How are the Nazis represented in The Boys from Brazil, and what is their function?
Historically the Nazis have been the most feared and terrifying force of the twentieth century. Their actions and beliefs have made them representations of the highest form of evil in the modern cultural consciousness that is still plagued by the atrocities of the Second World War and the moral conflict that emerges when one tries to rationalize being both a human and a Nazi. In The Boys from Brazil the figurative evil of the Nazi is alive and well and hiding in South America. We follow the discovery of amateur Nazi hunter Barry Kohler as he stumbles across a plot to resurrect the Third Reich, finding out that the former concentration camp experimental doctor Josef Mengele is planning to kill 94 men around the world for an as yet unknown reason. After Barry is caught and killed as a result of his discovery, the ageing Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (an obvious portrayal of real life Nazi hunter
Simon Wiesenthal) takes up the case, reluctantly at first but then engrossed by the complex plot which he discovers is to recreate clones of Adolph Hitler all around the world. Following the trail of dead bodies, Lieberman meets two boys who appear to be twins and hears of another boy with similar features. He works out that Mengele has not only cloned the leader of the Third Reich but is also trying to reproduce the mindset of the Fuehrer by recreating significant moments in Hitler’s youth in the lives of the selected clones. Mengele, facing opposition from his own superiors becomes more obsessed with his plan eventually leaving to fulfill his mission in person where he is confronted by Lieberman in a small American town where he is cornered and eventually killed by the Hitler clone that lives there. An injured Lieberman then wakes up in hospital and is confronted by David Bennett a friend of Barry Kohler who demands to know the names of the other cloned boys, Ezra refuses and burns the only know list. In The Boys from Brazil, Franklin J. Schaffner uses the figure of the Nazi to represent the highest form of evil, the subject matter of cloning is employed in allegorical form to suggest the possibility of seeds of evil resident in all human beings and that the nature of evil in not something as evident as swastika parades and pageantry but a possibility that lurks potentially beneath the veneer of the most innocent and seemingly good intentioned as well.
When representing evil on screen one of the problems often encountered is establishing the legitimacy of that evil. With the use of the historical figure of the Nazi this task is made much simpler by the historical and cultural baggage that is carried by the understanding of what a Nazi is. Narrative economy is employed by using the Nazi for this reason, as an audience will have an expectation that the Nazi will be, not only the bad-guy but also the worst form of villain. In The Boys from Brazil, the representation of the Nazi is further extended by using factual historical figures, most predominantly Dr. Josef Mengele whose infamy as a sadist and ruthless experimental doctor who worked on children establishes him as one of the most evil men in history. In the fictionalized history of the film his status and the status of the Nazi party are used to totemic effect to establish the context of evil. The potency of Mengele’s past and of the Nazi regalia that is present in many of the scenes, particularly the Nazi Banquet where Mengele attacks Mundt, reinforces the audience’s perception of the Nazi characters as evil. This perception of the Nazis however can tend towards stereotype though; in many films that portray Nazis such as this or Apt Pupil or Raiders of the Lost Ark, the type of Nazi is predominantly Gestapo officers or concentration camp commanders with little or no remorse for their actions. In a cinematic sense it is useful to employ these types of Nazi as they are the most commonly associated with the appalling acts of murder and genocide rather than the ordinary soldiers, who are sometimes portrayed as misguided patriots as in Sam Peckinpah’s Cross of Iron.
There is a distinct portrayal in this film concerning the state of the Nazis in a post war climate as overly romanticized losers. In the scenes in Paraguay at the Nazi mansion and in Mengele’s laboratory the remnants of once proud and strong Nazi linger like pathetic collectors items. The swastika drapes and Hitler busts evoke an image of the Nazi’s as sentimental geriatrics reminiscing about glory days. In the case of the Nazi banquet scene there is a sense that these people are desperately dry humping that dream of former glory trying to relive it in proud defiance of the obvious fact to which they are seemingly oblivious; that they did indeed lose the war. This defiant ignorance is a theme common in films that deal with neo-Nazis such as the white power rock show in American History X, or Hando’s reverent but empty speech from Mein Kampf in Romper Stomper. In The Boys from Brazil, It reinforces the perception of the Nazi as a malevolent yet relic like figure. There is a danger in this form of representation however; this romanticized portrayal of the defeated, loser Nazi can undermine the severity of the danger that the Nazi’s posed. If the Nazis and their deeds are consigned to history and represented as almost comical in their ultimate defeat, it becomes easy to underestimate the potency of their legacy. In one scene from the film Lieberman visits a Nazi, Frieda Maloney whom he had helped capture. In this scene a lawyer prevents Lieberman from asking any questions pertaining to her activities during the war, which elsewhere in the film are mentioned as involving bayoneting babies. She shouts at Lieberman in this scene when he enquires into her post war life that “it has been thirty years, the world has forgotten.” One of the Hitler clones also questions Lieberman’s active pursuit of the Nazi’s asks Lieberman, “why catch them, just put them in the history books.” This is the danger that cinematic representations of Nazis can hold, the evil of the Nazi in the post war world is that of their legacy. It is this that is signified as the immediate threat that the seemingly redundant Nazis pose, as Lieberman says when he feels the presence of Mengele on the telephone; he delineates one the central themes of film, identifying Mengele’s and thus representatively the Nazi evil as, “something alive and hateful,” it is this realization that stirs him out of apathy and into the hunt for answers.
