Brazil

Slothrop: In a very uncomfortable way, I liked this movie, I think. More than Blade Runner anyway. Or am I just saying that in a similar way when English professors give papers a B+ when in the science department they would receive a D-? Here's one big problem: disgusting, tubed-up, breathing monsters and bulky spacecrafts and guzzling horkin' tanks as metaphors for technology. Gets it exactly wrong. Technology is clean, and efficient. The danger is the efficiency and how quickly it can replace people because a machine can do the job better. So a better representation of the danger would be a movie in which everything is clean and orderly and lots and lots of shit gets built and tasks accomplished; basically the exact opposite of the bureaucratic swamp we see in this movie. Which leads to the second big problem of this expose: the machines are not the problem. The people are. With the help of technology we could build higher quality goods and live more comfortable lives. Efficiency is important as long as it is not subverted to greed. So ask yourselves: who are the real monsters in this movie? And yet, and yet, this rambling mess was made in good faith, had a sense of humor amid the chaos, and the director's cut refused a happy ending. It had spirit, let's say. Which isn't enough, but could be worse.

Koko: And how about that Bob De Niro playing Mr. Mouse, Kafka's quieter creation? He's no Carlos the Dwarf.

Ass-Headed Bottom: Damn, dude, how long is the director's cut? Because I recall the regular ol' Brazil lasting longer than the Reagan administration. But many perceptive comments from Slothrop, for a change. My memories of this movie are so distant; all I can contribute is a vague thumbs-up for relating the fascistic tortures of the future to the dentistry of the present (actually that might be trite) and a still-enthusiastic thumbs-down for all those endless scenes involving that winged dork trying to fly over the brick walls or whatever. Having made a movie in the 80s is no excuse for including cheezy unicorny bullshit in it (I'm looking at you, Blade Runner!), but still I'm impressed that Terry managed to come back this far despite the price God must have put on his head for Time Bandits. It has to be so hard to have been a member of Monty Python and now to have to be just any old relatively ingenious director. Michael Palin was so crushed by that weight, he ended up on the Travel Channel. Graham Chapman simply keeled over and died rather than face it. John Cleese and Terry Gilliam went on to make some cool shit, so bully for them. She's got huuuuuuge... tracts of land.

Koko: Bottom, this is one of the funniest things I've ever read. And we may be the only two people on Earth to have seen--and survived--Time Bandits.