The Boys from Brazil-1978
Director Franklin J. Schaffner
Starring Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, James Mason
Scott’s Review #1,391
Reviewed August 20, 2023
Grade: B+
The Boys from Brazil (1978) is a taut political thriller with a neo-Nazi focus and a weird cloning subject matter. It’s a bit of a tough follow, but quite compelling all the way through, and doesn’t lag at all.
Sometimes political thrillers get overly complicated or drag, but this one doesn’t. The story is slightly hokey and impractical, even bordering on ludicrous, but since it’s so intriguing and action-packed, these adjectives can be overlooked.
Surprisingly, I wasn’t blown away by either Laurence Olivier’s or Gregory Peck’s performance, despite being a fan of both actors. Both actors overact and create stereotypes, but especially Peck’s character is a bit too cartoonish.
It took me half the film even to recognize either man, since both are heavily made up, making them hard to tell apart. It also took until the dramatic conclusion for either character to grow on me truly.
A brilliant one-scene cameo performance by Uta Hagen, a German-American actress, as a former Nazi guard now imprisoned, nearly steals the show and should have earned an Oscar nomination.
The story surrounds Doctor Josef Mengele, played by Peck, who clones Adolf Hitler ninety-five times and raises the boys in Brazil, giving them childhoods identical to Hitler’s in various parts of the world.
His goal is to create a band of Nazi leaders that can continue where Hitler left off, forming the Fourth Reich. Their fathers will be murdered, and the boys will be mothered as Hitler was.
Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier), a Nazi hunter, learns of the plan from a young journalist (Steve Guttenberg) and is determined to thwart it.
The plot is a tough pill to swallow and takes some time to absorb fully, but it’s fresh and unique. I’m not sure if, in 1978, people had had enough of Nazi and World War II films, but both subjects are always worth dissecting again.
I’m not sure why it was so tough to get used to Peck as the evil doctor, but it was. It’s probably because Peck usually plays characters with a strong moral compass, and he was playing way against type.
His character looks weird, and Peck seems to be overacting sometimes, almost like he was playing a James Bond villain. It’s not exactly a role that measures up to Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).
Olivier is better and the main protagonist of The Boys from Brazil, but I’m not sure he entirely wins me over. It’s not easy immersing oneself in the prim-and-proper British aristocratic actor playing a Jewish man who kvetches so often.
Still, by the finale, when Mengele meets Lieberman in a deadly showdown involving vicious Dobermans, a gun, and a Hitler clone, I was cheering for Olivier all the way.
Supporting characters played by Guttenberg, Anne Meara (Jerry Stiller’s wife) as Mrs. Curry, one of the Hitler clones’ mothers, and the aforementioned Hagen are excellent. I wish that each character were explored better and given more screen time.
The same can be said for Rosemary Harris in a one-scene performance. While quality, I wanted more from her character of Frau Doring, the wife of one of the murdered fathers of the Hitler clones.
Finally, James Mason has little to do as Colonel Seibert other than serve as second fiddle to Peck.
But The Boys from Brazil is the Olivier and Peck show.
The locales are a big win since they add an international vibe and relevance. Geographies such as Germany, Paraguay, Austria, and rural Pennsylvania, United States, are featured, which greatly elevate the film.
The taught nature of the film provides suspense, an ode to history, and an eerie measure of Trumpism in comparison to Nazi-ism. The Boys from Brazil (1978) isn’t prime steak, but it’s not a bad watch either.
Oscar Nominations: Best Actor-Laurence Olivier, Best Film Editing, Best Original Music Score
