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The Battle of Brazil: Terry Gilliam v. Universal Pictures in the Fight to the Final Cut
The totally restored, revamped and researched blow-by-blow recounting of the most spectacular title bout in the blood-soaked history of Hollywood.
"This book documents in rare detail the back-room haggling and the attempted ego-bashing that is part of the movie business." —Gene Siskel.
"Told with the passion of an advocate yet with the objectivity of a crack reporter, The Battle of Brazil is a chilling, inevitably hilarious account of a great film that almost got away." —USA Today
"This book documents in rare detail the back-room haggling and the attempted ego-bashing that is part of the movie business." —Gene Siskel.
"Told with the passion of an advocate yet with the objectivity of a crack reporter, The Battle of Brazil is a chilling, inevitably hilarious account of a great film that almost got away." —USA Today
368 pages, Paperback
First published June 10, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
January 23, 2022
About 20% of this book was actually insightful and useful, but it was an incredible 20%.
February 3, 2013
This book documents the battle between Terry Gilliam and Universal over the release of Brazil, and it's really a cautionary tale about who ultimately owns and controls a motion picture, its runtime and the overall story. In the end Gilliam's longform version prevailed, and has held up over the decades as a visionary film ahead of its time; the book, on the other hand, is a tragi-comic nailbiter, a bitter and contested back-and-forth between director and studio.
As a plus the complete Gilliam screenplay is included, with liner notes about key elements.
As a plus the complete Gilliam screenplay is included, with liner notes about key elements.
July 2, 2021
Terry Gilliam's cult classic "Brazil" continues to climb the ranks of my list of favorite movies. It's such a bizarre dark comedy that there's nothing quite like it. Naturally given the content and how it's not really a story that has large-scale commercial appeal, it's no wonder then that Gilliam had quite a fight to get his vision of the movie out there.
"The Battle of Brazil" chronicles Gilliam's fight with studio heads who wanted to chop up the film and make it more appealing to mainstream audiences, even if their edits and happy ending would have run counter to many of the film's messages and intended purpose. While I wish the book had spent more time on learning about the filming itself, Battle of Brazil is an illuminating book about how the movie industry works and the tug of war between artists and studios.
I definitely recommend the book to fans of Brazil but I also recommend it to Zack Snyder fans. As much as I am not a fan of Snyder, this is a story that is sure to remind his fans of Snyder's contentious relationship with Hollywood to release his vision.
"The Battle of Brazil" chronicles Gilliam's fight with studio heads who wanted to chop up the film and make it more appealing to mainstream audiences, even if their edits and happy ending would have run counter to many of the film's messages and intended purpose. While I wish the book had spent more time on learning about the filming itself, Battle of Brazil is an illuminating book about how the movie industry works and the tug of war between artists and studios.
I definitely recommend the book to fans of Brazil but I also recommend it to Zack Snyder fans. As much as I am not a fan of Snyder, this is a story that is sure to remind his fans of Snyder's contentious relationship with Hollywood to release his vision.
January 2, 2021
For those interested in learning about how Hollywood destroys cinematic art and a rare example of where a cinematic artist persevered in the end, THE BATTLE OF BRAZIL is a worthwhile read. Unfortunately, as the book demonstrates, BRAZIL (1985)—the auteur's virtual CITIZEN KANE (1941)—was a short-term win for Gilliam as his next film, THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN (1988), would be his virtual THE MAGNIFICENT ANDERSONS (1942) in terms of studio interference. While Gilliam would go on to direct worthwhile films like 12 MONKEYS (1995) and TIDELAND (2005), he never again reached the artistic glory of BRAZIL and that is at least partly the result of his enfant terrible antics during his battle of BRAZIL. Needless to say, many studios were weary of working with Gilliam after the BRAZIL fiasco and Gilliam himself would later make the absurd decision to work with scumbags like the Weinsteins on the abortive THE BROTHERS GRIMM (2005). While heavily influenced by the experimental animated films of Stan Vanderbeek, Gilliam would also cheapen his own aesthetic in recent decades with the heavy use of CGI in films like THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS (2009). Unfortunately, even Gilliam's long-gestating dream-project THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE (2018)—a film that auteur began working on in 1989 and originally made a failed disastrous attempt at shooting in 2000—is a decided disappoint. Of course, just by directing BRAZIL, Gilliam has gained a special place in cinema history and THE BATTLE OF BRAZIL is a nice document of his artistic struggle in the perennial war for artistic integrity.
January 19, 2015
Fans of the film should read this for sure. However, as a fan who thought she was well-acquainted with the story behind Brazil, this book was shockingly dense in new information. The research put into this is superlative - so many first hand sources and wonderful, full quotes from key players on all sides. Matthews is clear regarding his personal opinion on the issue, and yet manages to present an extraordinarily fair accounting of all the events in this saga. As someone who cringes at a clichéd David v Goliath/Artist v "the man" stories and has a genuine respect for those involved in the business side of any art community, I still found Matthews conclusions very fair and ultimately correct. On top of all this, the writing was riveting and I consumed the book as quickly as my schedule would humanly allow.
Even if you think you already know this story, this is an immensely worthwhile read for anyone who enjoys the film, Gilliam, or the workings of how movies are made and distributed. I learned so much and can't wait to watch the movie again with all this new context in mind.
For those of you who haven't seen the movie, see it (the Director's Cut of the Criterion Collection) and then come back and read this story. You won't be disappointed in either.
Even if you think you already know this story, this is an immensely worthwhile read for anyone who enjoys the film, Gilliam, or the workings of how movies are made and distributed. I learned so much and can't wait to watch the movie again with all this new context in mind.
For those of you who haven't seen the movie, see it (the Director's Cut of the Criterion Collection) and then come back and read this story. You won't be disappointed in either.
March 6, 2020
I read this book decades ago, an excellent guide to the struggles Terry Gilliam faced to realize the vision he had for Brazil, up to and including his fight for final edit of wheat is arguably one of the most outstanding films of his career. There's also a documentary by the same name, I recommend looking it up after reading this book.
July 13, 2019
Much the reverse of the great film it covers, an unhappy story with a happy ending.
Well, for the most part. Perhaps a truly happy ending would entail BRAZIL, Terry Gilliam's 1985 Orwellian fantasy-nightmare, making large buckets of cash and winning many more significant awards than the LA Film Critics prizes that helped finally convince Universal to release it without tampering with it. Then again, the director seems to thrive on adversity, and perhaps giving him Steven Spielberg or James Cameron-sized budgets wouldn't do him - or his films - any real favors.
Jack Matthews' book details the struggles that Gilliam went through in the making of his dark satire between 1983 and 1985, and very specifically deals with his battles with MCA-Universal's then-CEO, Sid Sheinberg, who felt that because Gilliam had failed to deliver the film at the specified maximum running time of 125 minutes (the director's original cut ran 142, later trimmed to 132 for its American release), he and the studio had the right to ignore Gilliam's contracted right to final cut and both shorten the movie drastically and change the ending to a happy, positive one. Matthews admits at the beginning of the book that he is going to be on Gilliam's side, but he does try to be fair to Sheinberg and the other corporate money-men, who to be fair knew that the film was likely a losting proposition at the box office. The most fascinating revelation I think is that Sheinberg alone, apparently, believed that the film could make money - if cut heavily. Everyone else involved on the business side felt it was a lost cause that would appeal only to a small arthouse audience no matter what was done with it.
Reading of Gilliam's problems in making the film - which came in at budget, but well over its shooting schedule, which helped to increase the debacle of its American release (it had no such problems in Europe, where it was handled by Fox, a company which never made a fuss about the running time or content) - and knowing something about Hollywood's general aversion to depressing material, and in particular depressing "science fiction" type material (BLADE RUNNER had been a big failure just a year before BRAZIL went into production), one has to wonder at the film getting made for Universal at all. The studio was at the time the largest house in the business and had a reputation as one of the most artistically conservative, but the prestige and smooth-talking of producer Arnon Milchan (who also was behind two other great, but poorly received "difficult" films that had, like BRAZIL, starred Robert De Niro - KING OF COMEDY and ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA), and the sucess Gilliam had recently had with TIME BANDITS convinced them. Until, of course, the product was done, and not to their liking.
But Gilliam and Milchan fought back, and the rest as they say is history. BRAZIL wasn't a huge box-office hit but it surely has a greater reputation today than most of the higher-profile and better-marketed films of 1985 like OUT OF AFRICA or THE COLOR PURPLE, and you can even watch Sid Sheinberg's own messy cut of the film on the deluxe Criterion Collection edition (in BD or DVD) and judge for yourself whether the studio head knew more than the visionary director.
A terrifically well put-together book that covers the bases and paints memorable portraits of all the principals in a short space, the book is filled out by the shooting script of the film along with some notes about Sheinberg's cut - at the time the book was written, unseen and apparently unfinished, but eventually aired on network TV in the late 1980s. This remains one of the essential accounts of the problems between art and commerce in the film industry, just as relevant now almost 35 years after the film's release as it was then.
Well, for the most part. Perhaps a truly happy ending would entail BRAZIL, Terry Gilliam's 1985 Orwellian fantasy-nightmare, making large buckets of cash and winning many more significant awards than the LA Film Critics prizes that helped finally convince Universal to release it without tampering with it. Then again, the director seems to thrive on adversity, and perhaps giving him Steven Spielberg or James Cameron-sized budgets wouldn't do him - or his films - any real favors.
Jack Matthews' book details the struggles that Gilliam went through in the making of his dark satire between 1983 and 1985, and very specifically deals with his battles with MCA-Universal's then-CEO, Sid Sheinberg, who felt that because Gilliam had failed to deliver the film at the specified maximum running time of 125 minutes (the director's original cut ran 142, later trimmed to 132 for its American release), he and the studio had the right to ignore Gilliam's contracted right to final cut and both shorten the movie drastically and change the ending to a happy, positive one. Matthews admits at the beginning of the book that he is going to be on Gilliam's side, but he does try to be fair to Sheinberg and the other corporate money-men, who to be fair knew that the film was likely a losting proposition at the box office. The most fascinating revelation I think is that Sheinberg alone, apparently, believed that the film could make money - if cut heavily. Everyone else involved on the business side felt it was a lost cause that would appeal only to a small arthouse audience no matter what was done with it.
Reading of Gilliam's problems in making the film - which came in at budget, but well over its shooting schedule, which helped to increase the debacle of its American release (it had no such problems in Europe, where it was handled by Fox, a company which never made a fuss about the running time or content) - and knowing something about Hollywood's general aversion to depressing material, and in particular depressing "science fiction" type material (BLADE RUNNER had been a big failure just a year before BRAZIL went into production), one has to wonder at the film getting made for Universal at all. The studio was at the time the largest house in the business and had a reputation as one of the most artistically conservative, but the prestige and smooth-talking of producer Arnon Milchan (who also was behind two other great, but poorly received "difficult" films that had, like BRAZIL, starred Robert De Niro - KING OF COMEDY and ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA), and the sucess Gilliam had recently had with TIME BANDITS convinced them. Until, of course, the product was done, and not to their liking.
But Gilliam and Milchan fought back, and the rest as they say is history. BRAZIL wasn't a huge box-office hit but it surely has a greater reputation today than most of the higher-profile and better-marketed films of 1985 like OUT OF AFRICA or THE COLOR PURPLE, and you can even watch Sid Sheinberg's own messy cut of the film on the deluxe Criterion Collection edition (in BD or DVD) and judge for yourself whether the studio head knew more than the visionary director.
A terrifically well put-together book that covers the bases and paints memorable portraits of all the principals in a short space, the book is filled out by the shooting script of the film along with some notes about Sheinberg's cut - at the time the book was written, unseen and apparently unfinished, but eventually aired on network TV in the late 1980s. This remains one of the essential accounts of the problems between art and commerce in the film industry, just as relevant now almost 35 years after the film's release as it was then.
August 30, 2025
Honestly, I was a little disappointed the story about the troubled release of Terry Gilliam's Brazil wasn't a little more interesting and crazier. It pretty much boils down to the head of Universal Studios understandably being worried that the film was not commercially appealing and wanting to edit it into something more viable, but not understanding that with a movie like Brazil, and a director like Gilliam, the film being "commercially unappealing" is kind of a foregone conclusion. Gilliam has always been a rather eccentric and "artsy" filmmaker, which usually doesn't translate well into crowd-pleasing blockbusters, so Sid Sheinberg insisting on reediting the movie, and essentially attempting to fit a square peg into a round hole.
On the other hand, Gilliam needlessly exacerbated the situation more or less to the point where he cemented himself as "difficult to work with" for every studio head for all time. Don't get me wrong, he fought the good fight but burned a lot of bridges along the way.
Anyway, there's really not much to the story beyond "studio didn't want to release it until director put on public pressure - the end". I was kind of hoping for a more insane story more befitting an equally insane (but brilliant) movie like Brazil. Oh well.
On the other hand, Gilliam needlessly exacerbated the situation more or less to the point where he cemented himself as "difficult to work with" for every studio head for all time. Don't get me wrong, he fought the good fight but burned a lot of bridges along the way.
Anyway, there's really not much to the story beyond "studio didn't want to release it until director put on public pressure - the end". I was kind of hoping for a more insane story more befitting an equally insane (but brilliant) movie like Brazil. Oh well.
October 9, 2019
A cult, dark comic favorite, BRAZIL is a legendary story of artist versus The Machine with Terry Gilliam and Universal Pictures playing the respective roles. This brief but fascinating recount of the ensuing battle that occurred for the soul of this 1985 film is a cautionary tale of what it takes to get a bold vision to make it in Hollywood. Told by the original journalist who was on the battlefront, this book has a unique perspective into Tinseltown and the passion behind the film itself, however loses a point occasionally for perhaps not lending some of the potential pratfalls that come with the hubris of the filmmakers themselves. All in all, a highly intriguing look at one of the more fascinating pictures to come out of the 80s.
February 21, 2019
3.5, but why quibble? I enjoyed the history behind both the film and the controversy around who would control the final edit, but that only makes up half the book. It seemed like there could have been more to the coverage of the production.
The rest of the book is made up with the screenplay, which contains annotations for what was cut by Terry Gilliam himself out of budgetary concerns, and how the Universal cut differed from Gilliam cut. The problem is, I’m pretty sure I had read that annotated screenplay somewhere else (perhaps a pdf file), so I kind of just skimmed through that latter half of the book.
The rest of the book is made up with the screenplay, which contains annotations for what was cut by Terry Gilliam himself out of budgetary concerns, and how the Universal cut differed from Gilliam cut. The problem is, I’m pretty sure I had read that annotated screenplay somewhere else (perhaps a pdf file), so I kind of just skimmed through that latter half of the book.
February 22, 2025
I LIKED IT!
This has some great insight baseball; the mentality that money=influence is so real in this industry, contracts are the absolute last line of defense. Take a lesson from Terry Gilliam and Arnon Milchan's terrible decision to allow a TRT clause to be added to their agreement with Universal - don't expect anyone's best intentions to last through production.
This has some great insight baseball; the mentality that money=influence is so real in this industry, contracts are the absolute last line of defense. Take a lesson from Terry Gilliam and Arnon Milchan's terrible decision to allow a TRT clause to be added to their agreement with Universal - don't expect anyone's best intentions to last through production.
October 21, 2020
Fascinating true story of art vs commerce where art actually won. Behind the scenes Hollywood posturing shows that producers have been awful for a long time.
The inclusion of the full script was nice.
The inclusion of the full script was nice.
July 9, 2021
An enjoyable book about a frankly rather boring film.
Read
February 18, 2024Excellent breakdown.
June 20, 2019
Entertaining, if short, retelling of the legendary Gilliam v. Universal battle. Interesting now as a time capsule of Hollywood in the '80s -- both in the way things are different and in the way things still haven't changed.
