tooth necklace/bracelet? - The Boys from Brazil (1978) Discussion

[–] pacheco_25553 20 years ago

That's a very good question. I never understood the significance of the necklace and why it appears at the end.

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[–] michaelb-36 19 years ago

Like others here, the significance escapes me. However, i did notice something when watching the film again last night. When Menegele rows his boat across the lake (or river) to the abandoned building that was the hospital (where the clones were born)... he reaches down and picks up the bracelet or necklace from the rubble on the floor. He takes it with him. How it got there and who owned or lost it there is a mystery. Perhaps there were deleted scenes in the original cut that explained this but they did not make it back in for the tv/dvd cut? Who knows?

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[–] brucevodka 9 years ago

Hi it's been bothering me for years also the reference frau maloney makes to idlewild airport. So I contacted the writer of the film (email is great aint it) and here are the answers. Enjoy this great film.

Thanks for your note. Frau Maloney thinks the Idlewild reference is a piece of inside info that shows how American she is. I love Utra Hagen's reading of that line. The shark's teeth are an expression of Bobby's inchoate predatory nature. He doesn't understand, of course, the violent urges he feels or why he wants to achieve power over others.

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[–] CalDexter 20 years ago

I have not read the book, i have just seen the film. Perhaps the bracelet was Hitler's and was given to mengele to serve as a reminder of him if the cloning of his cells was a failure, hence Bobby has it hanging in his camera developing room, not realising that he is a duplicate of the original owner. In short, genius!

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[–] joe_mcmercer 20 years ago

Don't guess. Don't look for a farfetched explanation. The link is simple as the tooth bracelet is a reference to the real Mangele's profession: he was a dentist.

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[–] nawadaha 20 years ago

The review says that the real life Dr. Josef Mengele was a dentist, and that the movie fictitiouly portrayed him as an MD and a Ph.D. Actually, I have read a lot about this monster, and the exact reverse is true: Mengele really was an MD and had a Ph.D., whereas he was never a dentist in real life. So, better find another explanation for the tooth bracelet.

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[–] wcspiderfan 20 years ago

I just finished watching the movie on A&E. Luckily, for this discussion, I was watching it with my history buff boyfriend. He said Hitler had this necklace made for Mengele. We don't know why and he doesn't remember anything else about it. But for some reason, the necklace was stuck in his memory. It's not explained in the movie at all though.

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[–] therealman 20 years ago

The Nazi's used to do a lot of disgusting things. They would skin Jews and use their skin to make lamp shades. Jewelry made from murdered Jews is not out of the question.

BTW. I read the book and the Necklace is not mentioned in the book.

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[–] slangislayer 20 years ago

I just remembered something: Hitler comitted suicide and was burned beyond recognition, he was only identified because of his dental record. Maybe these are Hitler´s teeth?

It´s a strange world.
Let´s keep it that way.

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[–] Wiscodizard 20 years ago

Unless Hitler had some pretty freakish teeth, I don't think those could be his. Actually, I don't think they could be human teeth at all. I even doubt they're animal teeth, unless we're talking ivory tusks or sperm whale teeth (even then the yellowish tinge and translucency is all wrong).
As for what they're doing there: I never could figure it out for the information given in the movie.

Azoi toot a Yid,
Duncan

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[–] Wiscodizard 20 years ago

Yep. He was also vegetarian. Not exactly the sort of guy to use dog teeth. Plus they're awfully large for dog teeth. I've given up on figuring out what they're made of. Unfortunately I haven't given up on what they mean.

Azoi toot a Yid.

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[–] cindog 15 years ago

They look "freakish" because they aren't teeth at all. They are bear claws (or that of some other large animal). So knowing that, can anyone provide some logical reason for their significance in the movie. I personally like the comment that the whole bracelet thing was edited out because of lack of significance to the story line, but for some reason or another it was edited back in for the cut used on TV.

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[–] bietepulp 20 years ago

to therealman!!!!

You have to check the accuracy of your information
i studied the holocaust at the university
there are a lot of fairytails and spookstories going around about what they did with the jews in WWII.
They also tell they made soap from the jews their bones.

This is all nonsense!!! So they didn' use their skin to made lamps from it either!!

