Boys From Brazil
With the recently announced, history rewriting revelations that Adolf Hitler had really escaped Nazi Germany and relocated down to Argentina where he lived comfortably before dying in 1965 (and confirmed by the Argentine government to boot), it can be fun to look back at the late 60s and 1970s when certain horror and action movies of the low budget variety became known as “Naziploitation”, using themes of escaped Nazis and various other scenarios where they were painted as being amongst the most diabolical villains imaginable (and in many times were set during the modern postwar time period which they were filmed in). One of the most feared and hunted real life Nazis during this time was none other than Dr. Josef Mengele, the infamous madman who engaged in human experiments up and down the concentration camp circuit, only to escape down to Paraquay where he would die in 1978 (although not confirmed through DNA testing until 1992) but nonetheless for many embodied the real life definition of a James Bond type master villain, seemingly uncatchable by any of the conventional authorities all while plotting his deranged schemes to take over the world. Ironically, the year that the real Mengele was confirmed to have died, a literal sci fi / suspense thriller would be released where he would be depicted as the main villain (and referred to directly by name), engaging in an insane plot to resurrect his long lost Fuhrer and played by one of the greatest of old school movie stars in one Gregory Peck, going from legendarily playing the noble and resolute crusading lawyer Atticus Finch (famously lecturing his daughter not to use the word “nigger”) to taking on this Nazi supervillain to whom while in conversation with another character is literally told by that same character that niggers are the biggest problem in this country, to which Peck instead smiles, laughs and nods his head in gleeful agreement. As such, Peck smartly plays the role as an over the top Evil Genius, bringing a larger than life feel to Mengele complete with the indulgent trimmings such as the actual line of dialogue, “Nobody can stop me now! Nobody!” and the infamous movie villain habit of him having the hero dead to rights before instead stopping to explain his entire twisted plan which leaves the door open for the hero to make a comeback (“before I kill you…”). And speaking of that particular hero, the filmmakers made another masterstroke casting coup in the beyond legendary and then some Sir Laurence Olivier, made all the more amazing considering that he was just coming off of playing one of the most evil Nazi villains ever in 1976’s Marathon Man, doing dental torture on Dustin Hoffman and earning an Oscar Nomination for Best Supporting Actor and now turning around and not only playing a Jew, but also a feared and acclaimed Nazi hunter(!) based upon the real life Simon Wiesenthal but here renamed Ezra Lieberman, someone who causes Mengele and the other Nazi characters to literally shit their pants at just the mere mention of his name. Olivier smartly underplays the role, refusing to bog the character down with eccentric traits while also making his defining quality the literal humanity that he brings to the table even when speaking with or about any number of Nazi characters, a hunter to be sure but also one who advocates due process and the purpose of trials to educate others about the crimes of the perpetrators so that it may never happen again. Assisted by his older, mature yet still hot sister (Lilli Palmer) and working independently while also maintaining liaison with various intelligence agencies, Olivier brings a solid yet vulnerable front to his role and amazingly managed to score yet another late career Oscar Nomination this time around for Best Lead Actor for what amounts to otherwise being a cheddar cheese laden potboiler of a B movie delight. The fun gets underway when an Israeli / Mossad intelligence agent (Steve Guttenberg at his most Jewish) manages to figure out Mengele’s entire gameplan in the first 10 minutes but before he can relay all of his intel to Olivier, into his hotel room comes Mengele and his henchmen who proceed to castrate Guttenberg with extreme prejudice but then Mengele is also dismayed to discover that Olivier has picked up on the scent, not only a plot that had seen 94 cloned “Hitler Babies” scattered all over the world, but also utilizing a sick belief that each of the young boys (who all look the same and are played by the same child actor) should be made to grow up under the exact same circumstances and environment as the real Hitler had experienced, sending out operatives all over the world to ensure that those social factors are securely in place in order to trigger the so called “Hitler Gene” and give rise to a mess of mini Fuhrers ready, willing and able to take over various parts of the world and bring Nazi glory back to places other than South America. But when Olivier’s detective work starts getting too close for comfort, it results in Mengele’s benefactors (led by James Mason, billed on the poster with his face depicted for what amounted to a minor supporting role) pulling the plug on the whole operation and forcing his hand to instead set out on his own to track down the Hitler kids one by one so that he can straight up TELL them that they are incarnations of Adolf Hitler so that he may now lead them through more of an improvised indoctrination process (a much more practical idea than the cumbersome approach of replicating Hitler’s life circumstances by sheer force) so that they may become the rulers of the world regardless. But that tactic leads him directly onto a collision course with Olivier, who is following up on the leads which nobody else takes seriously and when the big confrontation happens, we get treated to the Two Legends Peck and Olivier having a knock down, drag out brawl that no doubt served as the inspiration for Roddy Piper vs Keith David in They Live and many others to come in the future. Whereas Olivier gets a lot of mileage out of his reactions and surprising decency (advocating to protect The Hitler Children in the end because they are indeed children and still free to choose to lead decent lives), Peck’s Mengele is prone to making grand speeches and great declarations, insanely furious over betrayal (perceived or otherwise) and even having no qualms about either killing or hurting children who obstruct his mission (including the waif who had helped Guttenberg). It’s a tale of two contrasting performances by two great stars and the cloning angle used here (as explained by a genetic scientist character played by Bruno Ganz, himself a future cinematic Hitler) leaves the viewer both horrified (as Olivier is) and yet still fascinated by the prospects of such a technology going completely unchecked (continuing to fuel certain conspiracy theories to this day) and allowed to flourish for either unethical or sinister purposes. In the end, there’s a lot of meat on the bone to be digested here, two awesome actors pitted on the opposite ends of the moral and philosophical spectrums…
8/10