The Boys from Brazil (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Boys from Brazil | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Franklin J. Schaffner |
| Produced by | Martin Richards Stanley O'Toole |
| Written by | Ira Levin (novel) Heywood Gould (screenplay) |
| Starring | Gregory Peck Sir 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 |
| All Movie Guide 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 Sir 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.
Contents |
[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 (Sir Laurence Olivier) to discover and thwart Mengele's plan but will Ezra succeed?
[edit] Principal cast
- Gregory Peck : Dr. Josef Mengele
- Sir 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 - Sir 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 - Sir Laurence Olivier
- Best Director - Franklin J. Schaffner
- Best Music - Jerry Goldsmith
- Best Supporting Actress - Uta Hagen
- Best Writing - Heywood Gould
[edit] Miscellaneous
The film received mixed reviews, but most were positive. Many fans claim that with increasing developments in cloning the film has more relevance, and was ahead of its time.
Even with mixed reviews most critics agree that the climatic stand-off between Lieberman (Olivier) and Mengele (Peck) at the end of the film, is electric and creates a feeling of tension as these two men's beliefs collide.
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.
Bruno Ganz, who plays Professor Bruckner, the doctor who explains the concept of cloning to Liebermann, went on to play Adolf Hitler himself in Der Untergang (2004)
The film was shot on location in Vienna, Austria, England, Portugal and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA.
The film is recognised for a number of notable inaccuracies, some of which were deliberately employed to sensationalize the story. Firstly, although the real Dr. Mengele was good looking, he was a very short and swarthy man. Peck has similar hair and is also considered attractive, but he depicts as Mengele as eight inches taller than he really was, as well as a lot more fair-skinned. Secondly, the children cloned using Hitler's DNA sport thick wavy hair and a lot of emphasis is placed throughout the film regarding their stunning blue eyes. Hitler's hair was thin and somewhat wavy, but, importantly, his eyes were hazel coloured. In Bavaria, Germany, Austrian tourists that have a slightly brown complexion or black hair, as Hitler did, are still scathingly (but secretly) referred to as 'Adolf'. Lastly, an old Germanic honorific, which Nazis used as part of Josef Goebbels propaganda material, is misplayed by Maloney in the film - the proper honorific used when referring to someone's child, very common in Europe, is to say "Oh what a beautiful baby, big blue eyes, golden blond hair", even if the description is not necessarily true, which pertains to a history of perception governed by ideals as opposed to reality; however, in the film, to idolise Hitler, the traditional honorific is transformed to "they were beautiful babies, big striking blue eyes, lovely black hair".
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
- In this film, Sir Laurence Olivier bears an uncanny resemblance to Dr. Carl Gustav Jung, Swiss psychiatrist.
- Both of the lead actors, Gregory Peck and Sir 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). Coincidentally, Jerry Goldsmith was the composer for each of those films.
- When Rebecca Romijn 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'."
- In Martin Scorsese's Casino (film), the film is playing on a television as FBI agents sweep through a house.
[edit] References in Popular Culture
- In the Simpsons episode "Blame it on Lisa", Homer states that he doesn't want to go to Brazil, exclaiming "Lisa, don't you know that the boys from Brazil are all little Hitlers?! It's just like that movie, whose name I can't remember!"
- In episode 2 of Frisky Dingo, Xander Crews tells his assistant Stan "I don't care what 'Boys From Brazil' thing you have going on in here...", referencing the group of Stan clones that make up the board of Crews's company.
- The plot of The Boys From Brazil was the inspiration of an abandoned unmade movie for the series Batman Beyond, 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.
- In a second-season episode of The Venture Bros., "¡Viva los Muertos!," a group of washed-up former teen detectives (a parody of Mystery, Inc. from Scooby-Doo) stumbles onto the facility where Dr. Venture keeps the extra clones of Hank and Dean. The leader of the group exclaims, "You're the f***ing Boys from Brazil!"
