French Martial Arts Monster Movie Brotherhood of the Wolf Is Still Epic

Martial arts films that double as historic epics are speculated to be set in Asia. They’re not speculated to happen within the opulent, luxurious, ostentatious mansions of the bewigged aristocracy of 1760s France. Yet 2001’s Brotherhood of the Wolf has the audacity to take these wildly incohesive parts, together with a lot extra, and mesh them virtually seamlessly into one hell of an entertaining film.

There’s the monster itself—based mostly on the legendary Beast of Gévaudan—a mysterious creature who killed over 100 males, girls, and youngsters in France between 1764 and 1767. There’s the titular Brotherhood, a secret society controlling the monster for their very own nefarious functions. There’s politics, romance, a man with a sword that turns right into a whip, and an Italian courtesan-spy (Monica Bellucci) who’s secretly working for the Pope. At the guts of all of it are two knights: the royal naturalist Grégoire de Fronsac (Simon Le Bihan) and the Iroquois tracker Mani (Mark Dacascos), despatched by the king to research the large beast terrorizing Gévaudan.

There’s a lot happening, Brotherhood of the Wolf must be an absolute mess, however the movie has such full confidence in itself that it really works—once more, as if a historic epic/martial arts flick/conspiracy thriller/romance/thriller/monster film set in 18th-century France is probably the most pure style on the earth. Director Christopher Gans (Silent Hill) strikes from badass combat sequence to gauzy romance scene to beast assault to unbelievably ornate historic drama with ease, all of them only a bit overindulgent however in the perfect types of how. It helps that Gans’ route and cinematography are marvelously trendy, typically mythic, typically empyreal, usually merely stunning. If you need an ideal encapsulation of the fashion of the film, look no additional than the unbelievable transition from Bellucci’s physique, lounging in an opulent mattress, into a lovely French panorama, which you’ll be able to glimpse on this trailer (together with a whole lot of different nice stuff).

To make certain, it’s not nice that the non-Native American Dacascos was solid as Mani, however the actor has by no means been higher than in Brotherhood of the Wolf, bringing a world of depth and wit to the largely silent position. It additionally helps that the connection between Mani and Fronsac is constructed on Dacascos and Le Bihan’s unbelievable charisma collectively. Fronsac referred to as Mani his “brother,” and their performances, in addition to the narrative, show it. Honestly, all of the actors are stable on the very least. None of the movie’s different important characters are notably ingenious, and the actors portraying them might carry out the roles of their sleep: Vincent Cassel because the more and more deranged aristocrat/hunter Jean-François de Morangias; Émelie Dequenne as his ethereal sister and de Fronsac’s love curiosity Marianne; Bellucci because the enigmatic seductress Sylvia. But all of those actors are so proficient that they’re compelling by default, and Brotherhood of the Wolf advantages immensely from all of them.

The movie additionally advantages from the truth that the Beast of Gévaudan was actual. Whether it was an precise big wolf or another creature will at all times stay up for debate, however there actually was one thing that killed individuals in 1760s France. It killed for sport as a substitute of meals, so vicious that its victims have been regularly discovered beheaded, and so highly effective that it might shrug off bullets. Without spoiling the movie, Brotherhood of the Wolf is predicated on some actual theories in regards to the nature of the beast, together with that somebody purposefully created it and managed it. There’s simply sufficient actuality contained in the film that Brotherhood’s wilder sequences really feel satisfyingly grounded as a substitute of completely ludicrous.

However, the movie does want to come back with a set off warning: There’s a closely implied rape scene, and there’s an extended scene of standard wolves paying the value for the beast’s rampage, as they sadly did in actuality. Mani may be very a lot the “Magical Native American” trope, and you might argue Fronsac does some cultural appropriation later within the movie. So there’s actually no disgrace if you wish to give Brotherhood of the Wolf a miss. But should you resolve to test it out, you’ll be rewarded with a lovely, genre-defying, and extremely entertaining movie that’s not like every other film you’ve ever seen. Unless there’s one other historic epic/martial arts flick/conspiracy thriller/romance/thriller/monster film I don’t learn about.

Brotherhood of the Wolf is at the moment obtainable on Blu-ray from Shout Factory (be warned, although, as a result of the subtitles are impossibly bad—an enormous downside if you wish to watch the film in its native French language as a substitute of dubbed in English).

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