The film begins with the son, Hermann, visiting the scene of his father's atrocities at Auschwitz in May 1976. Following a map of the death camp he makes his way to Block 16a and stares in horror at the fading, decaying paintings of children on the walls. Heston's narration warns him of "the gravity of the situation" and tells him to "travel on a false passport" when he visits him in Brazil. The movie fast-forwards to 6 June 1985, an exhumation of a corpse believed to be Mengele is taking place at Embu, 17 miles from Soa Paulo, Brazil. A lawyer, Paul Minsky (F. Murray Abraham) is anxious to talk to Hermann, whom he knows to be the son of Mengele. The lawyer represents New York's Jewish community, and also a pair of twins who were mutilated by Mengele, and watches as Hermann is attacked by an elderly Jewish lady with an Auschwitz number tattoo on her wrist. Hermann reluctantly relates to Minsky his 1977 meeting when he visited his father in Brazil, and Minsky wants to know all the facts - not believing that the dug-up corpse is actually Mengele. The lawyer and his clients seek justice.
The movie is now back in 1977, and Hermann is met at the airport at Rio de Janeiro by his father's secret security guards, who warn him not to leave his hotel or go anywhere without their say-so. A ferocious angry mob gathers outside the hotel, chanting threats with "The murderer is still alive" placards, and a stone is hurled through his hotel window bearing the message "Bring the Nazi murderer to trial".
Hermann keeps having nightmares about his miserable childhood, being constantly bullied at school, and his teacher alienating him from his fellow pupils by refusing to read out his name, Mengele, during the morning roll-call. "They tolerated me but it was if I wasn't there" laments Hermann.
The reunion with his long-lost father is bitter, ice-cold and stressful. They stare at each other for ages before Mengele hugs his son, who doesn't respond in any positive way - "This wasn't the man I knew from my photographs". They drink German beer together in Mengele's sparse, but clean, shanty-town shack, but both are wary of each other. Hermann has difficulty associating the broken old man in front of him with the monster he has read so much about. The son hands over presents sent by some of his old German friends; books and a video of an old German movie, and then throws down on the table some old newspaper cuttings detailing Auschwitz atrocities. Old Mengele eyes the headlines with total contempt and scowls, "There's the real truth!", pointing to his journals.
Hermann thinks about all the strange things that happened in his childhood, how puzzled he was by his mother burning his "Uncle's" letters from Argentina as soon as she read them, and how he was scolded by her for exchanging his Argentinian stamps with his boyhood friend. On his 15th birthday he is told by a friend of the family her version of the "truth", and that his "Uncle" is really his father, whom he had always thought was dead. Totally shocked at this revelation he burns a photo of them both.
16 March 1977, neighbours and friends throw a surprise 66th birthday party for Mengele. A cake with candles is wheeled in and a little Brazilian girl sits on Mengele's knee ready to help him blow out the candles. "The children love him" says the adoring mother, but Hermann is revolted by seeing his father with that innocent child, and the nightmare of what he did to the children of Auschwitz flashes into his mind. He can't stand it any longer and goes outside the shack where he suddenly notices the high proportion of twins in the area. Is his father still doing his operations here in Brazil?
Hermann invites his friend Robert from Germany to stay at his hotel in Brazil - a friend who once turned his own Nazi father in to the authorities to stand trial. They get drunk together at a nightclub and enjoy the company of some willing young Brazilian beauties, but the fun soon ends when Robert demands that Hermann turns in his fugitive father. Unwilling to do so, Hermann and his friend quarrel fiercely. Unable to cope with his anxieties he points a gun at his sleeping father - but cannot pull the trigger - and shakily aims the gun at himself. Just then Mengele wakes up and looks disgusted at his trembling, weak son, and rolls over back to sleep. The next day Hermann is driven further into despair at the sight of his father laughing with some Brazilian children as they watch the Charlie Chaplin classic THE IMMIGRANT on his television. There is a violent confrontation between them when Mengele then plays the video that he has brought over from Germany, called DIE GOLDENE STADT. He ejects the tape and slams into the recorder a video of the starving children of Auschwitz. Later, a photo of a very pretty, obviously Aryan, young lady falls out of Hermann's passport. Mengele enquires who she is. Delighted that she is Hermann's fiancee, with blonde hair and blue eyes, Mengele says "We can expect fine off-spring from this marriage", which sends Hermann into a frenzied attempt to strangle his father. He tries to turn his father in at the police station but backs down, which makes him feverish and he unwittingly gives Robert his father's secret address. Robert returns to their hotel with photos of Mengele, and Hermann accuses him of being a gold-digger just out for the huge reward, so Robert rips them to pieces and demands that Hermann turns his father in - or he will do it himself.
Mengele suggests that they go on a trip to see the lush, beautiful rainforests of the Amazon. "Today we will show this Black Forest native a real forest!" They sit in stony silence on the boat trip, and when the coach gets stuck in the mud, they walk through the awe-inspiring scenic jungle surrounded by exotic vegatation and giant trees. Now, comes the final head-to-head confrontation between the pair. It's Heston's final big scene of his career and he goes out guns blazing. Heston puts on some music, and then relates his ideology to his son.
"Not all music is appropriate for such scenery ... but this is. Look around you. Here none of the trees grows at the correct distance from the next. Each plant has to share space with a dozen others fighting to reach the light. What you see here is a battle willed on which for millions of years now a silent war has been raged. Until now you have only seen the toy forests. We have made a mistake. That is true. You hoped I would declare my innocence and I hoped to explain myself to my son without having to justify anything. But all along you've been asking the wrong questions and I'll now answer what you never dared to ask. Even though the camp's ultimate aim was achieved in a primitive and unscientific fashion, science cannot ignore it's findings. Since man realised that he is not made in the image of God but descends from apes he has had to accept he is neither equal nor free, nor brotherly. But just like animals and plants, he is subject to the laws of evolution. These favour the strong and eliminate the weak. His false ideals such as loving thy neighbour and the sanctity of human life that has hampered the rigid law of selection. Our duty is to make the necessary choices which ensure the survival of stronger races. It is unavoidable that the Aid Programmes fighting hunger in the world favour the secondary breeds, but by saving these races from natural extinction the white race is carrying out an act of self-denial in the name of misguided cultural notions. Modern natural science has led man to a crossroads, now he must either divide a system of values that correspond with the laws of genetics or these laws will crush him."
Hermann now has proof that his father is still an unapologetic evil Nazi monster, and picks up a huge log to strike him with.
"So ... what are you waiting for? every boy dreams of killing his father at some point in his life",
The movie is now back in 1977, and Hermann is met at the airport at Rio de Janeiro by his father's secret security guards, who warn him not to leave his hotel or go anywhere without their say-so. A ferocious angry mob gathers outside the hotel, chanting threats with "The murderer is still alive" placards, and a stone is hurled through his hotel window bearing the message "Bring the Nazi murderer to trial".
Hermann keeps having nightmares about his miserable childhood, being constantly bullied at school, and his teacher alienating him from his fellow pupils by refusing to read out his name, Mengele, during the morning roll-call. "They tolerated me but it was if I wasn't there" laments Hermann.
The reunion with his long-lost father is bitter, ice-cold and stressful. They stare at each other for ages before Mengele hugs his son, who doesn't respond in any positive way - "This wasn't the man I knew from my photographs". They drink German beer together in Mengele's sparse, but clean, shanty-town shack, but both are wary of each other. Hermann has difficulty associating the broken old man in front of him with the monster he has read so much about. The son hands over presents sent by some of his old German friends; books and a video of an old German movie, and then throws down on the table some old newspaper cuttings detailing Auschwitz atrocities. Old Mengele eyes the headlines with total contempt and scowls, "There's the real truth!", pointing to his journals.
Hermann thinks about all the strange things that happened in his childhood, how puzzled he was by his mother burning his "Uncle's" letters from Argentina as soon as she read them, and how he was scolded by her for exchanging his Argentinian stamps with his boyhood friend. On his 15th birthday he is told by a friend of the family her version of the "truth", and that his "Uncle" is really his father, whom he had always thought was dead. Totally shocked at this revelation he burns a photo of them both.
16 March 1977, neighbours and friends throw a surprise 66th birthday party for Mengele. A cake with candles is wheeled in and a little Brazilian girl sits on Mengele's knee ready to help him blow out the candles. "The children love him" says the adoring mother, but Hermann is revolted by seeing his father with that innocent child, and the nightmare of what he did to the children of Auschwitz flashes into his mind. He can't stand it any longer and goes outside the shack where he suddenly notices the high proportion of twins in the area. Is his father still doing his operations here in Brazil?
Hermann invites his friend Robert from Germany to stay at his hotel in Brazil - a friend who once turned his own Nazi father in to the authorities to stand trial. They get drunk together at a nightclub and enjoy the company of some willing young Brazilian beauties, but the fun soon ends when Robert demands that Hermann turns in his fugitive father. Unwilling to do so, Hermann and his friend quarrel fiercely. Unable to cope with his anxieties he points a gun at his sleeping father - but cannot pull the trigger - and shakily aims the gun at himself. Just then Mengele wakes up and looks disgusted at his trembling, weak son, and rolls over back to sleep. The next day Hermann is driven further into despair at the sight of his father laughing with some Brazilian children as they watch the Charlie Chaplin classic THE IMMIGRANT on his television. There is a violent confrontation between them when Mengele then plays the video that he has brought over from Germany, called DIE GOLDENE STADT. He ejects the tape and slams into the recorder a video of the starving children of Auschwitz. Later, a photo of a very pretty, obviously Aryan, young lady falls out of Hermann's passport. Mengele enquires who she is. Delighted that she is Hermann's fiancee, with blonde hair and blue eyes, Mengele says "We can expect fine off-spring from this marriage", which sends Hermann into a frenzied attempt to strangle his father. He tries to turn his father in at the police station but backs down, which makes him feverish and he unwittingly gives Robert his father's secret address. Robert returns to their hotel with photos of Mengele, and Hermann accuses him of being a gold-digger just out for the huge reward, so Robert rips them to pieces and demands that Hermann turns his father in - or he will do it himself.
Mengele suggests that they go on a trip to see the lush, beautiful rainforests of the Amazon. "Today we will show this Black Forest native a real forest!" They sit in stony silence on the boat trip, and when the coach gets stuck in the mud, they walk through the awe-inspiring scenic jungle surrounded by exotic vegatation and giant trees. Now, comes the final head-to-head confrontation between the pair. It's Heston's final big scene of his career and he goes out guns blazing. Heston puts on some music, and then relates his ideology to his son.
"Not all music is appropriate for such scenery ... but this is. Look around you. Here none of the trees grows at the correct distance from the next. Each plant has to share space with a dozen others fighting to reach the light. What you see here is a battle willed on which for millions of years now a silent war has been raged. Until now you have only seen the toy forests. We have made a mistake. That is true. You hoped I would declare my innocence and I hoped to explain myself to my son without having to justify anything. But all along you've been asking the wrong questions and I'll now answer what you never dared to ask. Even though the camp's ultimate aim was achieved in a primitive and unscientific fashion, science cannot ignore it's findings. Since man realised that he is not made in the image of God but descends from apes he has had to accept he is neither equal nor free, nor brotherly. But just like animals and plants, he is subject to the laws of evolution. These favour the strong and eliminate the weak. His false ideals such as loving thy neighbour and the sanctity of human life that has hampered the rigid law of selection. Our duty is to make the necessary choices which ensure the survival of stronger races. It is unavoidable that the Aid Programmes fighting hunger in the world favour the secondary breeds, but by saving these races from natural extinction the white race is carrying out an act of self-denial in the name of misguided cultural notions. Modern natural science has led man to a crossroads, now he must either divide a system of values that correspond with the laws of genetics or these laws will crush him."
Hermann now has proof that his father is still an unapologetic evil Nazi monster, and picks up a huge log to strike him with.
"So ... what are you waiting for? every boy dreams of killing his father at some point in his life",
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