Directed by Franklin J. Schafner
Written by Haywood Gould from a novel by Ira Levin
1978/USA
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
Professor Bruckner: Is Mengele… trying to reproduce himself?
Ezra Lieberman: No! No, he has brown eyes, and he comes from a very wealthy family.
I can’t decide where this is so bad it’s good or just plain good. Whichever, it is extremely entertaining. Gregory Peck’s outlandish performance as Josef Mengele must be ranked as the most audacious in his career.
I’ll keep my plot synopsis brief. Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier) is a renowned Nazi hunter. An amateur Nazi hunter gets wind of a large cell of Nazis (mostly war criminals) in Paraguay. He reports this to Lieberman who is not impressed, saying that every man on the street knows that there are Nazis in South America.
Later, Lieberman learns that Joseph Mengele himself is joining this group. After investigating thoroughly he finds his way to Paraguay where he runs in to some extremely dangerous men and an unthinkable project. With James Mason as Eduard Seibert, Mengele’s superior and Bruno Ganz as a doctor who explains the cloning process to Lieberman.
Everything about this movie is just that little bit over the top causing me to wonder if this was deliberate on the part of the filmmakers. Peck throws all reserve to the wayside and portays Mengele as a devil straight from HELL. Olivier is also simply fantastic. He looks like he was having fun doing his German Jewish accent and tons of bits of business that are fun for the audience too. This totally exceeded my expectations.
The Boys from Brazil was nominated for Oscars for Best Actor (Olivier), Best Film Editing and Best Original Score (Jerry Goldsmith).
Bobby Bobby do you know who your father is?
Over the top Camp.
A far cry from Atticus Finch or even Midway.
Shades of Star Wars??? This movie is a trip. That’s why I liked it.
I regret not picking this movie as an extra for 78. I watched it years ago and reading your review reminded me why I liked it.
I feel about this sort of how I feel about The Poseidon Adventure, cheesy but I would watch again anytime unlike some “better” films. I watched the Greer Garson-Laurence Olivier “Pride and Prejudice” the other night. The acting is wonderful but woah what they did to the story!
In a few days I will watch my favorite version which is the BBC mini-series with Colin Firth. He will always be Mr. Darcy to me.