I expect I'm like many others who are fascinated with a dystopian imagining of the future because we believe dystopia is far more believable because it's far more likely than utopia. So, when the theme of dystopia intersects with Terry Gilliam and Tom Stoppard, well, I'm all in. Someone brought it to my attention that this is the twenty-fifth anniversary of Brazil, so this is an excellent excuse to notice it here.
First Terry Gilliam shares an interesting quality with Orson Welles: Sometimes there creative imagination greatly outstrips the commercial resources necessary to realize their vision. And in this vein Gilliam and Wells share the distinction of trying, and spectacularly failing to make a movie from Don Quixote. Mr. Gilliam's movies are always visually spectacular, and, in an of itself, this is good enough reason to see them over and over again.
Regarding Mr. Stoppard's contribution, who knows. He shares the writing credit with Mr. Gilliam and Charles McKeown, who also helped Mr. Gilliam with The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and shares a writing credit for Ripley's Game.
Finally, regarding dystopia: watching Brazil is much like a ride on a fantastical roller coaster, twisting and turning and zipping in and out of tunnels along the way. However, this is a roller coaster that, instead of safely coasting to stop back at the platform, it jumps off the track and smashes straight into a cement block wall. (That's a spoiler, isn't it. Sorry.) When I watched it the first time, it felt as if I had been struck in the chest, and, honestly, I couldn't watch it again for several years. Even today, I have difficulty sitting through it. But in spite of, or because of, this, I think it's a work of art and wish it all the best over the many more years to come.
