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The Boys from Brazil (film)
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===Critical response=== On [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film has an approval rating of 70% based on 33 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The site's consensus states: "Its story takes some dubious turns, but a high-caliber cast and a gripping pace fashion ''The Boys from Brazil'' into an effective thriller."<ref>{{cite web |title= The Boys from Brazil (1978) |url= https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1002993_boys_from_brazil |website= [[Rotten Tomatoes]] |access-date= 26 May 2024 |archive-date= 30 May 2024 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240530231846/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1002993-boys_from_brazil |url-status= live }}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], the film has a score of 40 out of 100 based on reviews from 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews.<ref>{{cite web |title= The Boys from Brazil |url= https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-boys-from-brazil |website= [[Metacritic]] |access-date= 2020-02-29 |archive-date= 2020-11-12 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20201112015955/http://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-boys-from-brazil |url-status= live }}</ref> ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' wrote "With two excellent antagonists in Gregory Peck and Lord Laurence Olivier, ''The Boys from Brazil'' presents a gripping, suspenseful drama for nearly all of its two hours — then lets go at the end and falls into a heap."<ref>{{cite magazine |date=September 27, 1978 |author1=Variety Staff |title=Film Reviews: The Boys From Brazil |url=https://variety.com/1977/film/reviews/the-boys-from-brazil-1200424156/ |website=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |page=20 |access-date=June 5, 2022 |archive-date=June 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220605150444/https://variety.com/1977/film/reviews/the-boys-from-brazil-1200424156/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Gene Siskel]] of the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' gave the film one-and-a-half out of four stars and called it "old-fashioned filmmaking at its worst," with "one of the phoniest stories you can imagine."<ref name="Siskel">{{cite news |last1=Siskel |first1=Gene |author1-link=Gene Siskel |title='Boys' doesn't make the Grade |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/80403155/ |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |date=10 October 1978 |page=II-2 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=26 July 2023 |archive-date=26 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230726111333/https://www.newspapers.com/article/80403155/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Charles Champlin]] of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' wrote "It is penny-dreadful stuff, sumptuously executed but still as shallow as a Saturday serial. One exasperation of ''The Boys From Brazil'' is that, even accepting the biological possibility of the premise, the script by Heywood Gould never confronts any of the interesting questions raised."<ref>Champlin, Charles (October 5, 1978). "Clone Caper in 'Brazil'". ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''. Part IV, p. 1.</ref> Gary Arnold of ''[[The Washington Post]]'' called it "admirably crafted and surprisingly effective," and "a snazzy pop entertainment synthesis of accumulating suspense, detective work, pseudoscientific speculation and historical wish fulfillment."<ref>{{cite news |date=5 October 1978 |last1=Arnold |first1=Gary |author1-link=Gary Arnold |title=The Crafty Chill of 'Boys From Brazil' |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1978/10/05/the-crafty-chill-of-boys-from-brazil/0f5fcb88-3527-4507-8210-22b8a60da376/ |newspaper=[[Washington Post]] |pages=B1, B13 |access-date=5 June 2022 |archive-date=4 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201204021033/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1978/10/05/the-crafty-chill-of-boys-from-brazil/0f5fcb88-3527-4507-8210-22b8a60da376/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Pauline Kael]] of ''[[The New Yorker]]'' wrote "If the film wants to be taken as a cautionary fable—another one!—about the ever-present dangers of Nazism, then it should leave viewers with a sense of menace that Mengele's 'boys from Brazil' constitute. Instead, we get Lieberman's fuddy-duddy humanism and vague assurances that the boys are not really dangerous. And this is supposed to be a movie."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Kael |first=Pauline |date=October 9, 1978 |title=The Current Cinema |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |page=168 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1978/10/09/the-current-cinema-68 |access-date=2022-05-04 |archive-date=2022-06-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220605150444/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1978/10/09/the-current-cinema-68 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Jack Kroll]] of ''[[Newsweek]]'' wrote that "the thoughts aren't quite deep enough even for a thriller...Heywood Gould's reasonably suspenseful screenplay blows it by suddenly turning Lieberman into a kindly old Jewish uncle instead of a man who is willing to face the tough paradoxes of good and evil."<ref>Kroll, Jack (October 9, 1978). "Little Hitlers". ''[[Newsweek]]''. p. 92.</ref> Scholars have used the film's idea of controlling an individual's genetics and upbringing to illustrate the difficulties of reconciling traditional views of free will with modern neuroscience.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Zeki|first1=S.|last2=Goodenough|first2=O. R.|last3=Greene|first3=Joshua|last4=Cohen|first4=Jonathan|date=2004-11-29|title=For the law, neuroscience changes nothing and everything|journal= Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences|language=en|volume=359|issue=1451|pages=1775–1785|doi=10.1098/rstb.2004.1546|pmc=1693457|pmid=15590618}}</ref>
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