Brotherhood of the Wolf
A genre-bending French Kung-fu werewolf flick
Brotherhood of the Wolf has been sitting on my computer for ages and I just hadn’t taken the plunge. Killer wolves, cool! French period drama, meh. Oh my, what an entertainingly messy spectacle I had been missing!
This movie has just about everything. There were several JAWS-like sequences of country rubes gathering up to go after the mysterious beast, with predictable complications. There were highly choreographed Hong Kong martial arts showdowns in the 1700s French countryside. There was buddy-movie odd-couple action with a French aristocrat and his sage-like noble savage partner. There were courtly period pieces with powdered wigs, political drama, and heaving bosoms. The bosoms were bare in the several totally necessary brothel scenes. And much, much more.
As far as criticisms: despite being jam-packed with excitement, this movie really has no business being two and half hours long. A sensible editor probably would have kept it to a tight 90 minutes, but then we would lose much of the previously-mentioned scattershot awesomeness and much of the odd joy of the film. Check it out if you’re looking for an interesting watch. (Unbeknownst to me, it was recently released on Blu-Ray and I may even have to watch it again.)
