The Boys from Brazil (film)

The Boys from Brazil
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Franklin J. Schaffner
Screenplay by	Heywood Gould
Produced by	Martin Richards Stanley O'Toole Robert Fryer
Starring	Gregory Peck Laurence Olivier James Mason
Cinematography	Henri Decaë
Edited by	Robert Swink
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Production companies	ITC Entertainment Producer Circle
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	October 5, 1978 (1978-10-05)
Running time	125 minutes
Countries	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 of the same name 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. It was Schaffner's second sci-fi film, appearing ten years after Planet of the Apes.

Plot

Young, well-intentioned Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg) stumbles upon a secret organization of Third Reich war criminals holding clandestine meetings in Paraguay and finds that Dr Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck), the infamous Auschwitz doctor, is with them. He phones Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier), an aging Nazi hunter living in Vienna, Austria, with this information. A highly skeptical Lieberman tries to brush Kohler's claims aside, telling him that it is already well known that Mengele is living in Paraguay.

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 phone call to Lieberman. Before the phone is hung up with Lieberman on the other end, he hears the recorded voice of Mengele ordering a group of ex-Nazis to kill 94 men in different countries, including Austria, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Canada, Great Britain and the United States.

Although frail, Lieberman follows Kohler's leads and begins travelling throughout Europe and North America to investigate the suspicious deaths of a number of aging 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 that, at the time of their deaths, all the civil servants were aged around 65 and had cold, domineering and abusive attitudes towards their adopted sons, while their wives were around 42 and doted on the sons.

Lieberman gains insight from Frieda Maloney (Uta Hagen), an incarcerated former Nazi guard who worked with the adoption agency, before realizing 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 fertilised them with ova each carrying a sample of Hitler's DNA preserved since World War II. Ninety four 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 destroy Mengele's jungle estate after killing his guards and servants. 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 (Jeremy Black), lives on a farm with his parents. There he murders the boy's father (John Dehner), a Doberman dog breeder, and waits 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 sees 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 clones. Bobby calls off the dogs and tries to find out what has happened.

Bobby can tell from the carnage that something is wrong. 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. Bobby checks the house and eventually finds his dead father in the basement. He rushes back upstairs and sets the vicious dogs on Mengele once again, coldly 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, David Bennett (John Rubinstein) to expose Mengele's scheme to the world. He asks Lieberman to turn over the list (which Lieberman had taken from Mengele's body while Bobby was calling for an ambulance) identifying the names and whereabouts of the other boys 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.

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

Trivia

This film was Franklin Schaffner's second sci-fi thriller, made ten years after his box office smash hit Planet of the Apes.

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 to mixed box office business and reviews. 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 title that is unrelated.

The 'Swedish' dam where the assassination of the Inspector of the local power company takes place is the Kölnbrein Dam in Austria, which was under construction at the time of filming.

The TV show Archer references the film in Season 2 Episode 10, "Placebo Effect," when it is revealed that Dr. Krieger is "one of the boys from Brazil." This is accompanied by a flashback and Dr. Krieger mentioning that his 15th birthday was the day his father was accidentally killed by his pet dobermans. In the flashback, Mallory Archer is dressed very similar to Gregory Peck from the movie.

Release

The film had 25 minutes cut when released in West Germany, theatrical as well as all subsequent TV, video and some DVD releases. In 2007 the film was released uncut on DVD.

An end segment with Bobby in a darkroom was added to some versions in later years.

Lew Grade who partly financed the movie was not happy with the end result, feeling that the ending was too gory. He says he protested but Franklin Shaffner, who had final cut, overruled him.

2014 the Shout! Factory released the film on Blu Ray.

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 IMDb
• The Boys from Brazil at the TCM Movie Database
• The Boys from Brazil at AllMovie
• The Boys from Brazil at Box Office Mojo
• The Boys from Brazil at Rotten Tomatoes