When I first saw this movie, I was expecting a comedy and while there is a fair amount of humor in the movie, it was very thought provoking as well. After multiple viewings over the years, I have come to appreciate the movie much more.

Directed by Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame, Brazil (1985) is a take off of Big Brother and the paranoia surrounding the growth of technology and government. For the uninitiated, government bureaucrat Sam Lowrey (Jonathan Pryce) escapes his dreary life by fantasizing about being a superhero who rescues his damsel in distress, Lowrey's unwitting love interest Jill Layton (Kim Greist). Turns out that Layton is an associate of the real life superhero Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro) who is battling the government run amok and is a target for state assassination. Brazil is an odd mix of dark and complex imagery. The plot is extremely complicated, which resulted in the film having limited commercial success; however, this complexity means a top rate cult movie. The bottom line is that Brazil requires multiple viewing before it can be fully appreciated, but is a near necessity when analyzing the modern social nationstate.

This is such a good movie. Great actors, proper Hollywood budget and still a genuine cult classic somehow.