4 Star

A Winning Formula.

Taken from the book of the same name by Patrick DeWitt (French Exit, Terri) we get a very dark and brooding western that shows off the talents of these great actors, cinematographers, sound, Best Production Design, and the award-winning skills of director and screenplay co-writer Jacques Audiard (Rust and Bone, A Prophet) (Silver Lion for Best Direction). A riveting watch, with Gunfights in the dark.

It’s dark and there are whispers in the night, as Eli (John C. Reilly, Guardians of the Galaxy, Boogie Nights) and his brother Charlie Sisters (Joaquin Phoenix, Gladiator, Her) are going about their deadly job of putting things right for their employer ‘The Commodore’ (Rutger Hauer, Eureka, Sin City), a man that does business all over the known country and abroad. They are after Blount (Patrice Cossonneau, Joan of Arc, On the Other Side of the Tracks), the whispers say ‘execute everyone’. The Sisters Brothers follow a scorched Earth policy. Not even the horses are safe. This is where this film is pitched, on the darker side of life.

After the debacle at the farm, the Commodore wants Charlie to be the lead man, which means he gets more money and a new horse, which doesn’t sit well with Eli, as he gets an inferior horse. But there is a new job at hand. Find Hermann Kermit Warm (Riz Ahmed, Rogue One, Nightcrawler), a man that has stolen something from the Commodore. He has sent John Morris (Jake Gyllenhaal, Southpaw, Source Code) a researcher on the thief’s tale. Everybody is on the gold trail, heading for Oregon and beyond.

Morris is going to get Warm and hold him until the Sisters brothers can get their hands on him.

As the brothers set off, Eli’s mind is not on the job but on Miss Partridge, the object of his heart, which doesn’t go unnoticed by Charlie.

You’re not scared to reproduce yourself?

You do realize that our father was stark-raving mad, and we got his foul blood in our veins?

Morris soon finds Warm, on a wagon train headed West and quickly befriends him, as he seems untrusting of his fellow travellers. He sends word back to tell the brothers where to pick up Warm, but the Sisters brothers are not the luckiest pair in the wild West, (look away if you don’t like spiders, it is very dangerous at night in the West.)

Warm discovers Morris’s real motivation for befriending him, and after a long talk…

This is the great challenge that all prospectors face. How do I get at what’s just beneath my feet? There’s only two solutions, of course: hard labour and good luck. I’ve been working on a third solution for many years.

You know, it’s funny, people usually don’t believe me. And then when they do, they want to kill me.

The brothers get waylaid, with a combination of Eli’s ‘conditions’ and Charlie’s excessive drinking, it isn’t that much of a surprise that Morris and Warm are nowhere to be seen. The chase is on, the brothers must finish their job or the Commodore will send more men to finish the job and them.

Life in the West is hard but a mother’s love is eternal

The Sisters Brothers is a Missed Gem.

The Sisters Brothers is available on 4K UHD Blu-ray

 

4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

– 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)

– Original 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio sound

– Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

– Brand new audio commentary by authors and critics C. Courtney Joyner and Henry Parke

– Barry Forshaw on The Sisters Brothers, a brand new video essay by film critic Barry Forshaw on The Sisters Brothers and the psychological Western genre

– His Own Private Wild West, archival hour-long making-of documentary featuring interviews with many cast and crew members including director Jacques Audiard, actor John C. Reilly, cinematographer Benoît Debie, Production designer Michel Barthélémy, sound designer Brigitte Taillandier and Patrick DeWitt, author of the novel The Sisters Brothers

– Animated reviews

– Trailers

– Short promotional featurettes

– Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tommy Pocket

– Double-sided fold-out “Wanted” poster

– Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by film critic Howard Hughes, academic and Audiard expert Gemma King and original production notes