i was gonna watch it once when it was on tv but a friend told me it was a heavily butchered version so i didnt bother
THANK F*CK FOR THAT. Seriously, it is totally slaughtered... missing 40mins of one of the greatest films I have ever seen, and definitely one of my top ten.
You surely know the notourious backstory to the huge battle Gilliam (everyone's favourite American python) had with the studio executives in the states? To paraphrase it, basically two distributor's owned the rights, 20th Century Fox (the world) and Universal (US)... they both thought they had a 'LOTR' money spinner on their hands, but it turned out to be something artistically stunning, very deep, and very difficult to swallow (you *must* know what gilliam is like so it needs little explaination). Anyway, Terry cut the film, 20th Century Fox released their european/international cut of the film with no hassle (as the international audiences, especially in europe seem to take 'downer' films a lot better). When it came to the US cut, Universal refused to release such a downer... it was 'simply too hard on an american audience' i think was the line, and they wanted to cut it with a happy ending and a new begining. Gilliam refused ... yada... yada... yada... Universal took the project and gave it to an executive to butcher and make the most rediculous changes (they really hurt the film badly, it loses all of its power). So there was a huge battle between Gilliam and studio... and bizarrely, thx to Brazil being such an ace film, Gilliam won (it won loads of awards)
It makes the fincher vs. 20th Century fox saga look truely civilised
Anyway, the version your friend mentioned should be avoided at all costs... its good it exists, but it is not brazil... it only goes to show why Brazil is truely brilliant.
Performances on all parts are brilliant (I don't want to say its because its a 80% british veteren cast, but it really is)... Ian Holm, Jonathan Pryce, Michael Palin, Robert Deniro, Bob Hoskins etc. all of them put on first rate performances. Visually its the most striking thing you will see in cinema, and the content... well its so hard to define what the film is about and is so hard going its definitely not to everyones taste. Gilliam jokingly says they felt like they were cinematically raping people
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
Getting their money to see a black comedy with 2 pythons, and ended up being hit with everything under the sun... and then the sun... and then some. If you love hard going movies as much as I do, then you'll love this.
Your friend really did save you from a truely butchered film. Grab it now! No excuses:
ed2k:
brazil.cd1.[1985][dvdrip.xvid][ac3.2.0][android].avi [700.98 Mb] [
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ed2k:
brazil.cd2.[1985][dvdrip.xvid][ac3.2.0][android].avi [699.34 Mb] [
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and if you care about the struggle about getting the film out in the states:
ed2k:
brazil.criterion.extras_the.battle.of.brazil.a.video.history_dvdrip.ac3.avi [352.43 Mb] [
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Which is quite appropriate because its one of the subject matters of the movie.
I forked out £31.99 for the "unavailable in the uk" Criterion box set (which includes both prints, to show how much they have changed) [got nabbed by customs too
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
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