The Boys from Brazil
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The Boys from Brazil is a 1978 thriller film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. Starring Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier, it features James Mason, Lilli Palmer, Uta Hagen, Anne Meara, Denholm Elliott, and Steve Guttenberg in supporting roles. This British-American co-production is based on the 1976 novel of the same title by Ira Levin. The film received three Academy Award nominations.
Plot
Barry Kohler, a young amateur Nazi hunter, spies on a meeting of the fugitive Nazi organisation Kameraden in Paraguay. At this meeting Josef Mengele, the infamous Auschwitz doctor, issues instructions for the assassinations of 94 civil servants in Northern Europe and North America, all of them low-ranking and aged around 65, on particular dates over the next two years. Kohler telephones Ezra Lieberman, a famous (but penniless and cynical) Nazi hunter living in Vienna, to inform him of his discovery. However, while still on the phone, he is surprised by the Kameraden and killed.
With the assistance of his sister Esther, British journalist Sidney Beynon, and Jewish-American vigilante leader David Bennett, Lieberman begins investigating the sudden deaths of civil servants who fit a specific profile over the next few months. He is struck by the fact that all the deceased men have 13-year-old sons who look identical, possessing pale skin, dark hair, and blue eyes. He discovers that all the boys were illegally adopted, and that some of these adoptions were facilitated by Kameraden member Frieda Maloney, who has since been imprisoned. Lieberman interviews Maloney, who informs him that the boys were supplied by an intermediary in Brazil. She mentions that one of the adoptive fathers she dealt with, American Henry Wheelock, gave her a newborn puppy in exchange for his baby.
Seeking to explain the boys' identical appearance, Lieberman consults biologist Dr. Bruckner, who elaborates on the principles of cloning. Lieberman concludes that the boys are clones of Adolf Hitler, all created from a single DNA sample by Mengele, who has been working to ensure that their childhoods mirror that of the original Hitler by arranging for them to be adopted by parents resembling Hitler's own abusive father, Alois (a civil servant in the Austro-Hungarian Empire), and doting mother Klara. This is hoped to lead their later lives to follow a similar path, with the intention that as adults they will establish new Nazi regimes in their respective countries. The murders of the fathers play a part in this plan, intended to echo the death of Alois when Hitler was 13. Based on this revelation and the age of Maloney's dog, Lieberman realizes that Henry Wheelock is set to be murdered in just four days' time.
Alarmed by the progress of Lieberman's investigation and Mengele's increasingly erratic behavior (he nearly beats one of his men to death for eliminating his target on the wrong date), the Kameraden leadership attempts to shut down the project, but Mengele escapes.
Lieberman travels to rural Pennsylvania to warn Henry Wheelock. However, by the time he arrives, Wheelock has already been murdered by Mengele, who impersonated Lieberman. The doctor also shoots Lieberman, seriously wounding him, but is then attacked and cornered by the family's fierce Doberman Pinschers, as Mengele fears dogs. When Wheelock's son Bobby comes home from school, Mengele attempts to reveal his true origins. He does not deny killing Wheelock, telling Bobby that he must rise above his worthless adoptive family and embrace his destiny. This infuriates the boy, who commands the dogs to kill Mengele. Lieberman retrieves a list from Mengele's pocket detailing the identities of all 94 clones, but then collapses from blood loss.
As Lieberman recuperates in the hospital, Bennett visits him and asks him to hand over the list so that his vigilante group can eliminate the clones. Lieberman refuses and instead burns the list, declaring that they are innocent children who may yet grow up to be harmless. However, the final scene shows Bobby Wheelock gazing in fascination at photographs he took of Mengele's mauled corpse.
External links
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:The_Boys_from_Brazil ]
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