Brazil Blu-ray Review

• 2nd Dec 2011

Terry Gilliam has delivered some of the best cult films of our generation. All too often he is paned at the time of release only for audiences to breathe new life into his back catalogue. And this is not more so evident than with his Kafkaesque Brazil.

Jonathan Pryce is on Hero duties as Sam Lowery (a cog in the wheels who becomes a bit unstuck when he gets involved with all sorts of the wrong sorts of people!). I won’t even go onto the complexities of this dystopian future with nothing but all the clever moves made in terms of its bizarre twisty plot and its gorgeous production design.

A few name actors pop up to support Pryce (Ian Holm, Michael Palin, Robert De Niro, Bob Hoskins, Jim Broadbent) in what is arguably Gilliam’s ultimate masterpiece. Fans of his Time Bandits and 12 Monkeys (who for some bizarre reason have not seen this film) will revel in it. And this is the Director’s version of the film too!

Now comes the sad part. This Blu-ray is a crushing disappointment. A great film given a poor transfer and poor extras can only be a crushing disappointment when it hits the Hi-Def mode.  There are double disc DVD editions out there with greater making of documentaries and even more than one version of the film. Brazil has such a rich production history full of studio interference and yet we don’t get any of it shown here.

What we do get are a few nasty look retro-on set footage reels and one of the poorest updates in Blu-ray I have seen in a while. The film is quite dark in places which does help hide the grain, but for example when you see the fantasy sequences it becomes all too clear how bad a transfer this is.

The hope then is that wiser heads will prevail in years to come and we will get a full on multi-disc extravaganza that is worth our time. Clearly whoever wanted this set out now with so little on it was out of their mind. Brazil is a cult film and only the best will do.

Steven Hurst