The Brothers Warner

Back in Hollywood's heyday - "Warner Bros." was, without question, one of Tinseltown's most prominent studios (in full operation) which, boastfully, employed some of the biggest stars during its "golden years".

This eye-opening, historically-relevant documentary certainly reveals a very vivid portrait of the 4 Warner brothers (Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack) where intense rivalry, rifts, money, and greed drove these 4 siblings to conduct business matters in a manner that the viewer must witness for themselves to get the full picture of what really went on behind closed doors.

This 94-minute presentation was produced and directed by Jack Warner's granddaughter, Cass Warner-Sperling.

Sorry, but I just do not buy the whole Saint Harry versus Dragon Jack thrust of this documentary. There are simply too many specks of sanctimony that peek through the whitewash job on Harry Warner (like his paying off his gentile sister in law, after his brother died, so he could raise her kid Jewish) while the dirt on Jack is a bit too all pervasive, with only a grudging admission, at the film's end, that he might have been a talented producer as well as a world class vulgarian.

However, there is no denying that this doc is entertaining. Sibling rivalry is something to which the vast majority of us can relate and when it is presented, as it is here, in all its show biz luridness, with lots of stabbings in the back, mistresses, wives, aneurisms, strokes and tragic deaths, it makes for a fun hour and forty five.

Did I mention that the director is Harry's grand daughter? Give it a B minus.

Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack Warner are brothers who created one of the biggest Hollywood studios. The Jewish brothers immigrated from Europe with their parents. None of them were allowed to have an education and the kids all worked. Soon, they are working the nickelodeons in New York City on the road to building the iconic entertainment name.

Cass Warner is the filmmaker and the granddaughter of Harry. Jack is the youngest, the last survivor, and the most famous. It's very compelling to learn about the brothers. It's fun to see a few recognizable faces who talk about the old times with the Warners. I'm not expecting too many deep dark secrets with a family member behind the camera, but there is some juicy family dysfunction. There are moments of interest depending on the viewer. I like the cartoons. Most of the company stuff isn't much to me. The war years including pre-war and post-war are very interesting. The big drama is the family drama. It's interesting to have Jack Warner seeing himself as the James Dean characters. I never considered that. All in all, this is very informative and we finally have a name.

Today the Warner name is just one component in a complicated corporate entanglement that the multimedia era made possible. One of the first and many things that we learn in this documentary is that the Warner Brothers film empire really started like a corner-of-the-street family affair, with the four sons of an East-European Jewish immigrant opening a cinema in Pennsylvania, with an blanket as improvised screen and borrowed chairs, with the wife of one of them playing the piano and nickel entry ticket price. Then when movies became hard to obtain the brothers decided to start making their own, and when the Edison monopoly chased them from the East Coast to California history began.

The four brothers built an empire American style, one of the most successful enterprises in one of the most successful American industry of the 20th century. Yet, their path was not smooth, their life was milestoned by happiness and tragedies as well, and they were no saints. Grand-daughter Cass Warner's film has both the qualities of bringing a lot of information backed-up by original film sequences, and of bringing a personal touch, with interviews of the members of the family, as well as important people in the industry, and film and communication experts. I appreciated the participation of descendants and representatives from the competitor studios like Disney or Paramount who did not hesitate to participate in this homage documentary. All parts are well dosed and the balanced mix takes us through six decades of movie making in parallel with the American history, actually part of the American history of the 20th century.

The documentary is informative, good, and human, and seldom falls into the trap of the blind adoration of its subject. The story of the brothers Warner and of Warner Brothers the corporation is the material for a great feature film, yet to be made in the future. With a bit of luck it will add a few Oscars near the Warner Brothers name.

This documentary is about the Warner Brothers and their studio. However, unlike other documentaries about film studios, this was more like a home movie in many ways--with one of the granddaughters of the original Warner Brothers narrating and talking with some family members about their recollections (in addition to all the film historians who comment). This gives it a rather intimate feel but also made you wonder how objective the production was. For example, I often find that autobiographies are FAR less interesting than biographies because they tend to tell the tale from a far from neutral point of view. Now I am NOT saying this film does this exactly. There is quite a bit of dirt in the film about the animosity between Jack and Harry--making Harry sound like a swell guy and Jack akin to Satan. But I did wonder about the film at times--especially concerning Harry Warner's adoption of his niece, Lina. What would a neutral party say about all this?

There were a lot of neat facts about the studio. I loved learning how the KKK sued Warner for their depiction in "Black Legion"! Or, how the studio was the first to refuse to sell movies in Germany and made the first anti-Nazi film from Hollywood--even when the nation was firmly in the isolationist camp. Interestingly, the film really didn't focus so much on the stars of the day--but more on the day to day behind the scenes events. I liked this, as if you want to see more about Cagney or Bette Davis, a documentary about them would make a lot more sense.

Overall, this is the sort of film that movie lovers like myself love--especially those who adore Hollywood during the classic years of the 1920s-40s. Fascinating--as it's filled with wonderful little stories and facts that film buffs will love. My only real problem with the film is that there is just too much material for a film that's just a bit over 90 minutes long. A mini-series would really due more justice to the history of this amazing studio.

Oddly, while the documentary was filled with a lot of film clips, some of them were of pretty poor quality--particularly the grainy and washed out one from "Giant". I am really not sure why this was the case.