Brother’s War DVD Review

An old white-haired man (Steve London) sits in the woods and remembers what happened to him at the end of World War II. He was a young German captain, Captain Klaus Mueller (Tino Struckman), fighting with his troops and watching his soldiers die until he became separated from them and captured and held with other prisoners by the Russians, including Major Andrew Pearson (Hugh Daly), a British spy. As the other prisoners are executed one-by-one, these two manage to escape through Captain Klaus’s use of force, although at first they have no other bond between them in MTI Home Video’s May 26th DVD release of Brother’s War.

Before this we see the ruthless Russians killing because they want to invade Berlin and take over the world. Andrew discovers their plot and wants to warn the British Ministry but is caught during his attempt at this mission. Klaus and Andrew initially bond for survival purposes, but when Andrew is in danger he tells Klaus a phrase his father, a Freemason, used to say to him, and Klaus, whose father was also a Freemason, saves him. Andrew recovers a watch from a dead officer that was stolen from him and originally given to him by his father. Andrew and Klaus then bond through their shared experiences and set off on their journey.

They come across a young Polish woman who is about to be raped by a band of drunken Russian soldiers, and kill them. The woman, Anna, is a Polish nurse who tells them how, when the Russians invaded Poland, the Poles had to choose between the Russians and the Germans. She chose neither, wanting instead to help the wounded. Klaus gives her a pistol so that she can go East but she says there is nothing left in Poland for her. So Anna proceeds with Andrew and Klaus (the unlikely trio of a Pole, a Britisher and a German, all with divergent intentions) and they discover an encampment with a doctor who is overwhelmed by so many injured soldiers that who says that the most he can do for them is give them a safe place to die. There Klaus discovers one of his own unit’s very young soldiers who recognizes Klaus as his captain and tells him just how much he tried to be a good soldier. Klaus tells the soldier that he’s going home to his mother, but of course he dies instead. Meanwhile Anna is forever trying to help more wounded soldiers but she can’t, without supplies, and Klaus tells her to restrain her feelings in order to give the dying hope.

Finally they all come across the Americans, and as Klaus says, “I’ll take my chances with the Americans. They’re the only ones who haven’t tried to kill me so far.” But what happens to Andrew and Anna and everyone else? You’ll have to see Brother’s War to find out! The beginning of the film is as confusing as being in the war itself probably was, at any moment not knowing who is who. It is a very plot-driven movie and the characters don’t imprint themselves on us until after Klaus and Andrew are captured. Once we recognize who they are we can begin to feel the senseless injustice of war, that is, who is randomly killed and who survives, as we follow Klaus and Andrew, and later, along with them, Anna, on their long trek to the West. A film that World War II afficianados will appreciate, as soon as they can figure out what’s going on!

DVD Review by Christina Zawadiwsky of Movie Room Reviews

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