2. Why were there problems with BRAZIL's release in America? (Brazil - Movie, 1985)
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This article is from the Brazil - Movie, 1985 FAQ, by David S. Cowen davec@earth.execpc.com with numerous contributions by others.
2. Why were there problems with BRAZIL's release in America? (Brazil - Movie, 1985)
In January of 1985, Terry Gilliam delivered his completed BRAZIL to
Universal studios, on time and on budget. BRAZIL's complex and
interweaving plot demands a lot of screen time in order to tie up all the
loose ends -- and Gilliam was happy about the way the film worked in its
142 minute cut. Fox Pictures International had just signed the
international agreement to the film and had accepted the 142 minute length
without any sort of protest, so Gilliam expected Universal to accept it for
distribution in America.
Not so. Sidney Sheinberg, the president of Universal studios had
taken an interest in BRAZIL -- Sheinberg "liked many parts of BRAZIL,
and thought there were many moments of bravura filmmaking," but what
Sheinberg saw lacking was commercial potential. The cure for this, in
Sheinberg's eyes was a re-edit, one that took the various parts of BRAZIL
that were commercially viable, namely Sam's pursuit of his dream girl, the
stunning set design and Gilliam's off-beat style of humor, while removing
those things that were not, namely the film's dark ending, the overtones
of the dehumanizing effects of the government, and Michael Kamen's
witty but dark orchestral score.
This began a personal battle between Terry Gilliam and Sidney
Sheinberg for control of the film. Sheinberg had forced Gilliam to sign a
time provision which said that the running time of BRAZIL would have to
be 132 minutes for Universal to accept it, and that even then Universal
could follow up with any editing it deemed necessary. A rough cut of
BRAZIL which ran at 132 minutes was created by Gilliam's editor Julian
Doyle in order to fulfill the contractual obligation on time, and was sent
to Universal pictures. Gilliam worked on a 132 minute edit, while
Sheinberg himself began work on the studio's edit of the film.
Scheinberg's editors Bill Gordean and Steve Lovejoy created an edit
which cut out many of the dream sequences and essential threads in the plot
of BRAZIL, while splicing in all elements of humor and all usable footage
involving Sam Lowry and Jill Layton, the "dream girl". If that wasn't bad
enough, Gordean and Lovejoy also lopped off the entire ending sequence
which involved Sam Lowry's interrogation (and eventual loss of sanity)
by his coworker Jack Lint. Instead, they chose to end the film where Sam
finally consummates his relationship with Jill, and escapes with her to the
country. Also suggested was the replacement of Kamen's symphonic score
with one of rock music -- in order to "attract teens."
Ultimately, this edit subverted the entire point of BRAZIL, making
the movie a futuristic fairy tale about a man's quest for a dream woman,
with a lot of action and a sub-plot about terrorism thrown in. Gilliam's
original message of dehumanization and technology gone wrong was subverted
by Scheinberg's edit, which sent the message that if you play the game and
stay a good little cog in the machine, that one day you'll end up with your
dreams come true.
Scheinberg, upon seeing Gilliam's second 132 minute edit, decided
to test the studio's version instead. Gilliam would not stand for this.
Arnon Milchan, the producer of the film, began making public declarations
on how the studio had taken away Gilliam's film because it was only a few
minutes over contractual obligation, and began calling for critics to
see the film in England, where it was available from Fox Pictures.
Sid Sheinberg responded back by saying that no amount of critical praise
could reverse the studio's decision about BRAZIL. Gilliam told
Sheinberg that if he was going to release to studio's edit of BRAZIL
that he wanted his name off of the credits, and then started an out and
out publicity war. In Gilliam's own words:
"It became a stalemate situation and Arnon Milchen, the producer said,
"We've got to get lawyers in here and we've got to deal with this" and I
said "Nah, can't get lawyers in. They've got all the lawyers in the world.
They've got all the money. They don't have to release the film, it's not
going to kill them. They can sit on it". and I said "we'll just have to
approach it in a much more personalized way". So the first thing I did was
to take a full page ad out in Variety which was this blank page except for
this black border and in the middle of it it said:
Dear Sid Sheinberg,
when are you going to
release my film 'BRAZIL'?
Terry Gilliam.
and eventually what happened was the LA critics became very interested in
the film and some had seen it and they set up a whole series of clandestine
screenings of this film around Hollywood in peoples homes. It came time to
vote at the end of the year for their films and they realized in their
bylaws it didn't say that a film had to be released to be able to be voted
upon and so they all voted upon whether BRAZIL could be voted upon and
they agreed it could be and then it went out and it won Best Picture, Best
Direction and Best Screenplay. [The awards were] announced the very night
of the premiere of Out Of Africa in New York which was Universal's big film
that year. All the big brass were there in their ties & DJ's and they were
told that Out Of Africa had won nothing and BRAZIL, this film that they
won't release has won all these awards. They had to release it and what was
wonderful was I was getting all these phone calls from people saying "Oh
well done, maybe now the flood gates will open we'll get films out,
blahblahblah". Of course it didn't, just like BRAZIL, the system doesn't
change, you just escape in your madness, that's all."
- Terry Gilliam, The South Bank Show, 6/29/91
Universal finally opened Gilliam's 132 minute cut of BRAZIL at two
theaters in Los Angeles on Christmas Day, 1985, later slowly bringing it
across the country in a limited number of theatres with limited
advertising.
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