Image Courtesy of Amazon.com
Director:
John Singleton
Cast:
Mark Wahlberg……….Bobby Mercer
Tyrese Gibson……….Angel Mercer
André Benjamin……….Jeremiah Mercer
Garrett Hedlund……….Jack Mercer
Terrence Howard……….Lt. Green
Josh Charles……….Detective Fowler
SofÃÂa Vergara……….Sofi
Fionnula Flanagan……….Evelyn Mercer
Chiwetel Ejiofor……….Victor Sweet
The Movie
The first thing they teach in any family communication class is that any group of people who refers to themselves as a family is automatically considered one. And for Jeremiah (Andre 3000), Bobby (Mark Wahlberg), Angel (Tyrese Gibson) and Jack (Garret Hedlund), the only family they really had was the one provided by Evelyn Mercer (Fionnula Flanagan). As four juvenile delinquents who couldn’t be placed outside of the foster home of Ms. Mercer, they were taken in and raised as her own. And when she’s gunned down, seemingly the innocent victim of a robbery, the four embark on a mission of revenge to get to the bottom of her death. From there it’s a quagmire of plot twists, complications, gunfights and gorgeous cinematography to get the bottom of it all in the latest urbanized western in Four Brothers.
Based loosely off the John Wayne vehicle The Sons of Katie Elder, Four Brothers is in the same vein as Assault on Precinct 13 in that it takes the same plot elements of the western of years gone by (Assault used elements from Rio Bravo) and meshes them with the modern western in the crime genre. Directed by John Singleton, Four Brothers is the latest in a new wave of movies inspired by plots of movies from yesteryear. Following the formula of a revenge film to a stunning degree, Singleton meshes the Western into an urban setting with great results.
The Western motif begins with the characters, in this case the brothers Mercer. Bobby is the overly macho alpha male, Angel is a ladies man, Jack is the silent creative type and Jeremiah is a family man who tries to avoid violence. And that’s about it in terms of character development, but to spend any serious time in Four Brothers on character development would take away from the film. From the film’s opening stance, the pace is fast and efficient to match the group’s need for revenge. Singleton keeps moving the plot forward without slowing the film down, adding in several twists and turns; slow points could take the wheels off this urban vehicle, and Singleton’s relentless focus keeps the film from going astray.
Singleton wisely opts to develop his characters over the long haul with little, effective things that are lifted from the Western genre. Bobby and Angel are the dominant males with Jeremiah and Jack as subservient little brothers, but it’s established with little things. Bobby puts up a brave front, saving his tears for his mother for private moments, but his rage clouds his judgment and his brothers follow him almost begrudgingly. Angel is a former marine who gave up the sort of criminal behavior Bobby embraces, but at the same time he jumps whole-heartedly into it. Jack follows the lead of his older brothers, while Jeremiah has to be forced into the action despite his protestations. Add on to these pair of cops, one dirty (Josh Charles) and one trying to do the right thing (Terrence Howard), and an absolutely vicious villain (Chiwetal Ejiofor) and you have all the elements of the western presented with a hip-hop soundtrack.
The four have a strong chemistry with each other. With four roles with a little meat and lots of action, Four Brothers could descend into direct to video level acting quickly. Gibson, Andre, Hedlund and Wahlberg throw themselves into their roles with a near reckless abandon. Wahlberg in particular seems to be having the time of his life; he gets to curse, beat people up, and shoot his mouth off as often as possible.
The characters themselves are basic archetypes from westerns such as The Wild Bunch and Rio Bravo. Singleton isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel; he’s just taking what works and running with it. It may not be a great film, but it is a good one.
Score : 7.5 / 10
The Video
Presented in a widescreen format, Four Brothers is a great transfer from the big screen to the small one. With a sense of bleakness and the sort of cinematography of classic westerns in evident already, Singleton’s vision looks fantastic.
The Audio
Presented in a Dolby Digital format, the film sounds as good as it looks. There’s a great separation of the sound; this is an action based film with lots of dialogue and both come in loud and clear.
The Extras
Nine Deleted scenes from the film’s cutting floor are provided and it’s easy to see why they were cut from the film. While offering a little more about the characters and some choice moments that would’ve been entertaining in the main feature but they slow the film’s pace down considerably.
The Look of Four Brothers is a feature on the film and how they were able to mesh the sort of Western style-shooting with an urban setting. Running around 10 minutes, it features the cast, Singleton the director of photography and other crew members talking about how they shot the film and just how they were able to create the landscape of Detroit and give it the sort of ghost-town feeling shown through old Westerns. It’s fascinating on many levels as the principles talk about they crafted each character’s look to their respective actor’s body type, et al, as they show a real craft in developing characters. With little paid to actual character development, there has to be a certain look with each character in order to give the appearance of a fleshed out character as opposed to just a character type.
Crafting Four Brothers is a 10 minute featurette on how the writers were able to take the sort of spaghetti-western atmosphere and bring it to the urban setting. It’s interesting to hear how they crafted each character without anyone in particular in mind in terms of race, et al, as they developed the characters as brothers who are different but not typed as being a member of any particular race, creed or nationality. It’s also interesting to hear how they were able to craft certain scenes and iconic shots from the Western genre and adapt them to their screenplay.
Behind the Brotherhood follows the reasons why the film was made. It’s interesting to hear how they worked with each other and how they sort of related to each other on the same sort of level as their characters did. The other three brothers talk about how they let Wahlberg sort of lead them as he has the most acting experience and how Benjamin and Hedlund followed Wahlberg and Gibson’s lead. It’s also interesting to hear Singleton talk about his actors and how he crafted their talents to the roles in his direction.
Mercer House Shootout focuses on the film’s big action sequence as the bad guys storm the Mercer house. Running around four minutes it’s a unique behind the scenes look at just how they crafted an urban look at the standard of western films: the big shootout.
Commentary by Director John Singleton
Theatrical trailer
Score : 9 / 10