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[–] Wiscodizard 20 years ago

Yeah, there's no conclusive evidence that suggests human skin lamps of soap, but there are things like shrunken heads and pieces of skin with tatoos on them that were collected as "momentoes" by some Nazi officers and their wives. Though it certainly wasn't some widespread phenomenon amongst Nazis, it was still there.

Azoi toot a Yid.

PS - I think the StraightDope once answered the question about the lamp and brought up where the false allegations came from as well as the shrunken head claims (which turned out to be true).

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[–] nadaone23 19 years ago

These are not teeth, but claws.

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[–] ljackson-16 19 years ago

Personally they looked like bear claws to me.
The whole end scene of the bracelet seemed kinda odd. My thinking is that not only did the boy take pictures of the dead Mengele, but he took this bracelet... perhaps the boy took more than just the bracelet.
For clarification on what I mean... perhaps some of Mengele's words were not just brushed off by the boy. Like in court, one of the lawyers may say something that the judge would say to the jury to disregard. The thing is that even though they are not supposed to take those words into account, but all the same the people of the jury cannot just erase them from their memory.

I don't know, maybe I'm over thinking this.

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[–] razorbak-4 15 years ago

Go to this link for some pictures & explanations of Nazi human skin "souveneirs":

http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Dachauscrapbook/DachauTrials/IlseKoch.html

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] sleepisforthesane 20 years ago

Ilsa Koch, wife of the Commondant of Buchenwald concentration camp, used to inspect new arrivals with interesting tatoos. When she saw one that she liked the prisoner was killed immediately, their skin flayed and cured, and used as various decorative objects.

She had a lamp made out of a human fibia (or tibia, I forget), handbags made out of skin, and lightswitches made out of human thumbs.

These are all documented facts, these things did happen.

Every day is talk like a Pirate day!

Sleep interferes with my paranoia

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[–] developmentworker 19 years ago

Skin with tattoos made into lamp shades is fact. Like you say.

I've been to sachsenhausen, Birkenau, Aushwitz and Terezinstadt concentration camps and i have seen the skin lamp shades.

As for the dog teeth. completely confused.
thought the kid was spooky as *beep*

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[–] morten-meng 17 years ago

Ilse Koch and a few other freaks _did_ bizarre things. But these acts were extremely rare, and considered bad taste. The Holocaust was about killing as many people (Jews, Gypsies and others) as efficiently as possible. So the more extreme cases and myths are really off the point. Neither soap nor lampshades were a part of the official policy. Actually the killings in the Gulag concentration camps of the Soviet Union were a lot more "cruel" than the "orderly" killing in Nazi Germany.

Here's a painting by a Ukrainian, Nikolai Getman, who survived Stalin's camps:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Punishment_By_Mosquitoes.jpg

Mengele was a MD, not a dentist.

By the way: A new remake of the Ira Levin novel by Brett Ratner as director from a script by Richard Potter and Matthew Stravitz is planned for 2008 or 2009.

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[–] mansamusa25 19 years ago

The NAzi's did way more twisted *beep* then that

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[–] Leelu76 18 years ago

Uhhhhhhh, than that guy had really big sharp fangs.
I think it's more probable that they were the teeth of some sort of large carnivore, like a bear or big cat.
That wasn't supposed to sound as bitchy as it reads. :)

"Lighten up Francis!"

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[–] endy9 15 years ago

When I saw the tooth bracelet (something gross, not something one of the mother's would have had) it made me think of the concentration camps, where parts of dead bodies were harvested and used to make soap, etc. I thought the teeth bracelet was a reference to the evil of the nazi's, Mengele's experiements, there mistreatment of so many people. Who else would keep a bracelet of extracted teeth?

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[–] Samantha_LB 19 years ago

The review says that the real life Dr. Josef Mengele was a dentist, and that the movie fictitiouly portrayed him as an MD and a Ph.D. Actually, I have read a lot about this monster, and the exact reverse is true: Mengele really was an MD and had a Ph.D., whereas he was never a dentist in real life. So, better find another explanation for the tooth bracelet.

Do your homework children. Mengele was not a dentist, he was a MD/PhD. He was the Chief Medical Officer at Birkenau, and worked as a patholgist (Both of which are doctor's positions) while there.
For the basics, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mengele (ignore the bit about the dautgher however...that's a long repeated rumour, and cannot be proven) and http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/history/mengele/aus_4.html if you care do actually do some homework.

