4. Nazi Dog Chow The Boys From Brazil
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7q880Sbobk Paul Newman once stated that the last ten minutes are the most important part of any movie. Newman makes a good point; more than anything else, the final images we see flash across the screen are what well take with us as we leave the darkened theater, and those are the moments that determine whether well go to see the movie again and whether well recommend said movie to our friends. Few directors understood this better than Franklin J. Schaffner. Over the course of his career, Schaffner provided us with a number of powerful endings, including the twist ending found at the end of the original Planet of the Apes and George C. Scott walking into the sunset at the end of Patton. Neither of those endings, however, emblazon themselves upon the mind with as much force as the one Schaffner placed at the end of The Boys From Brazil. The plot of the film revolves around a Nazi war criminal, Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck), and his plot to produce 94 Hitler clones and place them in situations that replicate Hitlers early life, hoping to develop an army of dictators. A Nazi-hunter (Laurence Olivier) catches wind of this plot and chases Mengele to America, hoping to thwart Mengeles plot. Admittedly, the plot sounds a little outlandish in print, but it doesnt seem outlandish at all when one watches the film. This is indicative of Schaffners talent. One of the ways Schaffner lends credence to this wild story is by providing the audience with moments that are calculated to bring out emotion in the viewers. The end of this film is a prime example. At the end of the film, Mengele travels to Pennsylvania to meet one of his Hitler clones. He finds the boy living with a domineering father who breeds Dobermans for a living. Finding that the boy isnt home, Mengele shoots the father dead and sits in the living room, waiting for his potential prodigy to come home. Unfortunately, Mengele hasnt hidden his gun, provoking two Dobermans to attack him. They get in some good licks before the boy gets home. Initially believing Mengeles cock-and-bull story about being a friend of the family, the boy calls off the dogs and goes to find his father. However, upon finding his father dead, the boy re-enters the living room and gives his dogs permission to have a dinner of Nazi scientist. Blood and gore wasnt a new thing in 1978 (the year this film was released); directors like Arthur Penn and Sam Peckinpah were showing us guts and gore as early as the late 60s in films such as Bonnie and Clyde and The Wild Bunch. However, gore had never been used solely to terrify the viewer; Penn and Peckinpah both claimed to have higher aims in their use of bodily fluids and gristle. Schaffner, however, had no qualms about using gore solely to terrify the audience, and he shows it here. Schaffner brings his camera in close as the dogs make a meal of Gregory Peck, showing us gristle, gaping wounds, and dogs ripping through stomachs and drinking at necks. This may be the first use of extreme gore in an A-list horror film, and its for that reason that these images stand out so strongly. I know Ive never been able to look at Dobermans in the same way again.
Alan Howell
Contributor
Alan Howell is a native of Southern California. He loves movies of any and all kinds, Hollywood, indie, and everywhere in between. He loves pizza, sitcoms, rock and pop music, surfing, baseball, reading, and girls (not necessarily in that order).
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