"The Boys from Brazil" is a brilliant film but it is also a horrible reminder of the evil that exists in this world.
There are superb performances from the leading cast - Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier most obviously - and the story, while farfetched, is not impossible, indeed, modern genetic science makes it perfectly reasonable. Possibly the most inexplicable element of the enterprise is "How did anyone get the stellar cast to take part in such a film ?" Today's image conscious and pampered generation of stars certainly wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.
The simple answer is that, not that many years ago, actors actually 'acted' ! They took on roles which may not have been politically correct but they then did what they were paid for and - hey - they produced magic. They delivered performances, often with a message as in "The Boys form Brazil", which transcended any objections to the film content.
As Mengele, Peck exudes every ounce of menace that the role calls for; as Lieberman, presumably intended as a thinly disguised version of Simon Wiesenthal, Olivier did what he always did and inhabits the role. These two dominate the film in a way that few have ever done.
The horrific premise, that clones of Adolf Hitler had been implanted in various places around the world, is an astonishing notion and yet modern science makes it perfectly plausible. There are, of course, many questions, which the film attempts to answer, regarding the upbringing of the children, particularly their environmental backgrounds and how this might affect their development. This is not a simple problem but it is an intriguing one; undisturbed, where might it have led ?
If the film has a weakness, it is in the eventual confrontation between Mengele and Lieberman which is almost laughable, two old men having a 'punch up'. However, the ultimate actions of the Hitler clone, and the final scene, foreshadow a potentially chilling future.
The film portrays Mengele as the monster that he was, his acolytes as either the insane fanatics or mind numbingly obedient servants that any NAZI official must have been. Lieberman is the rather less fanatical NAZI hunter, though portrayed as being a mainly harmless old man. Thank God that the good guys won because, if they hadn't, Lord knows what the outcome might have been.
There are superb performances from the leading cast - Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier most obviously - and the story, while farfetched, is not impossible, indeed, modern genetic science makes it perfectly reasonable. Possibly the most inexplicable element of the enterprise is "How did anyone get the stellar cast to take part in such a film ?" Today's image conscious and pampered generation of stars certainly wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.
The simple answer is that, not that many years ago, actors actually 'acted' ! They took on roles which may not have been politically correct but they then did what they were paid for and - hey - they produced magic. They delivered performances, often with a message as in "The Boys form Brazil", which transcended any objections to the film content.
As Mengele, Peck exudes every ounce of menace that the role calls for; as Lieberman, presumably intended as a thinly disguised version of Simon Wiesenthal, Olivier did what he always did and inhabits the role. These two dominate the film in a way that few have ever done.
The horrific premise, that clones of Adolf Hitler had been implanted in various places around the world, is an astonishing notion and yet modern science makes it perfectly plausible. There are, of course, many questions, which the film attempts to answer, regarding the upbringing of the children, particularly their environmental backgrounds and how this might affect their development. This is not a simple problem but it is an intriguing one; undisturbed, where might it have led ?
If the film has a weakness, it is in the eventual confrontation between Mengele and Lieberman which is almost laughable, two old men having a 'punch up'. However, the ultimate actions of the Hitler clone, and the final scene, foreshadow a potentially chilling future.
The film portrays Mengele as the monster that he was, his acolytes as either the insane fanatics or mind numbingly obedient servants that any NAZI official must have been. Lieberman is the rather less fanatical NAZI hunter, though portrayed as being a mainly harmless old man. Thank God that the good guys won because, if they hadn't, Lord knows what the outcome might have been.