''Brothers'' is a

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by Arthur Barron and produced by Edward Lewis and Mildred Lewis. It stars

Bernie Casey Bernard Terry Casey (June 8, 1939 – September 19, 2017) was an American American football, professional football player and actor. He was a football player and All-America, All-American hurdler at Bowling Green Falcons, Bowling Green State Un ...

Vonetta McGee Vonetta Lawrence McGee (January 14, 1945 – July 9, 2010) was an American actress. She debuted in the Spaghetti Western ''The Great Silence'' and went on to appear in blaxploitation films such as Hammer (1972 film), ''Hammer'', Melinda (film), ' ...

Ron O'Neal Ron O'Neal (September 1, 1937 – January 14, 2004) was an American actor, director and screenwriter, who rose to fame in his role as Youngblood Priest, a New York City cocaine dealer, in the blaxploitation film '' Super Fly'' (1972) and its ...

, John Lehne,

Stu Gilliam Stewart Byron "Stu" Gilliam (July 27, 1933
datalounge.com; accessed July 21, 2018. – October 11, 2 ...

Renny Roker Renny Roker is a promoter and actor. As a promoter, he has been involved in both music and sport. He also ran various record labels with his brother Wally Roker in the 1970s. As an actor his career which really started in the 1960s has carried on ...

, Owen Pace,

Dwan Smith Dwan Smith (born January 22, 1944) is an American television and film actress, singer and model. Smith is perhaps best known for her role as Delores Williams in the 1976 musical drama film '' Sparkle''. Biography Early life and education Born on ...

and Martin St. Judge in the lead roles. The film parallels the real life stories of Black radicals

Angela Davis Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American Marxist and feminist political activist, philosopher, academic, and author. She is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Feminist Studies and History of Consciousness at the University of ...

, George Jackson, and Jonathan Jackson. This film's music is composed by

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal ( ; ; ) is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was commissioned in 1631 by the fifth Mughal Empire, Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his belo ...

Plot summary

The film begins with the events surrounding the arrest and conviction of David Thomas on trumped up charges of armed robbery. He is sentenced to " one year to life" in prison. He is soon sent to Mendocino Prison, a facility described as "our number one concentration camp for Black" by David's brother, Josh. In prison David is subjected to overt racism, violence, and mistreatment by guards and the administration. His cellmate, Walter Nance, provides David with a radical political education. Soon David starts organizing prisoners to fight back against the racist oppression. He starts a clandestine newsletter which is distributed and read by Black prisoners. At the same time, Josh is working on supporting his brother in prison. Josh goes to visit Paula Jones, a revolutionary Black professor. As a result of Josh's entreaties Paula begins reading David's writings and the two begin correspondence. Paula begins to mobilize support for the brothers in Mendocino. She also begins to fall in love with David. After a guard murders of one of the Black prisoners, the prisoners rebel. During the rebellion a guard is thrown to his death from the prison's third tier. Guards frame David and two other radical Black prisoners for the killing. During a court hearing, Josh pulls out a pistol and takes the prosecuting attorney and judge as hostages. He flees the courthouse and into a van. He is gunned down in the parking lot. In the gunfire the judge and prosecutor are also killed. Paula, at the urging of her colleagues, decides to flee and go underground out of fear of prosecution for allegedly aiding and abetting the courthouse actions. She changes her appearance and location but is captured, likely because of a snitch. Sometime later, at Mendocino Prison, guards engineer an

agent provocateur An is a person who actively entices another person to commit a crime that would not otherwise have been committed and then reports the person to the authorities. They may target individuals or groups. In jurisdictions in which conspiracy is a ...

to pretend to start an armed riot. The guards' plan seems to be to use this as an excuse to assassinate David. David realizes this and attempts to take the situation into his own hands. Tragically, he is gunned down in the prison yard. The film ends, rather saccharinely, with all the Mendocino prisoners walking into the chow hall in racially solidarity and sitting together. The racist guards staring slack jawed and afraid. The plot tracks closely to the real life events from the mid-1960 to early 1970 including the Marin County Civic Center rebellion, the founding of the

Black Guerilla Family The Black Guerrilla Family (BGF, also known as the Black Gorilla Family, the Black Family, the Black Vanguard, and Jamaa) is an African American black power prison gang, street gang, and political organization founded in 1966 by George Jackson, ...

, the writings of George Jackson including ''Blood in My Eye'' and ''Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson'', and the case of the

Soledad Brothers The Soledad Brothers were three inmates charged with the murder of a prison guard, John Vincent Mills, at California's Soledad State Prison on January 16, 1970. George Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo, and John Clutchette were alleged to have murdered M ...

Cast

as David Thomas *

as Paula Jones *

as Walter Nance * John Lehne as McGee *

Stu Gilliam Stewart Byron "Stu" Gilliam (July 27, 1933
datalounge.com; accessed July 21, 2018. – October 11, 2 ...

as Robinson *

as Lewis * Owen Pace as Joshua *

as Kendra * Martin St. Judge as Williams * Al Turner as Henry Taylor * Samantha Harper as Joan Kline * Carl M. Craig as Jack Browning * Sam Nudell as Attorney Sirrell * Jim Swoopes as Sen. Billings *

Dick Yarmy Richard Yarmy (February 14, 1933 – May 5, 1992) was an American actor. He appeared in numerous films and television shows throughout the 1960s to the 1990s. Biography Yarmy was born in New York in 1933, son of William Yarmy and his wife, C ...

as District Attorney Wayne * Charles Ricardo Brown as Horton * Susan Barrister as Tina * Alphonso Williams as Bill * Oliver Fletcher as Lacy * Sidney Galanty as Balaban * Joseph Havener as Warden * Cynthia Songé as Staff Girl * Mercedes Alberti as Female Guard * John Zaremba * Robert Cortes

Release

''Brothers'' was released in theatres on August 3, 1977. The film was released on VHS on September 1, 1998 by

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Inc. (doing business as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment; formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the American home video distribution ...

References

External links

* * * * {{Rotten Tomatoes , brothers_1977 1970s English-language films 1977 films 1977 drama films American drama films Warner Bros. films 1970s American films English-language drama films