Did Mengele ever see the film?

[deleted]

Mengele died around March 1979 so unless he saw it at the cinema he wouldn't have seen it, unless he downloaded it off the internet when it came out on dvd a little while later :)

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I would tend to doubt it. Josef Mengele died on February 7, 1979. So, yes, he 'could' have seen it. But unlike the wealthy mansion he resided in in the film. He actually lived close to poverty. Longed to be back in Germany. And was tired of living and very lonely.

I don't think his frame of mind would have given him the curiosity to see a film about, to him, what would have been an impossible dream. And then to be killed by dobermans, to cap it oall off!.... No. I really don't think so.

Doubtless, he heard about it. And there is a possibility he may have read Ira Levin's book, which the movie was based on. But somehow I really don't think so.

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I think he did and hated it, I sure I saw a documentry on this.

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[deleted]

Another intriguing discussion!! Let's try to reason this out. First, if you look in the release section for THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL right here

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077269/releaseinfo

You'll see that there was a release of the film as both

Meninos do Brasil -- Brazil
Niños de Brasil, Los -- Argentina

which proves that the film was brought to South America in general and Brazil in particular, though sadly no dates are given (there's a vacation project for some archivist film buff to work on). The stated USA release date was 5 October 1978, and intriguingly Portugal with 6 April 1979, which does confirm that a Portuguese language (or subtitled, you never know) version was made though it may not have made it to Brazil as "Meninos do Brasil" in time for Mengele to see it before buying his farm.

Extrapolating further, if we look at Mengele's Wikipedia page (seems like everyone's got one nowadays)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mengele

we see again the date of bucket kicking as February 7, 1979, which was well before the release in Portugal on April 6 or even the French release 30 May 1979. If the French didn't even get their version of the film until the end of May it stands within reason to suppose that South American releases came even later: the Philippines didn't get the film until 6 May 1980, so unless Sao Paulo was on a special distribution list it's safe to presume that the film probably didn't open in South America until well into the summer of 1979 at the earliest, by which time Mr. Mengele had comfortably assumed room temperature.

Also, if we go back to the Wiki page there is this excerpt that is of interest:

... he lived in a bungalow in a suburb of São Paulo for the last years of his life. In 1977, his only son Rolf, never having known his father before, visited him there and found an unrepentant Nazi who claimed he "had never personally harmed anyone in his whole life."

Mengele, whose health had deteriorated for years, died on February 7, 1979, in Bertioga, Brazil, where he accidentally drowned or, in another version, suffered a stroke while swimming in the sea. He was buried in Embu das Artes under the name "Wolfgang Gerhard," whose ID-card he had used since 1976.

Two thoughts come to mind: Old Nazis on the run with ailing health living in bungalos in Sao Paulo, Brazi, probably would not have had much access to film trade press by which to have been aware that a film regarding him was even being made. And given his predicament and apparent zest for anonymity it strikes me as being profoundly unwise to go see a film that tells of one's epic crimes against humanity, especially if the Mossad are out there looking for you.

I think the post-mortem release date of 6 April of this supposed Portuguese version in Portugal rules out whatever opportunity he had to see it in a mass screening setting in Brazil. But it's an intriguing idea nonetheless! I also do recall reading in a 1979 issue of "The Book of Lists" that Hitler did indeed order a print of THE LITTLE DICTATOR brought to him in Germany and as one other poster states he watched it several times, though his reaction to the film was never recorded for the public record.

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[deleted]

Quite unlikely. Supposing that the film was released in Sao Paulo just before he died in February 1979,he might not even have heard of it. According to the excellent book on Mengele written by Gerald Posner and John Ware, in his last years he was a miserable wreck that lived a lonely life in a humble bungalow in the outskirts of Sao Paulo. He had a German friend couple who knew his real identity and were his only via of communication with his family in Germany, and then he had a neighbour woman to look after his house and a young lad who often kept him company. His Portuguese was not very fluent, and he often complained of his frustration for not being able to hold intellectual discussions with the boy. He very seldom went out at all because he always feared someone might recognise him even as an old man. So, even if he had heard about the film and there was a chance to see it in the town, that would be the last thing he would ever do. But he might have read Ira Levin's book, since he was a keen reader and even while on hiding he used to receive a regular supply of medical magazines and books of all sorts through his contacts.

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