Also, the book ends with Gilliam "winning" but with some caveats... his cut is released instead of the studio's, and while it's not universally acclaimed, it wins major awards from the LA Film Critics Association and ends up getting two Oscar nominations. However, the film is not a hit, which leaves the studio still thinking they were right to demand cuts.
What's interesting is, in hindsight, Gilliam's victory was much more absolute. The two big prestige films of the year: Out of Africa, the eventual best picture winner, and Prizzi's Honor, the critics' favorite, are both not thought of especially highly today, if they are thought of as all. Whereas Brazil remains as relevant and beloved as ever, a formative touchstone for an entire generation of filmmakers.
Also, the book ends with Gilliam "winning" but with some caveats... his cut is released instead of the studio's, and while it's not universally acclaimed, it wins major awards from the LA Film Critics Association and ends up getting two Oscar nominations. However, the film is not a hit, which leaves the studio still thinking they were right to demand cuts.
What's interesting is, in hindsight, Gilliam's victory was much more absolute. The two big prestige films of the year: Out of Africa, the eventual best picture winner, and Prizzi's Honor, the critics' favorite, are both not thought of especially highly today, if they are thought of as all. Whereas Brazil remains as relevant and beloved as ever, a formative touchstone for an entire generation of filmmakers.
June 14, 2012
Erin Gray: A Poetic Biopic Abound in Butchered Sentencing
The press kit that I downloaded from your official website states that you are an actress, writer, producer, speaker, and teacher... should you not have included your involvement with Tai Chi, pray tell?
For five years on nightly network NBC TVs Silver Spoons you were the American public's image of the ideal woman; does that ring a bell?
And wasn't that you in the ninth installment of the Friday the 13th series subtitled Jason Goes to Hell?
I remember being glued to my television looking for your involvement, mainly within the swimming suit events, during the oft-televised extravaganza Battle of the Network Stars... hosted, I think, by Howard Cosell.
And how many copies of your co-authored book, with Mara Purl, Act Right: A Manual for the On Camera Actor, after the second edition was published, did you sell?
And, yes, you redefined the public image of beauty and brains with your sleek, sophisticated Colonel Wilma in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century all in the days before hair gel.
With your 1998 teaching of Tai Chi at Sylmar Transitional housing for Battered Women I can only surmise how much domestic violence you did quell.
During your tenure as spokesperson for Bloomingdales Like No Other Store ten-year campaign it's almost as if you leveraged your existing idiom and ideology and returned to the known, much like water to the well.
Will your future entail another infomercial like your How to Marry The Man of Your Choice or another educational video much like The Brek Girls Documentary... it's hard to tell.
By the way, your second husband, Richard Hissong, the man you married in 1991 after your twenty-two year marriage to Ken Schwartz ended in 1990, appears to be pretty swell.
When you perform the casting agent duties at your agency, Heroes for Hire, which specializes in booking sci-fi and fantasy stars for appearances, is the name brand of the computer you use a Dell?
The press kit that I downloaded from your official website states that you are an actress, writer, producer, speaker, and teacher... should you not have included your involvement with Tai Chi, pray tell?
For five years on nightly network NBC TVs Silver Spoons you were the American public's image of the ideal woman; does that ring a bell?
And wasn't that you in the ninth installment of the Friday the 13th series subtitled Jason Goes to Hell?
I remember being glued to my television looking for your involvement, mainly within the swimming suit events, during the oft-televised extravaganza Battle of the Network Stars... hosted, I think, by Howard Cosell.
And how many copies of your co-authored book, with Mara Purl, Act Right: A Manual for the On Camera Actor, after the second edition was published, did you sell?
And, yes, you redefined the public image of beauty and brains with your sleek, sophisticated Colonel Wilma in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century all in the days before hair gel.
With your 1998 teaching of Tai Chi at Sylmar Transitional housing for Battered Women I can only surmise how much domestic violence you did quell.
During your tenure as spokesperson for Bloomingdales Like No Other Store ten-year campaign it's almost as if you leveraged your existing idiom and ideology and returned to the known, much like water to the well.
