Les Frères siciliens

Original title: The Brotherhood

1968
PG-13
1h 36m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

The son of a powerful Mafia don comes home from his army service in Vietnam and wants to lead his own life, but family tradition, intrigues and powerplays involving his older brother dictate... Read allThe son of a powerful Mafia don comes home from his army service in Vietnam and wants to lead his own life, but family tradition, intrigues and powerplays involving his older brother dictate otherwise, and he finds himself being slowly drawn back into that world.The son of a powerful Mafia don comes home from his army service in Vietnam and wants to lead his own life, but family tradition, intrigues and powerplays involving his older brother dictate otherwise, and he finds himself being slowly drawn back into that world.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.0/10

1.2K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination total

Photos42

+ 36

‘Snow White’ Stars Test Their Wits

Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot, and director Marc Webb take our Ultimate Disney Quiz.

Watch now

9:57

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
When this film came out, it did not do very well at the box office. As a result, studios were reluctant to do more organized crime stories. The failure of this film almost convinced Paramount not to make Le Parrain (1972).

Connections
Edited into Lo schermo a tre punte (1995)

Soundtracks
The Taste of Love
Lyrics by Norman Gimbel
Music by Lalo Schifrin

User reviews24

Featured review

7/10

Not sweet but shorter than most Mafia flicks

I do not rate Martin Ritt one of the great American directors, but I cannot deny that he is responsible for some great films, including HUD, NORMA RAE and THE LONG HOT SUMMER.

THE BROTHERHOOD is nothing like any of those films. Set in Sicily, it stars a then 52 years old Kirk Douglas, who lived to nearly double that age and still looked quite lithe and young, playing Frank Ginetta, a Mafia man about to become godfather who is given a most unenviable task, that of icing his brother Axel's father in law for blabbing, thereby ensuring the deaths of 41 Mafia members.

I feel that the film's first half carries too much unnecessary talk, despite helping to situate relations - especially the love between Frank and his wife Ida, well played by Irene Pappas.

The film carries an obvious but highly moral lesson: if you are involved in crime you end up a criminal and sooner or later there is a price to pay. Usually your life. In this case, Frank's father passed his knowledge to his son who now wants to bring his brother into the fold - all stays in the family, but nothing is wholesome.

In many ways, THE BROTHERHOOD is a forerunner to THE GODFATHER, which would come out three years later and would become one of the greatest films in cinema history.

Thus, it is definitely worth watching. 7/10.