The film "Brothers" was completed in 1997 by Alexei Barabanov, a young director in St. Petersburg. After its release, it received great attention from the critics and was regarded as the leading work of Russian films in 1997 and a new Russian film. "Declaration".
The film depicts the events between the underworld and hired killers in St. Petersburg, showing the criminal world of two brothers involved in the men. The reason for taking this theme may be related to the social environment at that time. In the 1990s, the underworld was rampant in St. Petersburg, and bandits were rampant. At that time, people once nicknamed this beautiful city Bandit City. At that time, young people were confused, their life goals were not clear, and they were easy to go down the wrong road. Out of a sense of responsibility, the creator made such a film.
The film was invested and filmed by the St. Petersburg CTB Film Company. It is a company founded in 1992 by three young like-minded filmmakers, Shelyanov (now one of the famous Russian producers), Barabanov and Bodlov. There was no money at the time, and the company did not invest much in the films it made. "Brothers" is a low-investment film made by the director. The film was completed in just one month, and the sales of copies and videotapes after the release were not only fast, but also very profitable. Coupled with multiple awards and a special screening at the Cannes International Film Festival, the film was affirmed. However, the evaluation of the protagonist of the film, the critics have different opinions, causing great controversy. The proponents believe that the film is exploring the national heroes of Russia and creating a new type of national representative; there are also comments that: the long-awaited event occurred in the film, the protagonist's name has become a common noun, and young people appear in the ranks a symbolic figure. Opponents called the film a "movie murder machine" and that the protagonist, Daniela, was "an openly morally handicapped person." No matter what the critics argue, the film is loved by young audiences, especially the role of the protagonist Danila, Jr. Bodlov, who is recognized and admired by young audiences.
So, what kind of person is Danila in the film, and why it caused such a big controversy, let's look at his behavior in the film first.
Danila, who came to St. Petersburg from a remote area, did all the good things on the street until she found her brother. Seeing the old man being bullied, he stepped forward to help. Seeing someone take a bus without buying a ticket, uphold justice. Although the method is controversial, the purpose is correct. After he found his brother, he helped him kill more than once at his brother's request. The first time he failed to eradicate the Caucasians who controlled the market; the second time he took down a rival drug dealer, and later he killed all the underworld elements who kidnapped his brother, and then took a cargo truck and marched into Moscow.
Obviously, Danila is a multi-faceted character. He is compassionate yet ruthless; righteous yet daring to ignore regulations. He was both a violent man and a musical romantic. The latter point is shown from the very beginning of the film.
At the beginning of the film, Danila is sent to the police station after being beaten in her hometown. The reason is that he was attracted by the singing and strayed into the scene of MTV shooting, disturbing other people's work. After arriving in St. Petersburg, he always carried a CD player with him, and whenever he saw a video store, he would always go to ask if there was a CD he needed. With a little money in his hand, he either buys music products or invites friends to go to concerts. He not only loves music, but also respects cultural people. When he was waiting for his opponent at the drug dealer's house, he accidentally learned that the wandering entertainers upstairs were having a party. wait for him. In this scene, when he brutally killed all his opponents in order to silence him, he only spared a director who had strayed into the incident, and expressed great sympathy for him, even though he had been filmed before. The director of MTV instructed people to be bruised and bruised. Danila's gift to Sveta is nothing but a small video player. The first thing he did when he finally got into the truck driver's cab was to turn on the car's stereo, as he "hasn't listened to music in a long time" since the Walkman was broken by a rival.
And his generosity and compassion are manifested in the following things: when the old stall owner he rescued in the street leads him to a place where a group of homeless old men hang out, he generously puts He brought the pie he brought from his hometown to share with everyone; seeing that the landlord he rented was struggling, he also helped him from time to time; after he took the $100,000 from the underworld, he distributed part of the money to those he thought he needed. people. However, when he took the initiative to give the old man the money, the old man did not accept it. The actor Yuri Kuznetsov in the film does not have many scenes of the old stall, but he is a person with personality and unforgettable. The old man who made a living by running a stall and was bullied by the underworld may realize that Daniela's money is not clean, and he would rather be poor than accept his alms. Also, some of the old man's cognition of life, he believes that the city of St. Petersburg is too powerful, too powerful, and too scary. It can take both man's strength and man's soul. Isn't Danila's change a manifestation of this horrific nature? The opposite is the behavior of the girl Katie. After taking the stack of dollars that Danila gave her, she ran away without saying thank you. The greedy and selfish mentality of young people is fully revealed here.
The attitude towards his brother also reflects Danila's tolerance. Danila killed all the underworld members at his brother's residence for the last time. He was mentally prepared. But he came alone but was tricked by his brother. After coming to St. Petersburg, his elder brother pushed him to the brink of death again and again, and betrayed his younger brother for his own life. But when Danila could openly kill his brother, he forgave his brother. Because he will never forget that when he was ill when he was a child, it was his brother who carried him for more than ten kilometers before returning home to see his mother. Family love is more important to him than anything else.
It is this sympathetic, music-loving, simple-looking and lovely young man who is willing to become a hired killer and become an out-and-out violent person. He chose this path because of his unwillingness to refute his brother's face in order to do his best to be brotherly, and also because of his willingness to do so. Maybe the first scene he saw in St. Petersburg left a deep impression on him, and he had to be a strong man to survive in a big city. It's just that his understanding of the strong has gone wrong. He did not use his labor and dedication to become a strong man, but used the professional skills he had learned in the army to become a violent person no different from the underworld.