Throughout the film the Nazis, both old and young are portrayed fairly one dimensionally; from the first gathering in Paraguay to the assassinations around the world, the Nazis all share common and stereotypical traits of ruthless efficiency meticulous organization and uncompromisingly murderous attitude that holds no regard for human life. As examples we see Mengele order the execution of a child in Paraguay and Mundt murder an old friend in Europe. The Nazis in this film exhibit strange mix of attitudes however; although they are all obedient to the totalitarian and Aryan ideology of the Third Reich and doggedly loyalty to the symbolism of the Nazis (that extends to the rescue of portraits and a bust of Hitler from a building that is about to be destroyed), the Nazis are also seen to be at loggerheads with one another, particularly with Mengele. In several scenes we see Seibert discussing the abandonment of Mengele’s project in light of Lieberman’s discoveries. Seibert and the other military Nazis are portrayed as highly paranoid and even mistrusting of Mengele’s dream. Mengele even fights with Mundt and later the doctor’s laboratory is burnt down by Seibert. There seems to be a distinction between the methodical, cautious and bureaucratic Nazis with their young lackeys still loyal to the Fuhrer and the megalomania of Mengele who compromises the security of the
Kameradenwerk organization, and his own safely guarded secrecy to pursue his ends. The juxtaposition of these two types has several effects on the audience. Primarily the ever increasing mania of Mengele reinforces the preconceptions that the audience might have and aids in the overall representation of the Nazis as a blanket form of evil in simplistic murderous terms.
However the secret and organized
Kameradenwerk, who are meticulous in their secret machinations of which none are fully known by the audience, suggest another form of evil that operates in secrecy. This form of “other”, representing the secret evils unseen, plays on the greater fears of the audience. By being secret and withholding the knowledge from the audience, the power gained from knowledge is placed in the hands of the Nazis, making them more of a threat and infantilizing the audience, which in a film where children are fair game for manipulation, murder and experimentation, makes the horror of these surviving Nazis all the more formidable. Doubly this has connotations for the contemporary audience; released to a late 1970’s public, the paranoia of secret organizations and plots would have been lodged in the minds of Americans who had experienced a decade of lies and conspiracies, a loss in faith of their government after Nixon, Johnson and Vietnam and a general disillusionment with modern society and its ability to deal with international problems (especially the presence of communism).
The Nazi figure is ultimately used to provoke a primal fear in the audience; the imagery and context of the Nazi are suggestive of the war crimes and especially the horror of the extermination camps. However this evil is matched by the Frankenstein like fear of meddling with science. The common theme in horror, that of trying to play God is explored in the film; symbolic of Hitler’s own God complex, Mengele plays with cloning to recreate evil in his master’s image. The taboo that surrounds eugenics and the ability to clone human beings presents the basic human dilemma in the film; the question of inherent evil. The cloned boys all bear traits in the film that allude to a possible evil future, such as rudeness, aggression and a taste for violence. This calls in to question whether these boys are evil and whether this evil is genetic, or as Mengele’s plan suggests dependent on environmental factors and psychological determination. Schaffner ends the film with this question posed; Bobby is seemingly unaffected by his fathers death or the brutal death of Mengele in his own house, this suggests to the audience that the child might actually be evil. This is added to the fact that this particular evil is supposedly a recreation of the worst evil of the twentieth century and is growing up in small-town America. Contrasted with this potential evil and the obvious evil of the Nazis is one exhibited in the last scene of the film; whilst Lieberman lies in a hospital bed, David Bennett searches for the list of other cloned boys. His desires are to kill them supposedly to prevent them from becoming genocidal maniacs. He goes so far as to say “we have a right and a duty” echoing the Nazi belief in the superiority of the Aryan race. This disturbing scene reflects a core message of the film that there is the potential for evil in everyone; it also shows the power of fear and hatred in leading to violence mirroring the Nazis hatred of the Jews. Though the film has its obvious villains, it is the potential for evil in not so obvious forms that undercuts the film. Evil, it therefore suggests does not always have an armband and a banner, and it is this evil that is often potentially more terrifying. With the real Death of Mengele only a year after the films release, the thought that at some point every original Nazi will be dead comes to mind, however if like the former sponsors of Lieberman we simply lose interest and forget about the past we risk ignoring the Nazi legacy and the potential for evil on that scale to return.
