I am not really a fan of war themed movies and especially the American "hero" farce where America is always portrayed as the saviour of the world as opposed to what it really is, the instigator of wars. I realise that there will be numerous readers who will take exception to that statement because they have been successfully brainwashed into believing otherwise. But the fact is that American citizens pay taxes to ensure that their country is the most powerful military force on earth. But what does that mean? It means that little impoverished countries either march to America's tune or pay dearly for not doing so.
OK, what has this to do with Brothers, the movie? Well, no one who hasn't experienced being cannon fodder for what their government's propaganda convinces them to sincerely believe to be "right" can possibly have any idea what those brave (but, to their government, dispensable) human boys go through at the hands of desperate people clutching at straws of violence and terrorism to attempt to exert their independence can possibly even attempt to know what that can do to a person psychologically - and everyone is different.
However, the behaviour of what are supposed to be "normal" people with whom those soldiers come into contact is a totally different thing. For example, when Sam (Tobey Maguire) quite understandably asks his wife, Grace (Natalie Portman) if she has been "f**king his brother", why on earth did she take so long to emphatically assure him that she had not? He told her that he would understand if she had and all she needed to say was that, whilst she had sorely needed to be loved when she believed he was dead, she simply couldn't do it and so it had not happened. That way, Sam's fears would not have been ridiculed but they would have, in a few words, have been dispelled. There were several other examples of similar instances where the rationally thinking members of the family could have easily relieved tension by simply saying something sensible but they didn't. Whilst people do, of course, sometimes fail to say the right words, it shouldn't happen as often as it does in this movie.
All of this added up to make the film much sadder that it need have been. Where was the psychiatric counselling that Sam and Grace (and the family) so obviously needed? Whilst it may have been provided, we weren't shown any of it. The way that a severely traumatised soldier was just dumped on his family's doorstep tended to make me even more angry at what I have already referred to as the way American politicians see their men a cannon fodder. Oh yes, when they return home from tours of duty or come back in a coffin draped with the stars and stripes, lots of ceremony accompanies them but it's all for show and it disgusts me because they shouldn't have been sent to fight in the first place. As the Afghani told Sam, "This is OUR country and you shouldn't be here!"
I can honestly say that I have absolutely no idea what I would have done if faced with the choice of either making a comrade's wife a widow or my own wife a widow and, as I have said, I don't believe anyone else who hasn't actually experienced such a horror, could know either. However, had Sam not taken the action he did, the most likely result would have been both wives becoming instant widows. Perhaps the best solution to all of this would be for America to send the multitudes of serial killers they seem to have to war. They would flinch at whatever needed to be done and it would be a multiple tax-saving - less jail expenses, less widows' pensions and, of course, less military pay packets!
Finally, I felt that the film was very prematurely ended. Did the producers run out of money?
OK, what has this to do with Brothers, the movie? Well, no one who hasn't experienced being cannon fodder for what their government's propaganda convinces them to sincerely believe to be "right" can possibly have any idea what those brave (but, to their government, dispensable) human boys go through at the hands of desperate people clutching at straws of violence and terrorism to attempt to exert their independence can possibly even attempt to know what that can do to a person psychologically - and everyone is different.
However, the behaviour of what are supposed to be "normal" people with whom those soldiers come into contact is a totally different thing. For example, when Sam (Tobey Maguire) quite understandably asks his wife, Grace (Natalie Portman) if she has been "f**king his brother", why on earth did she take so long to emphatically assure him that she had not? He told her that he would understand if she had and all she needed to say was that, whilst she had sorely needed to be loved when she believed he was dead, she simply couldn't do it and so it had not happened. That way, Sam's fears would not have been ridiculed but they would have, in a few words, have been dispelled. There were several other examples of similar instances where the rationally thinking members of the family could have easily relieved tension by simply saying something sensible but they didn't. Whilst people do, of course, sometimes fail to say the right words, it shouldn't happen as often as it does in this movie.
All of this added up to make the film much sadder that it need have been. Where was the psychiatric counselling that Sam and Grace (and the family) so obviously needed? Whilst it may have been provided, we weren't shown any of it. The way that a severely traumatised soldier was just dumped on his family's doorstep tended to make me even more angry at what I have already referred to as the way American politicians see their men a cannon fodder. Oh yes, when they return home from tours of duty or come back in a coffin draped with the stars and stripes, lots of ceremony accompanies them but it's all for show and it disgusts me because they shouldn't have been sent to fight in the first place. As the Afghani told Sam, "This is OUR country and you shouldn't be here!"
I can honestly say that I have absolutely no idea what I would have done if faced with the choice of either making a comrade's wife a widow or my own wife a widow and, as I have said, I don't believe anyone else who hasn't actually experienced such a horror, could know either. However, had Sam not taken the action he did, the most likely result would have been both wives becoming instant widows. Perhaps the best solution to all of this would be for America to send the multitudes of serial killers they seem to have to war. They would flinch at whatever needed to be done and it would be a multiple tax-saving - less jail expenses, less widows' pensions and, of course, less military pay packets!
Finally, I felt that the film was very prematurely ended. Did the producers run out of money?