Sisters Brothers, The (Blu-ray) (2018)

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General		Extras
Category	Western	More…-Q&A Panel (13:35): Director, writer & Jake Gyllenhaal TV Spots-x 2
Rating
Year Of Production	2018
Running Time	122:03
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Jacques Audiard
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	John C. Reilly Joaquim Phoenix Jake Gyllenhaal Riz Ahmed Rutgar Hauer
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	?	Music	Alexandre Desplat

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 Italian dts 5.1 Hungarian dts 5.1 Polish dts 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.40:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired Italian Hungarian Polish Romanian	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Oregon, 1851; Brothers Eli and Charlie Sisters (John C. Reilly / Joaquim Phoenix) are none too subtle bounty hunters / killers working for The Commodore (Rutgar Hauer). After messing up, bloodily, one assignment they are sent out again to follow another one of The Commodore’s men, John Morris (Jake Gyllenhaal), who is tracking Hermann Kermit Warm (Riz Ahmed), a chemist who has apparently stolen something from The Commodore. When Morris finds Hermann, Eli and Charlie are to finish the job. The truth, however, is that Hermann has invented a formula that helps to make the extraction of gold easier, and The Commodore wants Eli and Charlie to extract the formula from Hermann before killing him.

     When Morris finds Hermann, however, he decides to join with him and they travel to San Francisco to stake a claim. Eli and Charlie follow them via a town where they have a run in with Mayfield (Rebecca Root) and her killers. But when the Sisters brothers catch up with Morris and Hermann on the goldfields it is Eli and Charlie who end up being captured. However, the timely arrive of more of Mayfield’s guns result in Morris, Hermann, Eli and Charlie joining forces to defeat them. They all then agree to search for gold together; Hermann’s formula works but it is very corrosive leading to a disaster. And The Commodore has not forgotten about them and other killers for hire are on their trail.

     The Sisters Brothers is based on a novel by Canadian writer Patrick DeWitt and although it is made in English it is very much a European film that was shot in France, Spain and Romania, co-written and directed by Frenchman Jacques Audiard. It could be called a revisionist western; there are no heroes or honour in the film, only senseless death and brutality for while one of the brothers, the older Charlie, has doubts about what they are doing, the other, Eli, enjoys the killing and cannot perceive of any other life. However, to my mind the The Sisters Brothers is more a reflective western with themes including the nature of the society and what it is to be a man; indeed, most of the main characters in the film have father issues. Women are mostly absent in this world, which makes the resolution at the end of the film somewhat unexpected.

     The Sisters Brothers was popular with critics; Audiard won both a French Cesar and the Silver Lion at the Venice Film festival for best director. On rottentomatoes the critics score is 87%, perhaps because in Jake Gyllenhaal, Joaquim Phoenix and John C. Reilly we have in one picture three of the best actors going around at the moment. Indeed, the interplay between Phoenix and Reilly is a highlight with its strand of very black humour running through it. There are some sudden, loud and chaotic gun battles but there is also a lot of talk in the film which is perhaps why it did not do well at the box office, despite the cast, and has an audience rating of 69% on rottentomatoes. Rutgar Hauer, whose last film this was, is only briefly seen and does not have any dialogue.

Video

     The Sisters Brothers is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, in 1080p using the MPEG-4 AVC code.

     The film was shot digitally using Arri Alexa cameras. This is a very dark film; in a couple of sequences the screen is pretty much all black with only the flashes of gunshots providing any contrast. There are also a number of campfire dialogue sequences where the flames reflect across the face of the speaker and the background is indistinct. Interior scenes in dark saloons and stables also look murky, with a dull colour palate. Exterior scenes, in contrast, are clear with bright, glossy colours. Skin tones are good, including scenes in which the fire is reflected on faces, contrast and brightness is consistent. Marks and artefacts are absent.

     English for the hearing impaired, Italian, Hungarian, Polish and Romanian subtitles are available.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is a choice of English DTS-HD MA 5.1, Italian, Hungarian and Polish DTS 5.1.

     This film provides the usual ambient sounds of insects or birds, the wind and running water, rain, thunder in the distance, horses hooves on rocks. But it is also a film with a number of intimate dialogue campfire scenes without any other sounds or music. Dialogue in these, and other scenes, is always clear. The gunshots are very loud and reverberate as bullets fly around and strike rocks or timbers. The subwoofer was not overused but when needed supported the sounds of the river, gunshots and the music.

     The score by dual Oscar winner Alexandre Desplat (The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), The Shape of Water (2017)), was quirky and by no means a standard western sounding score.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Q&A Panel (13:35)

     Director Jacques Audiard, co-screenwriter Thomas Bidegain (who translates Audiard’s French answers) and Jake Gyllenhaal answer question in front of an audience about the themes, style and tone of the film, Jake’s character, working with the director and changes from the source novel.

Brothers Forever (1:09)

     A TV spot.

Wanted Dead or Alive (0:43)

     Another TV spot.

     The US Region A/B Blu-ray The Sisters Brothers has less language and subtitle options but adds a “Making-of” (15:11), a photo gallery (1:03) and a trailer (2:32) while including all the extras on our release. While not a massive difference, still a win for Region A.

     There are no heroes and no honourable men in The Sisters Brothers. The violence is sudden, chaotic and brutal and the cast, Jake Gyllenhaal, Joaquim Phoenix and John C. Reilly, are superb but the film overdoes its reflections on the nature of the society and being a man which perhaps is why it was more popular with critics than with the general public.

     The video is very dark, the audio very good. The extras are minor.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall