"The Battle of Brazil"

The Battle of Brazil: Terry Gilliam v. Universal Pictures in the Fight to the Final Cut (Jack Mathews)

I'm not a huge Brazil fan - I saw it once and thought it was pretty good - so I only read half of this book, that being the book's first part, a narrative history of Brazil's troubled post-production. The second half is the entire 161 page screenplay, which I didn't feel the need to read, even the way it's presented here with every other page sprinkled with interesting factoids. The first half of the book I enjoyed a great deal, but it's a little hard to recommend - although it's well written, it's a well-written history of a backstage Hollywood power struggle, which I don't imagine has a huge audience. I refuse to engage in the pointless cliche of writing something like "If you're a huge Brazil fan, you'll love this book," both because if you are chances are you have it already, and because I have more respect for my readers than to baldly state something so self-evident.

Grade: C+