Will your future entail another infomercial like your How to Marry The Man of Your Choice or another educational video much like The Brek Girls Documentary... it's hard to tell.
By the way, your second husband, Richard Hissong, the man you married in 1991 after your twenty-two year marriage to Ken Schwartz ended in 1990, appears to be pretty swell.
When you perform the casting agent duties at your agency, Heroes for Hire, which specializes in booking sci-fi and fantasy stars for appearances, is the name brand of the computer you use a Dell?
July 14, 2013
Despite an ugly cover and some sloppy editing (my favorite was the sentence that referred to a woman's "plaintiff cries," though the case where two different versions of a paragraph appeared adjacent to each other so it was possible to see the rewrites was cool too), this is a fairly fascinating report on the journey Terry Gilliam went through to make Brazil and Universal Pictures' fight to take control of it, cut the grim ending and the fantasy sequences, and turn it into a happy fable about a man stuck in an oppressive bureaucracy who escapes thanks to the love of a good woman. Very detailed, with plenty of quotes from both sides, the book firmly takes Gilliam's side, but still attempts to track what the studio higher-ups were thinking and doing at every step along the way. It also contains the annotated script of the final film, storyboards for a fantasy scene that was never shot, and tons of interesting analysis, critical response, and trivia about the film. For instance, Gilliam wanted Jonathan Pryce for the lead role when he first conceived of the movie in the 70s, but by the time he was ready to shoot, he felt Pryce was too old, so he started looking for younger stars. Apparently Tom Cruise was seriously considered, but his agent wouldn't let him do a screen test on video in case it showed up later in his career, so they dropped him from consideration… and wound up going with Pryce anyway. There are a lot of tidbits like this alongside the bigger picture of how Gilliam wound up feeling like his own protagonist in Brazil, fighting bureaucracy and the petty forces of malicious incompetence and indifference.
August 13, 2012
My review may be skewered as 'Brazil' is my favorite movie of all time. I suspect the author made Gilliam out to be more the hero than he was actually viewed by the public, but I really enjoyed it. Also, I really dug the peripheral observations of all the other things going on in the industry at the time. The second half of the book is the original screenplay with comments dropped in by the author. Bottom line: If you're a fan of the movie, chances are good you'll be a fan of this book!
January 14, 2017
Fans of the film Brazil should read this, fans of Terry Gillian's should read this. Fans of film history should read this. Matthew's book provides a great insight into the grittiness between a film's completion and the time the audience can see it. Packed with loads of information, even for someone who thought they knew about the battle Brazil spawned. I have the overwhelming urge to pen a thank you note to Terry Gilliam for never giving up on his masterpiece.
January 23, 2010
Brazil is great and this book details the fight that occurred to get it released. It's basically what you would imagine happening: crazy genius would rather burn the film than edit it to please studio executives and studio executives refuse to release something they deem unmarketable. Interesting stuff.
December 5, 2012
I read this for the 1st time nearly 30 years ago...now that Criterion has released the blu ray directors cut, it was time to read the updated version. Any movie lover needs to read this account of how the artist needs to stand up for their art and not let the corporate idiots dictate " What the people want to view"
... Still an awesome read!
... Still an awesome read!
January 22, 2013
The bizarre story of Terry Gilliam's conflict with the studio over the final cut of Brazil, a fight in which the dystopian bureaucracy in the movie was eerily reflected in the studio, is an insightful account of the irreconcilable war between art and commerce. Hard to believe that Gilliam's greatest film had such incredible birthing pains.
July 17, 2007
This book was a lot of fun to read, I learned so many awesome facts and the entire script is printed in the back, including preliminary sketches of scenes that were cut due to time and funding. This book would be incredibly boring unless you consider the movie Brazil to be a long lost sibling.
June 6, 2011
One of the best inside the film industry books I have read. It flowed almost like a novel, I always wanted to keep reading to see what was going to happen next. A must read for fans of Terry Gilliam.
February 18, 2023
This is a wonderful book about the struggles with the film Brazil.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews