This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
No More Mister Nice Guy
Plot Overview
Circa 1964–67: Erstwhile camp guard
Mrs. Frieda Maloney (Uta Hagen) at the behest of a neo-Nazi cabal,
The Comrades Organization, “brought happiness” to
passed-over couples by securing for them “healthy white baby
boys complete with New York State adoption papers.” It was only
“slightly illegal.” They would “meet [up for the
handoff] at a motel near Kennedy Airport—that used to be
Idlewild.” “The babies all came from Brazil.”
Stewardesses would arrive with the bundles of joy.
The airport was renamed to honor a popular president who'd been slain. In Nancy Freedman's farfetched novel, Joshua, Son of None, a demented doctor treating the expiring president took a sample of his blood from which he made a clone to be another great leader. Unfortunately, the original was not universally loved, and history has a way of repeating itself. What would happen if the doctor started with a leader who was widely hated? If he did it with Hitler? The template would be like a character out of a Paul Levine novel:
“Wrong Way Lassiter. Scored a touchdown for the other team.”“Scored a safety,” I corrected him.
“It's the only reason anybody even remembers you played for the Dolphins.”
“Shakespeare said only our bad deeds live after us,” Victoria the smart one, said. “The good is oft interred with their bones.”
“Wrong Way Lassiter,” Solomon repeated, pouring dirt on my bones.
Life is unfair. In my last season before being cut, I made a hard-as-hell tackle on a kickoff against the Jets. So hard my helmet cracked down the middle and the ball came loose. Somehow, I scooped up the fumble. So far so good, but I'd suffered a concussion on the tackle and was already dizzy. I got turned around and ran to the wrong end zone. Where roughly eleven New York Jets happily landed on me. Two points for the Jets. Dolphins lose by one, and my name lives in infamy. (26)
I think Hitler collided with forces of his time, which knocked the sense out of him. It would be hard to duplicate.
Ideology
Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck), however, wanted to whip up “the living duplicate of the greatest man in history.” We must grant him a grudging admiration for his process, something along the lines of, (Prov. 30:24) “There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise:”
(Prov. 30:25) “The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer.” Getting an early start helps insure the success of one's endeavor. The nascent field of mononuclear reproduction started with cloning plants, then went on to rabbits and mice. Dr. Mengele got a leg up on the primitive geneticists through his extensive human experimentation in the camps.
(Prov. 30:26)
“The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses
in the rocks.” We move on to an environment conducive to producing
the desired result. Place the babies in Christian homes in countries
predominately Caucasian with the dads in minor
supervisory roles as civil servants and such, and with moms
considerably younger than the dads—just what Hitler had. Do this a
hundred times with a probability of success at 20% and we're talking turkey.
(Prov. 30:27) “The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands.” Make it a group effort. Nazi hunters Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier) and his sister Esther (Lilli Palmer) had only a shoestring operation in Vienna, Austria, but they had contacts throughout the world in Jews and sympathizers who are only too glad to rat out Nazis in hiding. Banded together they are a formidable opponent.
(Prov. 30:28) “The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.” One final initiative was needed. The dads had to disappear when they turned 65 as had Hitler's. No problemo. A Nazi conference is called in Paraguay. The targets are all old men, starting to get senile with diminished strength, eyesight and reflexes. How hard could it be to kill them? One just needed the initiative.
Production Values
“” (1978) was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. Its screenplay was written by Heywood Gould based on Ira Levin's novel, The Boys from Brazil. It stars Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, and James Mason. These talented actors really showed off their stuff. The supporting cast was worthy of their leads.
The movie was rated R. The plot moves right along, swept by the mood music of Jerry Goldsmith. There were various location shots.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
Paranoid thrillers must have been the
order of the day in the 1970s when “Boys” came out, but
now the villains shown seem more like clowns, though their atrocities
are no laughing matter. Their prime new “Hitler” aspires
to be the world's greatest photographer, and his photographs
do have a dark side, but his adoptive father calls them “artsy
fartsy.” It's hard for me to take a threat seriously that can
be dispatched by an art critic's review.
In Nazi Germany Jews were slaughtered by the millions, male homosexuals could be sentenced to five years of hard labor—10 for corrupting the youth—but dykes were free from criminal repercussions though there was a huge social stigma for failing to reproduce the master race. I suppose art can make one feel good or bad about oneself so this “Hitler” could be bringing up the rear. This movie does contain a lot of portraiture and statuary, and there is a current trend in America to tear down Confederate statues, so perhaps there's some perceived threat of the south rising again, which fear this movie could play into. Otherwise, it's just dark humor with a lot of sarcasm thrown in.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Levine, Paul. Bum Rap. Text copyright © 2015 Paul Levine. Seattle: Thomas & Mercer, 2015. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org