Brazil

[Ronkarate at aol.com]

Not to start another tangential thread, but the recent talk of Brazil and
Pynchon reminded me of something. A few years ago, I was driving through
Austin, Texas and I noticed that they were screening "the director's cut" of
Brazil at the University. At this time, the film had been illegally imported
from Europe, as some scenes were banned by US censor boards, and there was no
screening time listed. My girlfriend and I headed to the theater in the
evening, hoping that it had not already shown. Instead we caught the last
hour of John Woo's The Killer. We hung around the theater, and at around
midnight they screened Brazil. The director's cut (which has since been
screened in limited release), was hardly different from the original except
for three key scenes at the end. If you ever get a chance to see this
version, and are a fan of the film, I highly recommend it. The tone of the
ending is completely changed by the scenes (including a different closing
shot), several unclear elements are neatly tied-up, and the overall sensation
is much darker. 
Though the director's cut is definitely less Pynchonian, I thought that the
way I came about seeing it certainly had some TRP flavor. (BTW, Gilliam's
recent 12 Monkeys had some Pynchonian elements as well, especially the
grafitti. Too bad it was such a horrible distortion of Chris Marker's La
Jetee.)

-Ron Dulin