The Boys from Brazil (film)
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| The Boys from Brazil | |
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| Directed by | Franklin J. Schaffner |
| Produced by | Martin Richards Stanley O'Toole |
| Written by | Ira Levin (novel) Heywood Gould (screenplay) |
| Starring | Gregory Peck Laurence Olivier James Mason |
| Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
| Cinematography | Henri Decae |
| Editing by | Robert Swink |
| Distributed by | Twentieth Century Fox (USA) |
| Release date(s) |  October 5, 1978 |
| Running time | 123 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Boys from Brazil is a 1978 thriller made by Incorporated Television Company (ITC) and Lew Grade and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and produced by Stanley O'Toole and Martin Richards with Robert Fryer as executive producer. The screenplay, by Heywood Gould, is loosely based on the novel The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin. It is not related to another film Boys from Brazil from 1993 [1]). The music score was by Jerry Goldsmith and the cinematography by Henri Decae.
The film stars Laurence Olivier, Gregory Peck and James Mason, with Lilli Palmer, Uta Hagen, Steve Guttenberg, Denholm Elliott, Rosemary Harris, John Dehner, John Rubinstein, Anne Meara, Jeremy Black, Bruno Ganz, Walter Gotell, Michael Gough, Linda Hayden and Prunella Scales.
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[edit] Plot
In the film, Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck) clones 94 copies of Adolf Hitler and attempts to have each of the boys undergo the same childhood experiences and rearing that Hitler had, in order to re-create his psyche and breed a new "Hitler for the times" so as to re-establish the Nazi regime.
The film follows the attempts of aging Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier) to discover and thwart Mengele's plan but will Ezra succeed?
[edit] Principal cast
- Gregory Peck : Dr. Josef Mengele
- Laurence Olivier : Ezra Lieberman
- James Mason : Eduard Seibert
- Lilli Palmer : Esther Lieberman
- Uta Hagen : Frieda Maloney
- Steve Guttenberg : Barry Kohler
- Denholm Elliott : Sidney Beynon
[edit] Award 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
[edit] Miscellaneous
The character of Ezra Lieberman (Yakov Liebermann in the Ira Levin novel) in The Boys from Brazil is modeled on the famous real life Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal.
Olivier plays a Nazi hunter in this film whilst in Marathon Man (1976), he played Dr. Christian 'The White Angel' Szell , an evil Nazi doctor.
The film was shot on location in Vienna, Austria, England, Portugal and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA.
A new remake of the Ira Levin novel by Brett Ratner as director from a script by Richard Potter and Matthew Stravitz is planned for 2008 or 2009.
The movie is particularly notable for its musical soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith.
[edit] Trivia
- A planned, but unmade movie for the series Batman Beyond was partially based on the film according to Bruce Timm. The concept is that Selina Kyle/Catwoman eventually went straight and would aid Batman against crime. She would make multiple clones of Batman, and of course making sure each boy had the same experiences as Bruce Wayne (Including the murder of his parents). The main character Terry McGinnis as well the main enemy of the film are the most successful clones. The movie was rejected due to being darker than the first movie, Return Of The Joker. Story elements, however, were used for the Justice League Unlimited episode, Epilogue. A deleted scene from the episode does harken to The Boys From Brazil.
- When Rebecca Romjin was interviewed on The Daily Show concerning the movie Godsend, she explains the plot of that movie as being about "A kid who's cloned but the clone turns out 'weird'". Jon Stewart replied with the statement: "Have you ever seen a movie called The Boys from Brazil? Basically they clone a bunch of Hitlers, and they *all* turn out 'weird'."
- Both of the lead actors, Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier, played General Douglas MacArthur in films produced roughly the same time as Boys From Brazil, Peck in MacArthur (1977) and Olivier in Inchon (1981).
