Genre Guesstimation – The Boys From Brazil (1978)

The idea behind this feature (Genre Guesstimation) is for me to watch a bunch of new movies (or ones that I haven’t seen many times) from the chosen monthly GG genre in order to expand my knowledge of movies within that particular genre.

This month’s Genre was chosen by my good friend Emma of emmakwall (explains it all) and she chose British Thrillers as the Genre for January

Let’s see if I felt that this movie would be worthy of being in the company of my others favorite movies in the genre of British Thriller movies…

“You’re not a guard now, madame! You are a prisoner! I may leave here today empty handed. But you… are not going anywhere. ” – Ezra Lieberman

Number of Times Seen – probably 3 times (cable in the 80’s and 90’s and 20 Jan 2015)

Brief Synopsis – A famed Nazi hunter tries to make sense of strange information relayed to him about events taking place in South America involving hidden former Nazi officers and a strange unexplained mass murder plot.

My Take on it – I read this book years ago and loved it. Subsequently I saw the movie two times and also loves the way it was adapted.

Having not seen it in two decades gave me a fresh perspective despite remembering the plot twists.

The narrative is built up deliberately at a perfect slow pace in order to give us a wonderous and thrilling story that we constantly want to know more and more about as it progresses.

Gregory Peck and Lawrence Olivier are great as adversaries and both give amazing performances. Olivier was even nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for this role.

It was great to see a very young Steve Guttenberg in one of his first roles.

The science explained here has advanced so much since this movie was made close to 40 years ago, but it’s still amazing how close they got to the truth.

After having watched this again, I’m quite interested in rereading the book.

Bottom Line – Wonderful and scary tale that builds itself up at a great pace keeping us wanting more. Great performances by Olivier and Peck. Scary how close to correct the science explained has evolved since this was made. Great adaptation of the book. Highly recommended!

Genre Grandeur Worthy? – Most definitely, the story is gripping and despite being made close to 40 years ago, many aspects have been scientifically proven since. Great story with great performances.

Rating – Oscar Worthy

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