Brotherhood of the Rose

For those of you who are conspiracy theorists you will look far and not succeed to find a film that will buttress your belief that the whole world and its populace is manipulated by a very few people. In a short prelude to the main film, the top intelligence agents from the world's great powers before World War II gather and make a pact to create a sanctuary for the intelligence community. A network of safe houses some of them quite swanky resorts named Abelard. The objective is that they are opened to any one working in that field and that no one will be a target within those limits. With that degree of safety the ones with the information and the knowledge can manage those temporary governments that democracies elect.

Robert Mitchum plays the current American master of Abelard, he's also the Deputy Director of our CIA who's been around for decades. He has the power of a J. Edgar Hoover without Hoover's penchant for public relations. Mitchum prefers no publicity for himself or his activities, he operates in the shadows.

One of the things he's done is hang around the orphanages looking for bright and misfit youths with no families. He finds two such in kids who grow up to be Peter Strauss and David Morse. He home schools them and takes them into the agency where they become the best trained killers they can be. They think of him as a father figure. Of course he's trained other pairs which they find out about, but that's one of many secrets he keeps from them and the world.

For reasons of politics and 'national security' his 'sons' have to be sacrificed. But Mitchum has trained Strauss and Morse too well. So for the length of this TV miniseries it's their training against all the resources at Mitchum's command.

It's a strange world that Mitchum has created for his boys. No feminine influences of any kind. Women have their place, but simply as sexual release because men are cursed with those kind of needs. A person like Mossad agent Connie Sellecca doesn't factor in. A mistake that helps bring him down in the end beside his own hubris.

Brotherhood Of The Rose is an intriguing espionage tale with Robert Mitchum in a dominating performance. Strauss, Sellecca, and Morse have their moments, but this is a Robert Mitchum show.

David Morrell is perhaps best known for writing First Blood, but he's much more than John Rambo. He's also an excellent spy novelist, and this one could have been written by Robert Ludlum.

Yes - it's a dated movie. I'm writing this 30 years after it was released. The acting is stiff, and the action is very staged. But - the story is still good, and if you can suspend your disbelief for a moment, this is two hours well spent.

This is a satisfactory TV mini-series about spies, which has a very unusual plot. It lasts for 240 minutes. It is based upon a novel by David Morrell. Robert Mitchum plays a Deputy Director of the CIA named Elliott who is a real old-timer and 'has always been around'. And during that time he has been busy building a secret network of assassins, 18 of them in fact, who answer only to him and ask no questions. His method was to find pairs of boys in orphanages, aged about seven, who had formed a close bond between each other and become a surrogate father to them. He did this nine times in nine different cities, but none of the pairs of 'brothers' knew that the others existed. This story concerns the pair whose code names are Romulus and Remus, played by Peter Strauss and David Morse. When the story begins, they are totally loyal to their 'father', Elliott, and it has never occurred to them that he would or could ever betray or sacrifice them, since they entirely believe in his paternal love for them. What they do not realize, but eventually discover, is that he is a power-mad maniac who has entered into an international cabal with senior intelligence officers in four other countries to manipulate world events and 'keep the stupid politicians in check'. Elliott is intimately linked with the creation of safe sanctuaries for spies where operatives from any agency of any country can seek shelter. These shelters are known as 'Abelard Sanctuaries', after the mediaeval philosopher Abelard (yes, the one who was in love with Heloise). Anyone who breaks the Abelard Sanction by killing one of the operatives on the premises is instantly terminated. It is meant to be where all types can let their hair down, dress for dinner and sip champagne, and of course be safe from being killed until they leave. The five men who set up the Abelard network in 1947 are the five grand conspirators, and Elliott is the protégé of the American one. During the course of the story, Peter Strauss kills Elliott's British counterpart. A very pretty Israeli colonel of Mossad is in the story, played by Concetta Sellecca. She and Strauss (Romulus) were in love before and then separated by events, but come together again in this story, and jointly struggle against the massive web of conspiracy. There are lots of helicopters, aerial attacks, racing cars, barbed wire fences, guns and Uzis, knives, hand to hand combat, desperate situations, people cornered who escape, and many a thrill of that kind. It is all good diversionary entertainment. And Peter and Concetta kiss in between escaping, shooting, and chasing bad guys. You see, Elliott decides to sacrifice Strauss and sets him up after having him assassinate five international businessmen who endanger his plays for control of the world scene. So that does not go down well with Strauss when he figures out what is happening. And things go on happening, four hours' worth of them. This is a guy's thing, not something that would appeal to women.

This is a intriguing spy movie, mainly because it doesn't follow the formula of most other spy-films.

This is not another one of those films where the goody spies on the baddie, the baddie captures the goody, reveals his devious plans to annihilate the world, the goody escapes, kills the baddie and saves the girl. The strengths of those sorts of films are found in their special effects, stunts and a drawn-out battle at the end of the film.

By contrast, the strength of the Brotherhood of the Rose is its intelligent and engaging plot. A spy is double crossed and aims to find out why before they find him. The answers turns out to be a rather complex and very well-conceived conspiracy.

It's only downfall is its crappy production level. The sound quality, editing, directing and screenplay are noted areas requiring improvement. The acting is also inconsistent, but the brilliant Robert Mitchum, David Morse, Rhys McConnochie and M. Emmet Walsh offer fairly solid performances to ensure that the acting does not stand out as a major downfall.

Some cheesy lines and awkward acting moments could have been left on the cutting room floor. There also appears to be an editing error here and there (where a scene cuts before it appears to be finished). Furthermore, whoever chose the cheap and tacky music should have been sacked.

Aside from that, a very good watch. However, it is fairly long - 3 hours or so. Yet, I like a film that isn't impatient if the story is worth unfolding gradually.

This was a great book and turned into a surprisingly good movie, even for television. It was written by David Morrell, who also wrote First Blood, in case you didn't know. Robert Mitchum, David Morse, Connie Sellecca and a host of others made this quite an ensemble cast for a television production. If you can find the movie, watch it. If you can find the book, read it. After all, you have what else to do?