Brother (1/25/19)

     I loved the sort of breathing that this film did. That is the only way I can describe it. Each scene fades out and the pops back into view, almost rhythmically. Each scene gave us a moment to take everything in after it has completed it's action. Even with these breaks for us to collect ourselves and calm down it is still super action packed and intense from start to finish. I think that main reason that it is so intense is that we really don't know what is going to happen to our main character or our main character's brother. With the opening scene of this film where we meet our protagonist's mother, we get a really good sense of what family means to this character, and we get a good sense of the trauma him and his family have endured. From the loss of his father to the sort of change in his older brother from older brother to father. The relationship this forms and the bond that exists in this way and the way that the plot is sort of introduced makes us worried for not only for the main character but for his brother as well. In this world of danger that they live in every move they make together seems risky and it gets to a point to a point where from what were shown, we're more worried about the brother than the main character. This is because the brother seems to be a little bit too comfortable in his large apartment with many jobs and many days in the city under his belt. We hear German say that the city makes you weak and this does seem to be the case for the brother. As for our protagonist, he uses the city to help him, he becomes part of the city, I guess we are to assume that the brother has gone through this same process previously but it is still fun to watch the hero go around helping people in his unnecessarily violent ways.

     I liked how comfort and stagnation are sort of shown as the bad guys in this film. Whenever things are still there is more tension, we know the longer you are in the city the more docile you become this is definitely the case for the brother. Our hero moves though, almost constantly, we only get breajs when the screen is black, when he is still something is going to go wrong, it's interesting. He is never comfortable either, he lives in the dingiest apartment and on the street, he patrols the gutters and the back alleys and this is where he finds his friends. This sort of nomad character with the questionable friends along with his sort of versatility on the city streets shows that comfort is the enemy, excess is the enemy. You should only have what you absolutely need. What makes this even more interesting is the fact that this film is the first instance of western products we've seen in a film in this course, and there are a lot of them. From the opening scene with the director's table of soft drinks to the end of the film where the main character is literally framed in the golden arch of the McDonald's logo. This i just an interesting juxtaposition the sort of traditional nomad in a city full of the fully evolved human and all the luxury and laziness that brings.

     The only luxury that we are shown the main character partaking in is music and even in regards to that he is still a minimalist. He only listens to one band and he just loves it, hunting down their rare live tapes and even more rare, their lead singer. This is interesting and we see him exhibit no other real lazy behavior except when he has his music on, that's when his guard is down, it almost kills him but it also saves his life towards when the bullet hits his Walkman. The idea of music in this film was really interesting to me and I'm really not 100 percent sure what it means in the whole scheme of the movie. It could have been a sort of second calling for our main character, sort of like a failed past as we know he has, he seems legitimately interested in music perhaps his other calling was music, perhaps he failed there. We also don't know much about the father so maybe his dad was really into music and him sort of following in his footsteps is a way to honor him in a way. A third idea could be that it's a much needed distraction from his line of work. He does not seem to find joy in many things except music, he is mostly stone-faced except for when we see him at the concert. Whatever it may actually be I feel like this small inclusion added a lot to his already likable character.

      Overall I really liked all the themes this movie presented and I especially enjoyed the scene where the brother, the supposed father figure, was left drenched in sweat and shaking, looking a baby in the ending scene. I liked the idea of the city as a character and a force I think it was a very interesting take on the idea of Man vs Environment but this man we watch is so adept at maneuvering his environment that while it should make him weaker he only moves on to a more powerful city. I loved the underbelly he maneuvered, it reminded me of any film by the Safdie Brothers, it had a realness and a lot of sort of street smart ideas poured into the characters. One thing I forgot to mention earlier that may be a bit of a stretch but that I really enjoyed is the character of German, and how he presents our hero with his name at the start of the film but the hero kind of rejects that name and only calls him German. There are other references to wars and stuff in the film and the film itself is a war just not one fought between countries. I saw the main character's stealing of German's name to be sort of revenge for what the Germans did in WWII but this could be a bit of a stretch. I liked his interactions with everybody I liked his stone cold killer attitude with his few soft spots and overall I just really liked the tone and pacing of the film, and like I mentioned earlier I loved the sort of breathing feel it had to it.