Brazil

Plot synopsis:
The movie is set in a fictional urban world, ruled by a “Ministry of Information”. The only recognizable ideologies are consumerism and terrorism control, leading to the desire to possess complete information about every citizen and the installation of a massive bureaucracy. Sam Lowry is an intelligent, but unambitious, low-level government clerk who frequently daydreams of saving a damsel in distress. His mother Ida is very wealthy and well-connected and obsessed with plastic surgery. When a fly gets jammed in a printer and results in the accidental incarceration and death-during-torture of Archibald Buttle (instead of Archibald Tuttle), Sam is assigned the task of rectifying the error. Visiting Buttle's widow, Sam encounters her neighbour Jill Layton. He is astonished to see that, although her hair is dark and cropped instead of blonde and long, her clothes masculine, and her demeanor gruff and walled off, she is the woman from his dreams. Jill is trying to help Mrs. Buttle determine what happened to her husband, but her efforts are obstructed by an infuriating bureaucracy. Unknown to her, she is now considered a terrorist accomplice of Tuttle for attempting to report the mistake of Buttle's arrest to a government which would rather dispose of all evidence and witnesses than admit its error. Sam finds Jill, declaring his love for her, but a wary Jill tells him that no one touches her, and she has to repeatedly throw him off her big rig truck.
Tuttle, who once worked for Central Services but left due to his dislike of the tedious and repetitive paperwork, now works as an illegal renegade air conditioning specialist. He encounters Sam when unconventionally repairing his air conditioning. Later two villainous Central Services workers, Spoor and Dowser, demolish Sam's ducts and seize his apartment as a retaliation for the illegal repairs. Meanwhile, Sam discovers that the only way to access Jill's classified records is to get transferred to Information Retrieval. Having previously turned down a promotion arranged by his mother, Sam speaks with family friend, Deputy Minister Mr. Helpmann, at a party and gets transferred. Obtaining Jill's records, Sam tracks her down before she can be arrested, then falsifies the records to fake her death, allowing her to escape pursuit. The two share one romantic night together but are soon apprehended by soldiers at gunpoint. Imprisoned, Helpmann tells him that there's nothing he can do for him, and that Jill was killed resisting arrest. Charged with treason for abusing his new position, Sam is restrained to a chair in a cacophonous metal shell, and is about to be tortured for a confession by his old friend, Jack Lint.
Suddenly Tuttle and other rebels explode into the Ministry, killing Jack, rescuing Sam, and blowing up the Ministry building. Sam and Tuttle flee together, but Tuttle disappears amid a mass of scraps of paperwork from the destroyed building. Sam stumbles into the funeral for Ida's friend, whose body liquefied due to excessive cosmetic surgery. Finding a rejuvenated Ida with the face of Jill, Sam falls into the open casket and lands in a street from his daydreams, where he escapes police and monsters by opening a door, finding himself in a shipping container size, ready made house, sitting on the trailer pulled by Jill's truck. The two escape the dingy city for a bucolic countryside, living in their little house. However, he is still strapped to the torture chair, where Jack and Mr. Helpmann declare him a lost cause due to completely dissociating from reality. Sam sits smiling and humming the song "Brazil".

Tags: romantic

Review:
Virginia Bruce Lends A Much Needed Spark. Brazil has some entertaining musical and dance numbers that are worth a look. Tito Guizar is an impressive singer, but as an actor he personifies the word: bland. The only real spark in this film is Virginia Bruce. She has a wonderful screen presence. She's animated, and emotionally on cue as an actress in every scene she's in. Too bad she didn't get to sing -- she's a distinctive and likable vocalist (she introduced the song "I've Got You Under My Skin" in 1936). Bob Livingston would have been a better choice for her love interest -- he is far more charismatic than Guizar. The first fifteen minutes are impressive as they introduce authoress Virginia, who's American book "Why Marry A Latin?" has caused a furor among Latin men. Along comes Guizar, who at one point becomes twin brothers, which is two too many Guizars for one movie.. The song "Rio de Janeiro". I wonder if the award-winning song really was called "Rio de Janeiro." According to my resource book on the Academy Awards, the song "Brazil" from this movie was the Academy Award winner for "Best Song" category in 1944.I checked with sheetmusicplus.com and could not find a song called "Rio de Janeiro." If there is such a song in print, I would like to know about it as I love Latin music.I agree this film should have been in color. Maybe Ted Turner can colorize it for us. Also, I should like to see it available on DVD soon.As for Edward Everett Horton being in the film, I believe he appeared in other films set in South America in this era. No doubt the interest in Latin America expressed through movies in the 1940s and television in the 1950s was because of South American oil the United States and Canada bought for military use during World War II and during the industrial expansion and prosperity that followed the war. If you think about it, you can see the political undertones in the films of this era.. Two weeks to learn everything about the largest country in the Americas.. Republic studio's attempt to produce an A musical at the height of world war 2 when MGM's reign dominated the genre, while 20th Century Fox was cherishing their domination over the Latin world in producing colorful spectacles with song. It's the story that hurts this one, not to mention the eternal stereotype of the happy Hispanic, the non- stop fiesta world and abundance of colorful characters in all age groups. It might have been a good will gesture, but it did a disservice in not taking them seriously, especially in a time that the world was turning miserably upside down.Veteran actress Virginia Bruce plays an American author visiting Rio who expects to learn all she can about thus huge paradise as she believes in a very short span of time. She hires Tito Guizar as her guide, thinking he's just a struggling street singer, unaware that he's a popular night club performer. Guuzar further complicates things by pretending to be two people, performing for her as his real identity, all the while romancing her under the guise of the struggling guide and street singer. One of the highlights is a tram ride past the statue of Christ the Redeemer, built more than a decade before, and equally profound in black and white as it is in color. Mixing in specialty numbers along with the Mexican born Guizar's songs, this includes the Oscar nominated "Rio De Ginaro". Edward Everett Horton provides amusing comic relief as the teller of tall tales while trying to break up Bruce and Guizar, even going as far as telling her a vicious lie about him. Robert Livingston, Republic picture's forgotten leading man, plays an American suitor of Bruce's obviously jealous of Guizar and Bruce's relationship. A cameo from Roy Rogers is really nothing but a waste of credit space, even though he does sing one song. However, a lavish carnival sequence makes up for flaws, even though it screams for color.