Generally speaking, there are several paths for those returning from demobilization from the military. Or find a reliable career, such as being a driver, a construction worker, etc.; or enter a powerful sector to serve the safety of the country and society, and the safety of the people. Only a very small number of people consciously or unconsciously go down the road of crime. Daniela is exactly that. His uncle, who was a policeman in his hometown, once advised him to become a policeman, but he declined. After seeing his brother, he chose the latter. Although the people he killed were either underworld or drug dealers, he was equally ruthless towards those who got in his way, such as Sveta's husband. A violent man like Danila, though different from his older brother. My brother is a person who has no soul and no humanity. He is willing to sacrifice his life for his employer for money, dares to kill anyone for money, and even dares to betray his own brother in a critical moment for his own life. people. But since Danila is a violent person, using weapons from time to time will inevitably cause anxiety to the society, the country, and the people. The homemade half-gun in his arms when he marched into Moscow is a good illustration.
However, there was a sense of righteousness in the young man. He can make friends with the poor and fight for the homeless and humiliated women. There seems to be some national pride in him. In the 1990s, when many young Russians admired the United States and dreamed of flying to the United States, he rudely scolded an American young man in a rock club, showing the decline of Russia’s relations with the United States and Western countries. His own unemployment and the bleak future of his country. The audience seems to see the integrity of the nation and the dignity of the individual from Danila. This may be the reason why some commentators see Danila as the new embodiment of a national hero.
The film focuses on the criminal world of men, but also touches on the hardships of women's lives. The heroine Sveta in the film embodies the fate of Russian women. The driver of the trolley freight trolley deliberately helped Daniela when he saw that he was being chased and injured. Sveta's life is not going well. Her husband is an alcoholic and often beats her. In the interaction with Daniela, the young man is simple and sincere, and loves music, all of which make her fall in love with Daniela in pain. However, after the underworld raped her to find Danila, especially the shot Danila fired at her drunk husband, she completely changed her attitude. She would rather stay and live with her injured husband and take on the responsibilities of a wife than be Danila's dangerous life partner. Although he was rich, he was able to bring joy to her life. Svetlana Biximichenko's performance in the play, whether it is for love, or hatred, or the endless pain of a ill-fated woman, is true believable. And the director's handling of love is also in line with people's viewing psychology.
The film is loved by young people because in terms of plot construction and style handling, the director has captured the psychology of young people and used several main elements to mobilize young audiences: violence, love, music, etc.
First of all, the film is a violent film showing the criminality of Russian society in terms of style. In the description of each criminal case, the love between men and women, the love between brothers, and of course the most needed thing in today's society - money. Killing people and making more money, the battles between the underworld are all about money.
Secondly, the film uses a lot of rock music that young people like. Danila himself is a music admirer in the film. The places he goes in and out: video stores, concerts, rock clubs are all places frequented by young people. At concerts with famous rock singers, he raised his arms and cheered ecstatically with everyone. The screams from the heart were all the true vents of young people's feelings, and the music of rock clubs and girls' fancy dress and romantic gestures It is also an important factor in attracting young audiences.
The last point is the choice of actors. This is a major factor in the success of the film. The protagonist Danila is played by Sergey Bodlov Jr. (son of director Sergei Bodlov) is a scholar. After his successful debut role in his father's film "Captive of the Caucasus", he was the host of the "Viewpoint" column of Russian TV. His thick eyebrows, the thoughtful look of a film scholar, and his comments on artistic viewpoints make young people, especially girls, have a strong impression of him. The director asked him to play the protagonist in the film, even if he was a violent person, but his facial features were well-defined, the outlines were clear, the face of a handsome man, and the expression was always calm and calm, and he was walking on the street like a college student. Zi Zi won the favor of the girls and became a star they admired. And his positive protagonist image in the TV column has aggravated his status in the eyes of the audience. The director wasted no time in jumping at the opportunity, and Bodloff himself was honored again for his performance in the film, winning several Best Actor awards at different festivals.
The styling and atmosphere of the film are completely in line with the content of the film. Maybe because of the violence of the performance, maybe because of low investment, no money, and more importantly, the author's understanding of real life, the external environment in the film is messy and disorderly. There are no high-rise buildings or modern buildings in the film. The famous Nevsky Prospekt, the Hermitage Palace of Arts, the Russian Cathedral and other places of interest, these symbolic signs of St. Petersburg are simply invisible. The Neva also shows only a section of its overgrown and uninhabited banks. What people see is a messy market, filthy bungalows, and even the doors of the houses are dilapidated and not repaired for many years. The people in the film, in addition to Danila and his opponents, a few underworld members, the rest are either the destitute homeless living next to the cemetery, or the husband of Sveta who is drunk all day, or the streets are full. Punks hanging out, or young guys in rock clubs who dress weirdly and behave out of tune. And the old man and the old lady in the tube house are either skinny or living in embarrassment. Through the author's modeling treatment, St. Petersburg appears chaotic and terrifying, and it is in such an environment that Danila, who is involved in it, becomes cold and terrifying.
"Brothers" won many awards and achieved good economic benefits, so that the director and producer decided to make a sequel to tell the situation after Danila arrived in Moscow. The storyline of "Brother-2" continues with the first one. After Danila arrived in Moscow, as a participant in the first Chechen war, he was invited to do a TV show, during which he met his comrades Kostya and Ilya. Unexpectedly, after Kostya's twin brother ice hockey player was resold by the underworld, the money was embezzled by the Americans. Danila set off for the United States alone to avenge her friend, and finally returned victorious. The box office of the film is among the best among domestic films, and the sales of videotape exceeds that of foreign films for the first time, which is also worthy of attention. However, the second part lacks character development and is just a pure action movie.
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