The Boys from Brazil Movie Review

With Gregory Peck as an obsessed Nazi hellbent on cloning a batch of little Adolphs, Laurence Olivier (in an Academy Award-nominated performance) as a Jewish Nazi-hunter, and just a slightly ridiculous plot, Ira Levin's novel is brought to the screen. With numerous “on-location” segments filmed around the world, the movie plays more like a big adventure flick, lacking the intrigue and tension that should appear automatically when someone is attempting to create a “Fourth” Reich. With the brood of young Hitlers needing the proper upbringing, a few murders are definitely called for, both as a plot device and to position the new youth corps into the right environment. Not a bad movie at all, but with Olivier's acting, Heywood Gould's script, and another outstanding score (also Oscar nominated) by composer Jerry Goldsmith, the film could have been much, much more.

1978 (R) 123m/C Gregory Peck, James Mason, Laurence Olivier, Uta Hagen, Steve Guttenberg, Denholm Elliott, Lilli Palmer; D: Franklin J. Schaffner; W: Heywood Gould; M: Jerry Goldsmith. National Board of Review Awards ‘78: Best Actor (Olivier); Nominations: Academy Awards ‘78: Best Actor (Olivier), Best Film Editing, Best Original Score. VHS, Beta, LV FOX