmless escapees. The boys help Jackson and Bartholomew locate the cash and elude the authorities. This 61-minute escapade is based on A Place to Hide, a novel by Bill Gillham. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- David Jackson, Ian Bartholomew, (more)
For those with a taste for the repugnant comes this gory blood-and-guts fest that tells the horrific story of a British fellow who gets kidnapped by aliens and three years later is returned carrying infectious spores that have transformed him into a kind of crab thingy that causes all kinds of perverse sexual and violent mayhem. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Philip Sayer, Bernice Stegers, (more)
Nature: Dive to the Abyss attempts to uncover a fraction of information about the ocean, which is referred to in the documentary as the only remaining unexplored frontier. Marine researches estimate that less than one percent of the ocean has been studied, but Dive to the Abyss shows that 1% can be a lot of information when it comes to the sea. Some of the discoveries featured are smoking underwater volcanos, historic shipwrecks, weird water life (think four foot long tubeworms and smoke-emitting sea societies), and some of the most massive geological structures known to exist.
Marine researchers estimate they've studied less than one percent of the deep ocean -- and seen virtually none of the deepest trenches and canyons. Still, the few places they have been able to study have yielded remarkable discoveries -- as NATURE's "Dive To The Abyss" shows. From smoking undersea volcanoes and hot springs, to deep water wrecks and weird life forms, the ocean has yielded an inspiring trove of sunken treasure. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi
