Brotherhood of the Wolf


Brotherhood of the Wolf is a 2001 French period action horror film directed by Christophe Gans, co-written by Gans and Stéphane Cabel, and starring Samuel Le Bihan, Mark Dacascos, Émilie Dequenne, Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel. The story takes place in 18th-century France, where the Chevalier de Fronsac and Mani of the Iroquois tribe are sent to investigate the mysterious slaughter of hundreds by an unknown creature in the province of Gévaudan.
The plot is loosely based on a real-life series of killings that took place in France in the 18th century and the famous legend of the beast of Gévaudan; parts of the film were shot at Château de Roquetaillade. The film has several extended swashbuckling fight scenes, with martial arts performances by the cast mixed in, making it unusual for a historical drama. The special effects for the creature are a combination of computer generated imagery, as well as puppetry and animatronics designed by Jim Henson's Creature Shop.
The film received generally positive critical reviews, highlighting its high production values, cinematography, performances and Gans' atmospheric direction. At a $29 million budget, it was an international box office success, grossing over $70 million in worldwide theatrical release. The film also enjoyed commercial success in the United States; Universal Pictures paid $2 million to acquire the film's North American distribution rights and went on to gross $11.3 million in limited theatrical release, making it the second-highest-grossing French-language film in the United States since 1980. The film also did brisk video and DVD sales in the United States.

Plot

During the French Revolution, Marquis d'Apcher writes his memoirs in his castle. He recounts to 1764, when a mysterious beast terrorized the province of Gévaudan. Grégoire de Fronsac, a knight and the royal naturalist of King Louis XV of France, and his Iroquois companion Mani, arrive to capture the beast. Fronsac grows to romance Marianne de Morangias, the daughter of a local count, whose brother, Jean-François, was also an avid hunter and a world traveller. Fronsac is also intrigued by Sylvia, an Italian courtesan at the local brothel.
While investigating another victim, Fronsac finds a fang made of steel. A traumatized child witness swears that the beast is controlled by what seems to be a human master. As the investigation proves unfruitful, the king's weapons master, Lord de Beauterne, arrives to put an end to the beast, and Fronsac is sent back in Paris. He realizes that the beast is actually an instrument of a secret society: The Brotherhood of the Wolf, which is working to undermine public confidence in the king and ultimately take over the country. Back in Gévaudan, the attacks by the real beast continue, and Fronsac returns to put an end to the beast's killings. At a secret rendezvous with Marianne, they are attacked by the beast, where it mysteriously refrains from attacking her.
Fronsac, Mani, and a young Marquis set out into the forest and set up an array of traps to capture the beast; it is severely injured but escapes. Mani sets off alone in pursuit, where he finds a catacomb used as the beast's holding pen, inhabited by the Brotherhood. Outnumbered, Mani is shot and killed. Fronsac discovers Mani's body and performs an autopsy, finding a silver bullet—Jean-François' signature choice of ammunition. In a fit of rage, a vengeful Fronsac goes to the catacombs and slaughters many members, but is overpowered by the local authorities and imprisoned.
Sylvia visits him in jail and reveals that she is a spy for the Holy See. She explains that Henri Sardis, the local priest and leader of the Brotherhood, believes that he is restoring worship of God to France. Pope Clement XIII has decided that Sardis is insane, and sent her to eliminate him. She then poisons Fronsac, saying he knows too much. Meanwhile, Jean-François comes to Marianne's room and reveals to her that he is the beast's master; it recognized his scent on her when it came near her, which is why it did not attack. He then rapes her when she rejects his advances of love.
Sylvia's agents exhume Fronsac, who had not been killed but merely put into a temporary coma, and he appears at one of the Brotherhood's sermons. He kills several members, including Jean-François. Sardis escapes into the mountains, but is mauled to death by a pack of wolves. Fronsac and Marquis go to the beast's lair, where it lays severely wounded. It turns out the beast was the last surviving offspring of a creature that Jean-François brought back from Africa, and was tortured into becoming vicious and dressed in metal armor plating and spikes. Fronsac takes pity and kills the beast in an act of mercy.
Marquis finishes writing his account, just before he is led to his execution by a revolutionary mob. He states that he doesn't know what happened to Fronsac and Marianne after the death of the beast; but he hopes that somewhere, they are happy together.

Cast

Brotherhood of the Wolf garnered mostly positive reviews, with a 72% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 119 reviews with the consensus stating: "Brotherhood of the Wolf mixes its genres with little logic, but the end result is wildly entertaining." whereas on Metacritic it accumulated a score of 57 from mixed reviews. The usage of various cinematographic techniques employed by Christoph Gans, the fight sequences, the atmosphere and particularly the performance of Marc Dacascos as the native-American Mani attracted particularly strong praise.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded it with a 3/4-star rating, writing: "I would be lying if I did not admit that this is all, in its absurd and overheated way, entertaining." James Berardinelli of ReelViews also rated the movie three stars out of four, saying that it "has something in it to appeal to just about everyone" and that it is "daring in its approach and successful in its result - assuming the result is to provide pure entertainment to the viewer." Michael Atkinson of Village Voice wrote "It's easily the most disarming and inventive movie made for genre geeks in years." Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News wrote that this film is "exciting, alluring and thrilling", whereas Empire gave the film a three-star rating out of five stating that "An undeniably handsome creation, but its excessive length and surplus of directorial flourishes merely exacerbate the emptiness of an initially promising plot". Lisa from Variety gave a positive review mentioning that "a little Sergio Leone here, a little Sleepy Hollow there and, uh, martial arts-style confrontations are all deftly melded in Brotherhood of the Wolf, an attempt to elucidate the French urban legend of the Beast of Gevaudan. This is a home-grown French actioner that wears its sincere desire to entertain on its flamboyantly tailored sleeve".
The blend of various movie genres such as martial arts, mystery, costume drama and horror attracted certain amounts of criticism. In particular, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote "This new take on horror is more of the bloody same", whereas Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post said that it is "a mad agglomeration of styles and traditions that ultimately results in nothing so much as a mad agglomeration of styles and traditions", ultimately awarding the film a 0.5/4 score.

Alternate versions

There are three distinct and very different versions of the film:
- The original French/US theatrical cut, running 143 minutes.
- The UK cut, running 139 minutes, released on home video in the UK and Australia; in this version, all the scenes involving the Royal Hunter Beauterne are removed and some scenes from "Director's Cut" are added in.
- The "Director's Cut", running 150 minutes, released on home video in France and Canada in 2002, and later in the US and other territories.
In the United States, Universal Pictures originally released the 143 minute theatrical cut on DVD, on 1 October 2002. Focus Features released a two-disc, special-edition DVD containing the "Director's Cut" on 26 August 2008.

Awards

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