Boys from Brazil, The (Blu-ray) (1979)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Main Menu Audio Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1979
Running Time	124:57 (Case: 118)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Franklin J. Schaffner
Studio Distributor	Sir Lew Grade Beyond Home Entertainment	Starring	Gregory Peck Laurence Olivier James Mason
Case	Click
RPI	$19.95	Music	Jerry Goldsmith

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (640Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Barry Kohler (a staggeringly youthful Steve Guttenberg) is a young Jewish crusader on the trail of Nazi war criminals. Having tracked a group of notable Nazis to a Paraguay, Kohler unearths a bizarre plot being hatched by the notorious scientist Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck). Mengele is sending half a dozen accomplices, all ex-Nazis or neo-Nazis, to murder 94 men over the course of a couple of years. What is particularly unusual is that the targets are people living all over the world, none of whom appear to be of particular importance. Most are seemingly harmless civil servants.

    Convinced he is onto something, Kohler forwards his research on to the famous Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier) before meeting a grizzly demise. Lieberman is unsure how seriously to take the claims until he discovers Kohler's fate. Mounting his own investigation, along with the aid of his sister and one of Kohler's friends, Lieberman unearths a sinister scheme that extends Mengele's concentration camp experiments into human genetics.

    The Boys From Brazil is an unusual cocktail of thriller, science fiction and a hint of wry comedy. The plot is truly original, albeit preposterously far-fetched, and the story is told well. The leads turn in solid performances, earning a by-then routine Oscar nomination for Laurence Olivier. The supporting cast also features a number of good performances by some recognisable faces; James Mason, Denholm Elliott, Bruno Ganz, Walter Gotell, Michael Gough, Prunella Scales and Rosemary Harris.

    Assuming you can go with the incredibly silly plot, The Boys From Brazil is quite an engaging thriller.

Video

    The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio in 1080p.

    The image is a little grainy, but generally quite good. The colours are slightly faded, though only really enough to show the age of the material. There is a good level of shadow detail in the image, although the blacks do look a little crushed in the darker scenes.

    There is no sign of compression issues and only mild film artefacts are present, in the form of fine dust specs.

    The film features English subtitles, which appear to be accurate and well timed based on the portion I sampled.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The film features a single mono-sounding 2.0 Dolby Digital English audio track, which would be accurate to the original source given the age of the film.

    Though it is hardly a terribly impressive audio track, it is clear and well levelled. The dialogue is quite easy to understand and well placed in the mix.

    The film features an Oscar nominated orchestral score from Jerry Goldsmith, which is presented well in the mix.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Trailer (3:34)

    A silly, overlong trailer for the film. Ho Hum.

    The Boys From Brazil has been released in identical Region B Blu-ray versions in Australia and the United Kingdom, but has yet to find a Region A Blu-ray release.

    The film never had a particularly noteworthy DVD release, most were non-anamorphic transfers with nothing more than a trailer and text bios on offer in the way of extras, so this is a most welcome upgrade.

    Assuming you can go with the incredibly silly plot, The Boys From Brazil is quite an engaging thriller featuring a solid cast.

    This Blu-ray is an enormous upgrade on the shoddy treatment the film received on DVD. The film looks good for its age and features its original 2.0 audio presented in a clean mix. The extras lacking, though no worse than any readily available DVD version.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall