Brothers of War (2015)

I have watched this twice and enjoyed it even more the second time. It is a film about people not war. Complex personalities and how they interact, against a backdrop of simple lives in simpler times. As long as you appreciate that this is a character study more than a war film you will get a lot out of it. There are some very believable personalities in this film and it was an absolute delight to be greeted with some unfamiliar faces for a change, who nevertheless had an abundance of talent to match any of the current circuit of Hollywood heroes and heroines. Very watchable, and that's coming from someone who avoided Saving Private Ryan for years because of its war context. I was made to watch Brothers of War originally but very pleasantly surprised. Please give it a shot.

Having been involved in around 100 productions myself from no/low budget to Hollywood I can see one thing that everyone involved in this film believed in. While watching this of course I can see a few holes but what films don't. In my humble opinion those holes appear for a number of reasons with financial constraints in my experience can harm a truly outstanding script. What Brothers of War does is make the very best of the creative talent that I can see stretched themselves to the limit. Am sure the days was long and very few people moaned as they all knew what could be achieved when all pulling in the same direction. The results on screen are quite simply astounding and like I said earlier when making a film with very little budget its a miracle everyday to shoot something never mind put out a film which can be seen and in this case be proud of. My hat is tipped to those that inspired the monumental work ethic that all the cast and crew put into the making of Brothers of War and I for one would work with anyone involved on their next productions. Watch this and see what I saw and you will watch in awe at the talent we have in the UK independent film industry and I for one will be watching what they do next. Well done everyone.

Contains Spoilers!Just as my faith in the British Film Industry is beginning to wane, along comes a real gem!'Brothers of War' is a proper war film in that it concentrates on the impact of war and not just on moments of combat - which are actually few and far between in a film which is misleadingly packaged as an action movie.The story kicks off in Cologne with two German brothers discovering secrets of their ancestry in a letter left in their father's will. So begins an unravelling of the past; a journey with loads of twists and turns and a number of horrific incidents as well!On a small English farm back in 1939 two brothers are fighting over the same girl and the parents have made the problem worse by having 'favourites'. The brotherly rivalry finally comes to a head one afternoon when the older one starts to show off by playing Russian Roulette. What actually happens on the farm that afternoon isn't entirely clear until the end of the film, but the incident leaves the gung-ho brother shot and paralysed, and the other (more gentle soul) ready to enlist for battle. The story then follows the fortunes of the two brothers: one who is wheelchair bound, unable to speak and forced to watch his parents slowly destroy themselves, while the younger one runs away from the fighting and starts to work for the French Resistance. Despite a couple of military blunders (I'm sure the aggressive Sergeant Major would have insisted on closer haircuts for all his regiment!), the war scenes are generally well-handled. The massacre of the British soldiers is particularly horrifying, and the torture of the pregnant young French girl by the SD Officers is genuinely shocking!The story is beautifully told and the cinematography is stunning - so is the sound track - although I would have liked a few more moments of silence in some of the scenes.Don't watch this film if you want all-out war action, because you don't get it. What you get instead is a really powerful and convincing story which will leave you both uplifted and drained! Great film! British film-making at its best!

There is nothing redeeming about watching Brothers of War. The story lacked any and all forms of depth, as did the frigid characters that were so very hard to even remotely care about. I was either very uneasy during this film, or very preoccupied with watching my neighbour's fence dry after a fresh coat of linen white paint. The cringe-worthy attempt to create something meaningful with emotional depth, came short as a possible result of the writer/director not having the life experience to show us what life is really like. The real mystery here is how this film got $1.7m to get made. I wonder if the said investors are hunting the filmmaker for their money back. But hell, maybe they enjoyed the film. Maybe they just had no taste to begin with. That money would have been better spent making a documentary about the making of the worst sweeping war epic ever made. That would have made a much better film, although I would probably be writing a very similar review for it, had it been made instead. And please...please, do not dare to make it now.