For those that have it and want to watch.
Well worth your time.
Which version? The Sid Sheinberg “Love Conquers All” version was shown on TV at least once.
I don’t have Starz, but I do have the Criterion box set of the movie. I wonder which version they’ll show?
How would you know?
The differences aren’t subtle.
It sounds like you’ve seen one version. Now try to imagine a completely different movie, and that’s the other one.
For those who don’t know the story, Terry Gilliam and the head of Universal Studios (Sid Sheinberg) had a huge battle over this movie. Sheinberg (who was not head of Universal when the movie was originally approved) really did not like or understand the movie once he did see it, and used the details of the contract to try to force Gilliam to make changes. While this was going on, with Gilliam trying to force te studio to release the movie as it was, studio editors took all the available footage and were creating a version more in line with what Sheinberg wanted. Their instructions were to play up the romance between Sam and Jill, and to give the movie a happy ending. If your movie ends with the happy couple at their new homestead in the country, and before the heads of Jack and Mr. Helpmann come into the frame, that’s the Sheinberg version.
There are at least three different versions of Brazil. The original 142 minutes European release, a shorter 132-minutes prepared by Gilliam for the American release and another different version, nicknamed the Sheinberg Edit, from Universal’s then boss Sid Sheinberg, against whom Terry Gilliam had to fight to have his version released, A.K.A. the ‘Love Conquers All’ version…
From zap2it’s tv listings…
150 mins running time.
Sheinbergs?
SHOW TITLE:
Brazil
CATEGORY:
SYNOPSIS:
A bureaucrat in a future megalopolis notes a fatal error over a man named Tuttle and a man named Buttle.
CHANNEL:
424 [SCIN]
DATE / TIME:
April 8: 12:20PM, 8:00PM
April 13: 2:00PM, 9:35PM
April 18: 8:00PM
RATING:
R ***
LENGTH:
150 Minutes
According to the Criterion box, the Director’s cut is 142 minutes awhile the Sheinberg cut is 94 minutes. Since the movie is in a 150 minute time slot, I’m sure it’s the “correct” version.
As stated above, the ending will definitely tell which version it is.
I very much doubt it would be the Sheinberg version.
I saw the movie when it first staggered into theaters, and loved it, so I saw it a few times. A couple years later, I saw ads that it was going to be on television. This was before cable TV was any kind of force, and it was still really the big three networks and independent stations in every market. There was some company that looked like they were getting the broadcast rights to certain movies, those not quite popular enough to get on the networks, but too good and recent for a single independent station to get. So this company would get the rights and show it on lots of the independents, and it was kind a big deal for them. I didn’t know anything about the alternate version at the time, so I was extremely surprised to see a very different movie.
But as far as I know, that’s the only time this version had any real public showing. (It’s also on DVD’s now, of course, with the demand for archive material and such.) But you have to be a pretty hardcore fan or geek (of whom this board has its share) to unearth it these days.
It wasn’t happy.
One last question.
Why name it Brazil?
According to the book, The Battle for Brazil, Gilliam named it after the song “Brazil”: