Brazil by Terry Gilliam has nothing to do with the country of Brazil. The title comes from the memorable repeated song “Aquarela do Brasil”. And the story behind the movie is almost as compelling as the movie itself. But it should be noted that Brazil is one of the science fiction masterpieces that had fans whispering to each other “Have you seen Brazil?”

Sam Lowry is a government employee who likes his place in the world. His boss knows that he couldn’t run the office without Sam, who is clearly too talented to be wasted in such a menial position. But Sam has to deal with his politically connected Mother who is trying to get him promoted and married off. When a fly interferes with a printer causing a arrest warrant to be sent out for Mr. Buttle (instead of the notorious Tuttle), Sam gets dragged deeper into the bureaucracy than he has ever been. And then he meets Jill, a neighbor of Mr. Buttle who’s trying to help out his family and encountering the same bureaucracy. Sam sees Jill as the woman of his dreams and lets his Mom get him promoted to try and help out. The situation soon spirals out of control with Sam getting involved with the notorious, renegade air-conditioning repairman Tuttle. And the situation keeps getting worse.

Now, don’t worry if you didn’t understand the plot. It doesn’t matter, the plot is pretty much beside the point. The plot is there to hang the bureaucratic idiocies on with the office nuances (such as the boss closing his door and everyone changes their computer to watch TV). The whole mess is something that only Terry Gilliam could have come up with. The whole world seems to be decorated as if they came out of a Monty Python animation.

As for the back story, Universal Studios boss Sid Sheinberg loved Brazil. He loved it so much that he wanted it to be a huge hit. But he felt that changes needed to be made (including a happy ending) to make it into a huge hit and Gilliam refused. A extended battle of will went on until the LA Film Critics gave Brazil three awards (Gilliam had help clandestine screenings to let reviewers see it). Sheinberg was under too much pressure to not release it then. The version released in theaters was a cut down version of Gilliam’s movie, but Sheinberg did do his own cut for release to TV.

The three-disc Criterion Collection version of Brazil has the theatrical cut, the Sheinberg cut and the director’s cut along with an hour long documentary on The Battle of Brazil. This movie had no support when it came out, but has grown into a cult science-fiction movie that must be seen by everyone.