The Boys from Brazil (film)

The Boys from Brazil
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Franklin J. Schaffner
Produced by	Martin Richards Stanley O'Toole Robert Fryer (executive)
Screenplay by	Heywood Gould
Based on	The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin
Starring	Gregory Peck Laurence Olivier James Mason
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography	Henri Decaë
Editing by	Robert Swink
Studio	ITC Entertainment
Distributed by	Twentieth Century Fox
Release date(s)	October 5, 1978 (1978-10-05)
Running time	125 minutes 100 minutes (West Germany) 98 minutes (1980 NBC premiere)
Country	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	$12 million
Box office	$19,000,000 $7,600,000 (rentals)

The Boys from Brazil is a 1978 British-American thriller film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. It stars Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier and features James Mason, Lilli Palmer, Uta Hagen and Steve Guttenberg in supporting roles. The screenplay by Heywood Gould is based on the novel The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin.

The film was produced by Martin Richards and Stanley O'Toole with Robert Fryer as executive producer. The music score was by Jerry Goldsmith and the cinematography by Henri Decaë. It was produced through Sir Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It was nominated for three Academy Awards.

The film was shot on location in Austria, England, Portugal, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Plot

Young, well-intentioned Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg) stumbles upon a secret organization of Third Reich war criminals holding clandestine meetings in Paraguay and realises that Dr Josef Mengele, the infamous Auschwitz doctor, is among their number. He phones Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier), an ageing Nazi hunter living in Austria, with this information. A highly skeptical Lieberman tries to brush Kohler's claims aside, telling him that it is a long-established fact that Mengele is still alive. Having learned when and where the next meeting to include Mengele is scheduled to occur, Kohler records part of it using a hidden microphone, but is discovered and killed while making another phonecall to Lieberman.

Aware that something is amiss, Lieberman follows Kohler's leads and begins traveling throughout Europe and North America to investigate the suspicious deaths of a number of middle-aged civil servants. He meets several of their widows and is amazed to find an uncanny resemblance in their adopted, black-haired, blue-eyed sons. It is also made clear throughout the film that, at the time of their deaths, all the civil servants were aged around 65 and had a cold, domineering, and abusive demeanor towards their adopted boys, whereas their wives were aged around 42 and doted on them.

Lieberman gains insight from Frieda Maloney (Uta Hagen), an incarcerated former Nazi guard who worked with the adoption agency, before realising during a meeting with Professor Bruckner (Bruno Ganz), an expert on cloning, the terrible truth behind the Nazi plan: Mengele, in the 1960s, had secluded several surrogate mothers in a Brazilian clinic and fertilized them with ova each carrying a sample of Hitler's DNA preserved since World War II. 94 perfect clones of Hitler had then been born and sent to different parts of the world for adoption.

As Lieberman uncovers more of the plot, Mengele's superiors become more unnerved. After Mengele happens to meet (and then attacks) one of the agents he believes is in Europe implementing his scheme, Mengele's principal contact, Eduard Seibert (James Mason), informs him that the scheme has been aborted before Lieberman can expose it to the authorities. Mengele storms out, pledging that the operation will continue.

Seibert and his men are seen to set fire to Mengele's jungle estate after killing his servants and guards. Mengele himself, however, has already left, intent on trying to continue his plan. He travels to rural Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where one of the Hitler clones, Bobby Wheelock, lives with on a farm with his parents. There he murders the boy's father (John Dehner), a Doberman dog breeder, and lies in wait for Lieberman, who is on his way to the farm to warn Mr. Wheelock of Mengele's intention to kill him.

The instant Lieberman arrives and sets eyes on Mengele, he attacks the doctor in a fury. But Mengele soon gains the upper hand and holds him at gunpoint. He taunts Lieberman by explaining his plan to return Hitler to the world. Then, with one desperate lunge, Lieberman opens the closet where the Dobermans are held and turns them loose. The dogs corner Mengele and begin to attack him. At that point, Bobby arrives home from school. It is Mengele's first look at one of "his boys". Bobby calls off the dogs and tries to find out what has happened.

