The Boys From Brazil (1978)

A bit of late 70's bio-thriller today, courtesy of Lew Grade. Grade was the man at popularising commercial television in this country, with his ITC but he just couldn't replicate that success into the movies. Sure, he had mid-level successes with On Golden Pond, Sophie's Choice and this film, The Boys From Brazil but they always just made their money back despite general positive critical feedback.
And to be fair, there's nothing particularly tv-movie about the film; it's filmed in many different countries, it's directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, who directed lots of blockbusters in the 60's and 70's like Planet of the Apes, Papillion and Patton and it stars the likes of stars like Larry Olivier, Jimmy Mason and Greg Peck. It also features briefly Steve Guttenberg and Prunella Scales but still Olivier and Gregory Peck and the latter playing Josef Mengele. He ain't Atticus Finch no more!
Also no slouch is the fact it was based on the novel by Ira Levin, author of Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives.
For those of you who don't know, the story is that Mengele comes out of hiding to with a plot to reinvigorate the Aryan race, administered by a secret Nazi organisation and an old Nazi hunter (played by Olivier) has to find out the plot and stop them before it too late.
What I love about this film apart from watching Peck, gleefully ham it up as a baddie after decades and decades of being true-blue on-screen, is how it gradually disseminates information to the audience and the gallows dark humour and pulpyness of it all.
Like obviously, we're talking about ethnic cleaning and the most evil men of the last 100years, who's atrocities still haunt us today but this film is kinda like weird  Bond movie, where the bad guy is diabolical and James Bond is a 80yo doddering Jewish guy. It's definitely kinda funky but that's why it's fun to watch like any exploitation movie. It's like a Dan Brown novel adapted for the screen by Rob Zombie. It's just well made pulpy adult entertainment and a lot of fun to watch. Exciting, well written, great acting. I mean it's totally lurid and ludicrous in its psudo-science but you don't care. Because Gregory Peck is wearing a moustache and talking in a weird stupid German accent and that means he's an evil prick. Yeah...

I watched The Boys From Brazil (1978) on BBC2.
My 2011 in Movies will return with The Hangover: Part 2 (2011)...