7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A Nazi hunter discovers a sinister and bizarre plot to rekindle the Third Reich.
Starring: Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, James Mason (I), Lilli Palmer, Uta HagenThriller | Insignificant |
Sci-Fi | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Ira Levin was a master of the so-called “high concept” before the term had ever been coined. Though Levin’s output as both novelist and playwright isn’t especially large, its impact on the pop cultural zeitgeist can hardly be understated. It’s instructive to note that even some titles of Levin’s oeuvre have become shorthand for various concepts—witness the visceral reactions and instant recognition mentioning tomes like Rosemary's Baby or The Stepford Wives can often entail. The Boys from Brazil is one of Levin’s most audacious formulations, one that, like Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives and even earlier Levin pieces like A Kiss Before Dying, deals at a baseline with the incursion of evil into seemingly mundane everyday life. In much the same way that Levin utilized actual history like the famous Time cover asking if God were dead in Rosemary’s Baby or the well publicized animatronic exploits of Disney “imagineers” in The Stepford Wives, The Boys from Brazil plays on several key real life facts (and even personages) to craft its unsettling tale of a cadre of former Third Reich officers and hangers-on who have hatched an outlandish plot to create a Fourth Reich. The tale involves Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck), who when Levin’s original novel came out and even when the film premiered in 1978, was still alive and in hiding. A Simon Wiesenthal-esque “Nazi hunter” named Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier, Academy Award nominated for his performance) is trying to piece together a puzzle for which he has only sporadic and seemingly nonsensical clues. For anyone who already knows the “secret” of The Boys from Brazil, one can only marvel at Levin’s fecund imagination, while also appreciating the circuitous art of screenwriter Heywood Gould and director Franklin J. Schaffner at keeping the revelations at bay until appropriately shocking late denouements. For anyone who has yet to experience The Boys from Brazil, it’s probably best to skip right to the technical sections of the review before any further spoilers arise.
The Boys from Brazil is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Fans of Shout! and some of its imprints may know the label has struck a deal with ITV to release some of its catalog, and The Boys from Brazil is part of that haul. Though the British ITV Blu-ray is now several years old, a cursory comparison of the screenshots included with Svet Atanasov's review of that release seems to suggest this is either identical, or nearly identical. I'm perhaps slightly more pleased with the overall look of the transfer than Svet was. Elements are in surprisingly good shape, with hardly even minor issues to contend with. Colors are generally lustrous and nicely saturated, and as Svet pointed out, the grain field is natural and organic looking. There are slight discrepancies in clarity and grain structure, notably in a number of exterior shots toward the end of the film when Lieberman is tooling around in what looks like an old red Datsun. This retains the somewhat softer look of the film's theatrical exhibition, without any intrusive sharpening or filtering affecting the image.
The Boys from Brazil features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track that easily supports the film's dialogue and Jerry Goldsmith's playfully sinister (and Academy Award nominated) score. That said, the midrange here is not especially full sounding, perhaps depriving some of Goldsmith's snarly (and dare I say farty) brass cues of some of their inherent punch. But dialogue comes through just fine, despite the variance in accents the various actors employ. The track shows no signs of any damage nor any problems to cause concern.
Any film that has Sir Laurence Olivier and Gregory Peck engaging in hand to hand combat while being threatened by Doberman Pinschers is unmissable in my not so humble opinion. But even without that admittedly hyperbolic climax, the film is a brisk and unsettling story that is simply more proof of what a unique and fascinating mind Ira Levin had. This Blu-ray offers solid technical merits and even without any significant supplements comes Highly recommended.
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