Bobby can tell from the carnage that something is amiss. The injured Mengele tells Bobby how much he admires him, and explains that he is cloned from Hitler. But Bobby doubts his story, and is also suspicious because the dogs are trained to attack anyone who threatens his family. Lieberman tells Bobby that Mengele has killed his father and urges him to notify the police. The boy first checks the basement, where he finds his dead father. Bobby now understands what has happened. He rushes back upstairs and sets the vicious dogs on Mengele once again, relishing his bloody death. Bobby then proceeds to help Lieberman, whom Mengele has shot and wounded, but only after Lieberman promises not to tell the police about the incident.

Later, while recovering from his wounds, Lieberman is encouraged by an American Nazi-hunter, Bennett (John Rubinstein) to expose Mengele's scheme to the world. Lieberman is asked to turn over the list identifying the names and whereabouts of the other "boys from Brazil" from around the world, so that they can be systematically killed before growing up to become bloody tyrants. Lieberman objects on the grounds that they are mere children. He burns the list before anyone can read it.

In the final scene, Bobby is shown in his darkroom, absorbed and excited by photographs he has taken of Mengele's body after it has been savaged by the dogs. Bobby is unaware that, as a boy his own age, Adolf Hitler had a related interest as an amateur artist.

Cast

• Gregory Peck as Dr. Josef Mengele
• Laurence Olivier as Ezra Lieberman
• James Mason as Eduard Seibert
• Lilli Palmer as Esther Lieberman
• Uta Hagen as Frieda Maloney
• Steve Guttenberg as Barry Kohler
• Denholm Elliott as Sidney Beynon
• Rosemary Harris as Frau Doring
• John Dehner as Henry Wheelock
• John Rubinstein as David Bennett
• Anne Meara as Mrs. Curry
• Jeremy Black as Jack Curry / Simon Harrington / Erich Doring / Bobby Wheelock
• Bruno Ganz as Dr. Bruckner
• Walter Gotell as Mundt
• David Hurst as Strasser
• Wolfgang Preiss as Lofquist
• Michael Gough as Mr. Harrington
• Joachim Hansen as Fassler
• Sky du Mont as Hessen
• Carl Duering as Trausteiner
• Linda Hayden as Nancy
• Richard Marner as Doring
• Georg Marischka as Gunther
• Günter Meisner as Farnbach
• Prunella Scales as Mrs. Harrington
• Wolf Kahler as Schwimmer

Notes

The part of Ezra Lieberman was based on Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal, whom Olivier had met to ask advice on the part.

The Boys From Brazil came out in October 5, 1978. Almost 4 months later to the day, Josef Mengele (whose location was still not known at the time, and would not officially be discovered until 1985) died in Bertioga, Brazil.

George C. Scott was originally set to play Dr. Mengele, but he dropped out before principal photography began and was replaced by Peck.

There is a documentary film of the same name that is unrelated.

Release

The film had 25 minutes cut when released in West Germany, theatrical as well as all subsequent TV and video/DVD releases. The end segment (the darkroom) was added on in later years.

Award and nominations

Academy Awards Nominations

• Academy Award for Best Actor - Laurence Olivier
• Academy Award for Film Editing - Robert Swink
• Academy Award for Original Music Score - Jerry Goldsmith

Golden Globe Awards Nomination

• Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actor - Drama - Gregory Peck

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Saturn Award Nominations

• Best Science Fiction Film
• Best Actor - Laurence Olivier
• Best Director - Franklin J. Schaffner
• Best Music - Jerry Goldsmith
• Best Supporting Actress - Uta Hagen
• Best Writing - Heywood Gould

External links

• The Boys from Brazil at the Internet Movie Database
• The Boys from Brazil at the TCM Movie Database
• The Boys from Brazil at AllRovi
• The Boys from Brazil at Box Office Mojo
• The Boys from Brazil at Rotten Tomatoes