History Trivia / Brazil

** Gilliam was able to compromise with Sheinberg on three things: to shorten the film by 10 minutes, to include the title song over the opening scene (so audiences would understand the relevance of the title), and to have the end titles superimposed over clouds. None of these changes are apparent in the European version, which is Gilliam's preferred version.

** Matthews has argued that the "Love Conquers All" version was only released because Gilliam refused to shave a third of the film's running time to fit a two-hour time slot, and that version conveniently ran in the allotted time slot.

* AcclaimedFlop: Downplayed. The film flopped in the United States, partially due to all the drama surrounding its release by Universal. However, the film was a huge hit in Europe (where it was instead released by 20th Century Fox) and made a profit from international sales.

* CreatorChosenCasting: Creator/TerryGilliam created the role of Jack Lint especially for Creator/MichaelPalin.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Oh, where do we begin? To be frank, the film probably stands out as one of the most contentious and publicly played-out instances of Executive Meddling ''ever''. Universal's COO, Sid Sheinberg, tried to hack the film down from its original run time of 142 minutes to 97. He also wanted to replace Michael Kamen's orchestral score with contemporary rock music hits so it would "attract the teens", spin its tone from a sci-fi epic into a love story, and lastly, to use a dream sequence scene filmed for earlier in the film literally to turn its bleak last scenes into an cuddly, romantic happy ending. Creator/TerryGilliam fought back-and-forth with Sheinberg, who was holding him to a clause on the length of the film, but even after the director edited 10 minutes from the film to fall under his contract's agreed-upon running time, Sheinberg continued to fight Gilliam on the film's Orwellian-like content. Gilliam then set up clandestine screenings for students & critics, which began to drum up buzz for the film. Film critics in both New York and L.A. began putting it on their top 10 lists -- without the film having yet been officially released. Finally, frustrated, Gilliam bought [[http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18lpen71y9yhwjpg/ku-medium.jpg a full-page ad]] in ''Variety'' asking Sheinberg, 'When are you going to release my film, Brazil?'. Gilliam eventually secured a theatrical release of his 132-minute cut. Sheinberg worked with outside editors to create his shorter cut (dubbed the 'Love Conquers All' version) which was also released theatrically, to massive indifference. Gilliam's original 142-minute cut was eventually released by Criterion on home video, side-by-side with the shorter 'Love Conquers All' cut, which actually still occasionally crops up on television in syndication.

** There would've been more DreamSequences with complex visuals such as huge flying rock ships. One in particular that [[https://youtu.be/qeyXADf1fyk?t=1483 almost made it into the film]] would've shown Sam flying over a vast sea of eyeballs that stare at him, which would've served to highlight the SinisterSurveillance aspect of the bureaucratic dystopia.

* UsefulNotes/BFITop100BritishFilms: #54

* ActorInspiredElement: The toolbelt worn by Tuttle and all of its gadgets were supplied by Creator/RobertDeNiro himself.

** Creator/TerryGilliam tested more than half a dozen actresses to play the part of Jill, interviewing or testing Creator/RosannaArquette, Creator/RaeDawnChong, Creator/JamieLeeCurtis, Creator/MichellePfeiffer, Creator/KathleenTurner and he even considered Music/{{Madonna}}. Gilliam's personal favorite was Creator/EllenBarkin.

** Creator/TerryGilliam tested more than half a dozen actresses to play the part of Jill, interviewing or testing Creator/RosannaArquette, Creator/RaeDawnChong, Creator/JamieLeeCurtis, Creator/MichellePfeiffer, Creator/KathleenTurner and he even considered Music/{{Madonna}}. Gilliam's personal favorite was Ellen Barkin.

* WorkingTitle: ''1984 and a 1/2'', ''TheMinistry'', ''The Ministry of Torture'', ''How I Learned to Live with the System - So Far, and So That's Why the Bourgeoisie Sucks''.

** Creator/TerryGilliam tested more than half a dozen actresses to play the part of Jill, interviewing or testing Creator/RosannaArquette, Creator/JamieLeeCurtis, Creator/MichellePfeiffer, Creator/KathleenTurner and he even considered Music/{{Madonna}}. Gilliam's personal favorite was Ellen Barkin.

** Sam Lowry was originally meant to be a younger man, with Creator/TomCruise in mind for the role.

** ''Brazil'' was considered one of the more prominent examples of ExecutiveMeddling in recent years so much that a ''whole book'', ''The Battle Of Brazil'', was written by L.A. Times' film critic Jack Matthews on how much Sheinberg & Universal screwed Terry Gilliam over. A documentary based on the book, hosted by Matthews, appears on Criterion's home video releases.

* RealLife/MeanCharacterNiceActor: Quite deliberately invoked by Terry Gilliam in the casting of Jack Lint. Real-life nice guy Creator/MichaelPalin brings all his wit and charm to bear on the character, which makes Jack ''even creepier'' when you remember what his actual job is.

* BillingDisplacement: Despite prominent billing, Creator/RobertDeNiro and Creator/BobHoskins are hardly in the film.