Robert De Niro's 'Brazil' Is an Underrated Sci-Fi Thriller Movie

Terry Gilliam’s 1985 film Brazil is a dystopian science-fiction black comedy that remains admired by critics and cinephiles despite a modest $9 million box office. The British Film Institute ranked it the 54th greatest British film in 1999, even as some viewers — notably Roger Ebert — found it difficult to follow.

Set in a retro‑futuristic, Kafkaesque society, the movie satirizes bureaucracy, technocracy, hyper‑surveillance and state capitalism through a plot in which a clerical typo leads to the wrongful arrest and death of a cobbler instead of an engineer considered a terrorist.

Robert De Niro appears as the terrorist Archibald "Harry" Tuttle, a brief but memorable role that brings urgency and charm. Inspired by George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty‑Four and Federico Fellini’s 8½, Brazil takes its title from the theme song Aquarela do Brasil and explores enduring themes such as the pursuit of youth — exemplified by a subplot about a mother obsessed with plastic surgery — and constant surveillance.

United Kingdom

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