THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL (FILM)

'''The Boys from Brazil''' is a 1978 thriller made by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment, and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and produced by Stanley O'Toole and Martin Richards with Robert Fryer as executive producer. The screenplay, by Heywood Gould, is loosely based on the novel by Ira Levin. It is not related to another film ''Boys from Brazil'' from 1993 [1]). The music score was by Jerry Goldsmith and the cinematography by Henri Decae.
The film was shot on location in Vienna, Austria, England, Portugal and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA.
A new remake of the Ira Levin novel by Brett Ratner as director from a script by Richard Potter and Matthew Stravitz is planned for 2008 or 2009.

Contents

Plot

Principal cast

Award nominations

External link

Plot

The film follows the attempts of aging Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Sir Laurence Olivier) to discover and thwart a plan by surviving Nazi Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck). The plan is revealed over the course of the film and involves the deaths of 94 aging (60s) men as well as some science fiction concepts.

Principal cast

★ Gregory Peck : Dr. Josef Mengele

★ Sir Laurence Olivier : Ezra Lieberman

★ James Mason : Eduard Seibert

★ Lilli Palmer : Esther Lieberman

★ Uta Hagen : Frieda Maloney

★ Steve Guttenberg : Barry Kohler

★ Denholm Elliott : Sidney Beynon
The character of Ezra Lieberman (Yakov Liebermann in the Ira Levin novel) is thought by many to be modeled on the famous real life Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal.
Olivier plays a Nazi hunter in this film whilst in ''Marathon Man'' (1976), he played Dr. Christian Szell, an evil Nazi doctor. Szell was known as 'The White Angel', whereas Mengele was known as the 'Angel of Death.'
Olivier's character also bears a resemblance to Dr. Carl Gustav Jung, Swiss psychiatrist.
Both of the lead actors, Gregory Peck and Sir Laurence Olivier, played General Douglas MacArthur in films produced roughly the same time as ''The Boys From Brazil'', Peck in ''MacArthur'' (1977) and Olivier in ''Inchon'' (1981). Coincidentally, Jerry Goldsmith was the composer for each of those films.
Peck's performance as the evil Mengele contrasts with the heroic roles he was most famous for playing, notably Atticus Finch in ''To Kill a Mockingbird''.
Bruno Ganz, who plays Professor Bruckner, went on to play Adolf Hitler in ''Der Untergang'' (''2004'')

Award nominations

'Academy Awards Nominations'

★ Academy Award for Best Actor - Sir Laurence Olivier

★ Academy Award for Film Editing - Robert Swink

★ Academy Award for Original Music Score - Jerry Goldsmith
'Golden Globe Awards Nomination'

★ Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actor - Drama - Gregory Peck
'Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Saturn Award Nominations'

★ Best Science Fiction Film

★ Best Actor - Sir Laurence Olivier

★ Best Director - Franklin J. Schaffner

★ Best Music - Jerry Goldsmith

★ Best Supporting Actress - Uta Hagen

★ Best Writing - Heywood Gould

External link

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