The Boys From Brazil [DVD]

The Boys From Brazil is a terrifying film about the perpetuation of a new race of Hitlers, based on Ira Levin’s thrilling book of the same title. In the setting of 1970s South America, a notorious Nazi War criminal, Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck), gathers a group of former Nazis to work on a covert project to establish a Fourth Reich. But when famed Nazi-hunter Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier) is enlightened to Mengele’s bone-chilling scheme–to clone 94 young Hitlers and cause horror on a global scale–he attempts to unravel the conspiracy.
Robustly entertaining and bracingly sinister, The Boys from Brazil stars Gregory Peck as the infamous Dr Josef Mengele, the former Nazi chief who intends to resurrect the Führer and create a Fourth Reich through genetic experiments that commence with the assassination of some 94 fathers. Elderly Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier, in an Oscar-nominated performance) is tipped to the plot, but his efforts to expose Peck (fiendishly cast against type) are thwarted by a set of menacing triplets played by Jeremy Black.
Back in 1978, The Boys from Brazil (adapted from Ira Levin’s novel) was an incalculably tense, straight-faced entertainment whose lack of irony allowed the viewer to indulge the film’s outrageous premise without moral offence. But in view of the scientific advancements made since the release of the film, it’s now a cautionary tale, and all the more compelling for being so. Jerry Goldsmith’s richly conceived, Oscar-nominated score–replete with echoes of Mahler and Strauss–reinforces this impression.–Kevin Mulhall