Brotherhood (Taegukgi)

Karl Hungus

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386064/

Watched this film again tonight, and by god if it's not one of the only films that has me choked up by the end. I'm also fighting off the tears at the end of Empire Of The Sun, and other than that, I can't really think of anything that has such an affect on me.

But what an absolutely remarkable film. I'd seriously recommend it to anyone who's after a good war film.

Petey2006

Own it, seen it, loved it. It's heavily influenced by Saving Private Ryan, but that ain't necessarily a bad thing. Recommended.

Empire of the Sun is also one of the most underrated films of the eighties. Probably Spielberg's most underrated film.

Pugsley

Would definately be my favourite war film, such great character development and such a gripping story, the superb action scenes are a real bonus too.

Definately worth a film of the week

Necronomicon

I'm not a huge war movie buff, but this is such a fantastic film. I gave it to a couple of others who felt it was a little too long, which I found surprising. It had me captivated right until the end.

Karl Hungus

Petey2006 wrote:

Own it, seen it, loved it. It's heavily influenced by Saving Private Ryan, but that ain't necessarily a bad thing. Recommended.

No, not a bad thing at all, but I think it's more of a case of Saving Private Ryan's influence on the war genre as a whole. It's that kind of visually striking style that's been adopted by the genre, and it's evident not just in this film, but others like We Were Soldiers and so forth.

Petey2006 wrote:

Empire of the Sun is also one of the most underrated films of the eighties. Probably Spielberg's most underrated film.

Definetly agree with that. None of Spielberg's films have ever affected me as much as it, not Schindler's List, not Saving Private Ryan, nothing.

johnny_ultimate

Gave this a watch tonight after all the positivity. Not usually a fan of war epics, but I really liked this one. There were some things I felt were a little annoying - sometimes overblown melodrama, weak musical score and the unrealistic nature of some of the central character's Rambo-esque moments - but overall a very well compsed film. The battle scenes were shocking and intense (the final one probably being the muddiest and filthiest since Seven Samurai), and the story admirably showed a bit of both sides of the story (clearly a bit bias towards the South, but I think they also adequately portayed some of the injustices committed on their side too). The story of the two brothers was also better judged than most similiar takes on the theme, and the characters deveolped really well throughout.

A great watch, and cheers to everyone who recommended it over numerous threads

BlitzKrieg

oooooooh...


I gonna be on the other side of the fence here.

I thought it was ok, good enough war movie set during a very difficult war.

But I felt it tried too hard to be a *hollywood* war movie (as someone already said it was influenced by Saving Private Ryan)

If I was to say why the film didnt appeal to me more then enjoyable, its probably because it has the exact same plot and pace structure as Titanic. Now before some idiot comes in and starts babbling about *one* is about a ship and the other is a war movie.

I dont mean the bloody content, I mean how it was layed out, its use of flashbacks, plot twists (

most notable being the final scene of both movies

). I clicked into the feeling of deja vu about halfway into the film and coulnt shake it right up to the conclusion, hence its only an ok film from me.

johnny_ultimate

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

its use of flashbacks

Aha forget to mention this in the original post - one thing that really did annoy me about the film. I don't know why directors think the "modern day" prologue and epilogue is a good idea. It even looked out of place in Schindler's List, and was extremely reduntant in Titanic and Letters of Iwo Jima. A really annoying little epic period drama trait. At least Brotherhood didn't overuse it, but still borderline pointless.

I would agree with you that it is quite Hollywood, but I think it does Hollywood well, which is probably what counts. I certainly preferred it to any American war movies that I can think off (with the exception of more interesting ones like Three Kings or MASH). It is quite standard, but I think the director pulled it off well.

Retr0gamer

I'm sorry but I just wasn't blown away by this. Thought the battle scenes were wonderful and it got me interested in the korean war which I didn't know much about. I also liked how it showed the atrocities commited by both sides in the war and wasn't totally biased to one side or the other.

My problem is that I thought that it was just overly melodramatic in parts with the story of the brothers, it was like it was trying too hard to be heartbreaking and ended up on the wrong side of farcical at times. There were times when a scene was trying to be overly emotional but ended up being forced and a bit silly. It's a shame because if they had just toned this aspect down it would easily have been one of the best war films ever made up there with das boot and apocalypse now. I was hoping for something a lot better especially considering how affecting the videogame Suikoden 2 was which told a similar story of

two best friends torn apart and on opposite sides of a war

.