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[–] 19 years ago

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[–] nawadaha 18 years ago

Um, Samantha, that's exactly what I said. So, you should try insulting someone else.

"Of all the word of mice and men, the saddest are 'It might have been.'"

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[–] Samantha_LB 18 years ago

Um, Samantha, that's exactly what I said. So, you should try insulting someone else.

I actually wasn't meaning that *towards* you, more quoting it so people knew what I was replying to.

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] Neil McG 18 years ago

Just saw the film last night. Back to the original question and the point of the teeth on the bracelet, is it not a sly mythical reference to the tale of Jason and the Argonauts, where an army of skeletons sprouted from the sowed dragon's teeth? Given that it's a film about cloning something evil. There were quite a few nice visual motifs for cloning in the film - loved the scene where the fist clone is seen standing in the hallway between two mirrors, creating the effect of an infinite row of boys. Nice.

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[–] Neil McG 18 years ago

Just saw the film last night. Back to the original question and the point of the teeth on the bracelet, is it not a sly mythical reference to the tale of Jason and the Argonauts, where an army of skeletons sprouted from the sowed dragon's teeth? Given that it's a film about cloning something evil. There were quite a few nice visual motifs for cloning in the film - loved the scene where the fist clone is seen standing in the hallway between two mirrors, creating the effect of an infinite row of boys. Nice.

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[–] Loplop-2 18 years ago

Probably wolf's teeth, considering the mythical use of wolfs in the nazi era. Symbolizes ruthless strength.

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[–] edwardrevans 18 years ago

the Teeth must have some relevence or why close the film on that shot?

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[–] chainmail311 18 years ago

Not teeth. Doesn't look like teeth at all. If it's wolves claw, then it works against the first cloned animal, the sheep. But I don't know if the sheep was cloned before 1978, when the film was released.

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[–] quirkr 18 years ago

In the closing shot of the movie the necklace is hanging in a way that resembles a swastika.

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[–] chainmail311 18 years ago

quite possibly, but that's a mild stretch.

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[–] angelofvic 17 years ago

Sheep was not cloned till 1996.
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[–] dreadnoughtxx 18 years ago

Yes they are deffinatly claws and not teeth. I dont know how the whole "teeth" thing got started. I think its a symbol of evil. It starts in the hospital where the mothers give birth to the clones and ends with the psycho kid bobby.

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[–] Samantha_LB 18 years ago

After reading the book...they are explained to have believed to one of the surrgot mothers, to give her strength and courage - hince him taking it when he needed the same.

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[–] dude22blue 17 years ago

Ok let me assure you all that the teeth in question are shark teeth. I actually have a necklace with one huge tooth surrounded with two smaller onces. Why shark teeth? I have no idea.

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] Cszemis 17 years ago

I believe the bracelet/necklace is supposed to remind Mengele of Hitler and he takes it for emotional support.

If you actually read the book he finds the chain of claws in the hut and is surprised to find it actually. He had the building gutted so that Jewish gangs could not guess what he had been up to there. He supposes it belonged to one of the native children but he's struck with how ferocious the claws are.

Hitler was often called the Wolf, one of his bases was called the Wolf's lair. I think Mengele is supposed to see the claws as a sign from Hitler that he must continue to kill the fathers, even if he has to do it all by himself. It's like being struck down with money worries and then finding something valuable that belonged to one of your dead parents. You automatically see it as a sign, that they are trying to help you. I believe thats what the claws represent but there's no coicidence that its hung with certain claws pointing out like a swastika. It's an image thats not really necessary.

They may end up with Bobby Wheelock because Hitler was the wolf and this is a way of giving Bobby his first set of claws. But I don't think Bobby could become Hitler. He saw what a Nazi had done to his father and no matter how cruel his father had been to him, Bobby's honour will always stand against the Nazis. So in the end I think they got Bobby wrong in the film. He would be more likely to seek revenge for his father than join Nazis or create a Forth Reich of Aryans.

SirHumphrey: Politicians like to panic, they need activity. It's their substitute for achievement

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[–] angelofvic 17 years ago

Thank you, Cszemis. They are claws, and not teeth.

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[–] WarpedRecord 14 years ago

Superb explanation! Thanks for elaborating with the description from the book. I was confused by the necklace of claws also (I thought teeth), and I'm glad to see I'm not the only one. This thread is at seven pages and counting ...

