Review of Brother's War (2009) by Van R — 02 Feb 2010

Dreary, self-conscious, heavy-handed hokum set in 1945 on the border of Poland and Germany finds German officer Captain Klaus Mueller(Tino Struckmann of REDBELT) fighting a losing war as the savage Communists close in and the Wehrmacht runs low on ammunition.

A British officer, Maj. Andrew Pearman (Hugh Daly of THE RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN), serves as an observer with Stalin's Army. Unfortunately, Pearman witnesses some scandulous Soviet skullduggery on the part of Colonel Petrov (Michael Berryman of the original HILLS HAVE EYES) who has exiled Polish government officials and German troops massacred.

Pearman escapes and joins up with Mueller and they head for American lines. This meandering melodrama seems to go on forever. Director Jerry Buteyn takes himself too seriously and BROTHERS WAR becomes virtually unbearable.

Like the infinitely better SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, BROTHERS WAR opens with an older, wiser Mueller returning to the battlefield to remember Pearman who was a fellow freemasony. Pearman has evidence about Soviet perfidy and desperately strives to make it back to British lines to warn his countrymen about the Russians.

BROTHERS WAR portrays German soldiers as dignified enemy and the Gestapo like black-hearted murderers. After Mueller and Pearman team up, they run into a fleeing woman, Anna (Hayley Carr of DEAD BABIES), who has a soft-spot for wounded soldiers and wants to tend to them.

Do not waste your time. The CGI special effects are marginal. The Germans--except for the Gestapo--are presented in a positive light, while the Russians are demonized. Berryman makes a terrific villain.

The combat sequences are lackluster. The scene where the Gestapo agent murders a German soldier and Mueller gets the drop on him is as good as it gets and that is not saying a whole lot. Clearly, director Buteyn was struggling to recapture the sense of hopelessness of those 1970s World War II movies about the declining fortunes of the German Army, such as CROSS OF IRON, SERGEANT STEINER, and THE EAGLE HAS LANDED.

The tragic ending and the somber revelation that the murderous Russian incident must be covered up unless the Allies want to turn over their Soviet allies is appropriately cynical.