Andy Mac

It's all been said! But this is what 1984 should have been. Darkly funny, and surreal showing Terry Gilliam's frequent obsession with piping and ductwork. Here you will meet early SteamPunk at it's finest. (A old manual typewriter with a tiny CRT screen.) Probably the only case where you will see Michael Palin as a baddy. Great performances and what a cast! Grouty -- for he will always be that for me -- Peter Vaughn, Robert de Niro as the underground savior plumber, another inimitable villain Bob 'oskins, House of Cards (UK) Ian Richardson, Ian Holm, the list goes on and of course the recently Papal protagonist Jonathon Pryce. It retains it's unsettling ambiguous ending. I know it's not everybody's cup of tea, but like the best films, it is both deeply funny and rich in meaning with many warnings. Did I say surreal? It's wonderfully surreal. Lessons to be learned or repeated.. Someone already observed how close we have come to some of the most extreme elements in Brazil. (Terry fought a long hard battle to get the film released having made it. Full page ads in Variety, illegal showings that were busted, long battles -- that is a saga worth reading in itself. I am so glad he did. )