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[–] transmentalist 14 years ago

But I don't think Bobby could become Hitler. He saw what a Nazi had done to his father and no matter how cruel his father had been to him, Bobby's honour will always stand against the Nazis

Of COURSE Bobby wouldn't join the Nazis. He'd join some ultranationalist American group and rise to leadership there. They would call everyone else "Nazis," while labeling themselves "true Americans" ... or maybe "Tea Partiers."

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[–] Cszemis 17 years ago

And additional information, again Bobby is not the one who is meant to become Hitler.

In the book there is a boy who is an artist but he daydreams about great men and how great men should act/behave/appear.

He likes the fact his father is dead because it means he finally has some breathing space and can concentrate on his painting.

So only one of the Hitler's ends up correct. I wonder what the world would have been like if Hitler had been accepted into art school. The YJD in the book should make sure to get the artist into an art school so he doesn't wander into politics

SirHumphrey: Politicians like to panic, they need activity. It's their substitute for achievement

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[–] angelofvic 17 years ago

I collected shark teeth for many many many years, and none of them look like that. Shark teeth are black, and either T-shaped or perfect triangles. Not curvy and clawlike, and not white.

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[–] JPFmv 17 years ago

After Mengele recovers the necklace from the ruined hospital where the children were born, he has circled the name of one particular clone (Wheelock) on the main chart that we see get destroyed by the other neo-Nazis.

From this I gather that the necklace belonged to the surrogate mother of this particular clone and that Mengele felt this one merited special attention. Perhaps he feels this one is most likely to become "the one" ... perhaps because of his mother...

The necklace itself appears to be something crafted by aboriginals of the Amazon jungle, which would logically be where many of the surrogate mothers came from for his secret experiments.

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[–] angelofvic 17 years ago

No, see above -- Hitler gave the necklace to Mengele. It's straight from the book. It's necklace of claws.

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[–] kathleen28262 16 years ago

I've read this book many times. The bracelet belonged to one of the surrogate mothers who was a tribeswoman (the book says that the cloned babies 'bore no taint' of their surrogate mothers who were just used to carry the babies to term). Mengele took it to remind him of what he had accomplished and probably to give him a psychological boost as he was struggling to keep his project going forward.

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[–] LatigoMeans 16 years ago

I remember reading that as well in the book.
I do like that Jason and the Argonauts reference... cool idea though not the author's intention.

~LjM
Put your pants on, Spartacus!

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[–] pillfeast 16 years ago

I don't think the film ever directly attributes any meaning to it, they're just there to look cruel. Extrapolating a little you could say that since Mengele wasn't born with claws he had to borrow some.

The police shall receive no sandwiches!

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[–] DaveHasNoTimeForAnyOfThisBull 11 years ago

If you want to look at meaning you have to see the latent (blatant) meaning first. The child is collecting dead animal parts because he is slowly turning into a psychopath himself. He is relishing in sending his dogs on the man who killed his father and is going to seek more victims in the future. And then the movie itself says it's absurd for the doctor to think he can remake an absolute Hitler, but he can make more psychopaths.

I will not change this signature until Perceptor is the chosen one in a Transformers movie.

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[–] enfilmigult 16 years ago

According to the IMDb here the original cut *did* have it, but some European video versions removed the bracelet entirely (resulting in a more upbeat ending). This is no longer the case, I guess; I have the UK Blu-ray of this and it's got everything, bracelet and all.

Anyway, they do show it not only when Mengele visits the hospital, but in the flashbacks he has while he's there. I looked away for a moment and might have missed a really clear shot showing who owned it, but I just assumed it belonged to one of the "mothers," who then left it behind.

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[–] vpilutis 15 years ago

I first saw the film on HBO in late 1979 or early 1980s and I got the VHS a few years later both end with the hospital scene as did the FOX network broadcast tonight's TCM showing was a new thing for me.

20th Centery FOX did something different with OMEN III as well when I saw it on HBO it ends with Sam Neil being stabbed with the magic knive and then a figure (who's face we don't see) walks over to the female lead, film ends and yet on a horror film review special they show a big glowing figure of Jesus which is right?
In any case in "OMEN four" Jesus is no where to be seen as if he never came back

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] vpilutis 9 years ago

Yeah well I hear he's not easy to work with, a real pain in the holy ass.

lol

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