"Four Brothers" brief analysis

“Four Brothers” is a story about four brothers look to avenge their mother's death. The basic motivation for the plot is revenge (a great story element). I enjoyed this film, and would definitely recommend it.

Things I learned as a filmmaker from watching this film:

The story is about an elderly loveable mom who is shot and killed in cold blood. The only way to pull off the loveable part was to delve deep into the realism. Thus her being shot in cold blood makes her one-dimensional “good” character stronger. This is an important note, especially as a Christian filmmaker where we show the good people, but if we fail to bring it back into ultra realism we lose the audience.

In the film we find out the perfect brother is not so perfect. And one of the brothers dies. These story points made their revenge even more justified. Therefore it is important to note that these elements where a direct result of two of the most important questions you can ask a script-- “What is the worst thing that could happen to the main character(s)”, and “what is the last thing the audience would expect?” This film shows that if you answer that question properly the audience will notice, and engage even more. I would say that killing some of your main characters definitely warrants an attention grabbing edge of your seat moment, and a clear uncertainty as to the hero’s fate.

The film was obviously very low budget. But its filming was very economical and the camera was very unnoticeable. This style while fine, I do not particularly fancy. The reason being that there were certain parts of the film where a better camera move would have added a significant amount to the emotional impact of the film. For example, at the end of the film the hero and the antagonist get into a street fight, and the hero knocks the antagonist out and maybe kills him with his punches. However, the actual knock out, the cathartic moment the audience has been waiting for was dull, and the actual shot is a wide master shot. It would have been much more impacting to have at least filmed the knock out with slow motion. Or something to let us feel the weight of justice being fulfilled. Unfortunately the knock out is very bland and understated. You are even left with the thought “was that it? That’s all it took?” so this brings me to my next observation.

The final scene in a film, where good overcomes evil, or the hero gets what they want must be carefully observed. This moment is what the whole film has been building for and it is vitally important you deliver the appropriate cathartic moment. This observation is probably why bad guys die more than once in films.