![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Review: Brotherhood of the Wolf (Le Pacte des loups) (2001)
This movie was interesting, but it was a bit too long. Spoilers.
Story
The story had a mix of everything. It was mystery, thriller, and action, with of course a romantic subplot. Gregoire de Fronsac was tasked with finding the Beast of Gevaudan, which was a mysteries beast who exclusively went after women and children. Through his adventures with his close friend Mani hunt down the beast, which is revealed to be controlled by Jean-Francoise de Morangias, who is the brother of Fronsac's love interest, Marianne de Morangias. It turns out the beast was developed by a secret society that was planning to overthrow the current authorities of 18th century France.
Thought there was a lot in this story, I do acknowledge that most of it was directly related to the plot. I thought that the romantic subplot between Marianne and Fronsac was a little unnecssary, but it did also serve to show how Jean-Francois was protective of Marianne and hateful towards Fronsac.
The story was actually relatively straightforward. Fronsac and Mani just took a longer time to figure things out, but it wasn't convoluted. But I do admit that I lost interest because a lot had happened, but there was still half of the movie to go. Even when it was revealed that Jean-Francois was the big bad villain, there was still approximately 30-45 minutes left in the film and I'd already been ready for the movie to end for a while.
Production
Atmosphere
The world in this movie was pretty grimy. There was a lot of scenes involving trekking in the mud and slogging through nature. But I think it went well with the rest of the movie. It wasn't as grimy as, say, Hard to Be a God (the 2013 Russian movie).
Special Effects
The CGI for the beast was surprisingly okay. I mean, I could tell that it was CGI and not practical effects, but they weren't outrageously bad.
Characters
Gregoire de Fronsac
He was the main character of the movie, with both brains and brawns. He was a typical hero, always striving for the truth, and super righteous and charming. He was also sympathetic, since no one else could understand how he could be brothers with a Native American man.
Fronsac was getting closer and closer to the truth. Along the way, he was asked to fabricate a beast based on the evidence that was revealed to ease public fears. The breakthrough was when Mani died and Fronsac retrieved a silver bullet from his corpse, Jean-Francois' signature weapon.
With the help of Sylvia, Fronsac feigned death which took him off the radar of the secret society. He appeared at a secret society meeting and killed Jean-Francois, and the rest of the members were arrested by the authority. As for the the beast, it was put to death out of mercy after being tortured all these years.
Fronsac returned only to find out that Marianne was dying. What happened to them was not explicitly described, but the narrator of the story, Thomas d'Apcher, likes to think that they're sailing the high seas together, away from the mess of France.
Mani
Mani was a Native American friend that Fronsac had met while in New France. He was a man of few words. While technically Fronsac's muscle, he also had his own share of investigative smarts.
In the end, he died after attempting to follow the Beast to its sacred lair where he was ambushed and slaughtered by the secret society's members.
Thomas d'Apcher
He was technically the narrator of the story, but he didn't really need to be. I didn't think it made much of a difference to the story. Thomas was kind of Fronsac's connection to the Beast case, because Thomas was a noble and therefore had an in.
After the Beast case was "officially" closed, Fronsac, Mani, and Thomas tried to hunt the Beast on their own, but Thomas got hurt and so he didn't really play much of a role afterwards.
After the Marquis finished telling his story, he was apparently on his way to be executed as part of the French revolution. So I guess he was telling this story to show how messed up the aristocracy and ruling class was at this time. However, he himself was technically part of the aristocracy so he also had to go, but Thomas seemed content and accepting of the situation.
Marianne de Morangias
She was Fronsac's love interest, but didn't particularly have a big role. She was smart and savvy, which drew Fronsac's attention.
Marianne hated Fronsac for a bit when she saw that he'd painted nude pictures of Sylvia at the brothel. Sylvia had to visit her in person at the church and tell her that there was nothing between them, and then Marianne forgave everything. This was a pretty weak story line in my opinion. When Marianne showed the pictures to Fronsac, Fronsac even said that it wouldn't be fair not to let him explain but she did just that. But I guess this is the classic trope of having the other party in the "relationship" explain the truth of it. The purpose of this mini squabble was probably to show how the de Morangias family hated what Fronsac was doing.
Marianne rejected Jean-Francois' romantic feelings for her, and he raped her. At the end of the film, Marianne was apparently dying. Fronsac was sprinkling some powder on her. I sort of recall seeing the powder earlier, but I don't remember if its exact properties were described. In any case, I think we're supposed to be hopeful that Fronsac nursed her back to health and then they lived happiliy ever after.
Jean-Francois de Morangias
He was the master of the Beast. He apparently only had one arm, which was lost when fighting in Africa. In reality, he still had both arms. His "amputated" arm had these gross long fingernails, which we saw on the hand of the Beast's master.
When Jean-Francois returned from Africa, he'd brought home some cubs and trained/tortured the strongest one to be this murder machine.
Jean-Francois was part of the secret society that wanted to gain political control. The secret society also included the local religious leader, and the Beast was a tool to get all the citizens back in line.
Jean-Francois had romantic feelings for his sister. He claimed that he returned from Africa because he loved her so much. Jean-Francois suggested to Marianne that they move somewhere far and leave all of this behind them. When Marianne rejected him, he raped her. In the end, Fronsac killed Jean-Francois.
Sylvia
She was a fortune teller and also a worker at the brothel. She was the kind who always seemed to know more than she let in on. She had a sexual relationship with Fronsac, but she knew that he only loved Marianne.
She revealed that she was a spy for the Holy See, and was tasked with taking out the local priest because the pope thought he was mad for thinking that he should develop a beast to scare people into believing in God. She helped Fronsac feign death and revived him so that he could help take down the secret society.
Overall
This movie seemed pretty ambitious in terms of production. I think in the end, it came out pretty well for a movie made in 2001.
As I said, this movie has everything. Mystery, action, suspense, and even a love story. It wasn't exactly up my alley, but I can definitely see this movie being fun to watch with a group, or just for other people who like this sort of hero's tale.
Story
The story had a mix of everything. It was mystery, thriller, and action, with of course a romantic subplot. Gregoire de Fronsac was tasked with finding the Beast of Gevaudan, which was a mysteries beast who exclusively went after women and children. Through his adventures with his close friend Mani hunt down the beast, which is revealed to be controlled by Jean-Francoise de Morangias, who is the brother of Fronsac's love interest, Marianne de Morangias. It turns out the beast was developed by a secret society that was planning to overthrow the current authorities of 18th century France.
Thought there was a lot in this story, I do acknowledge that most of it was directly related to the plot. I thought that the romantic subplot between Marianne and Fronsac was a little unnecssary, but it did also serve to show how Jean-Francois was protective of Marianne and hateful towards Fronsac.
The story was actually relatively straightforward. Fronsac and Mani just took a longer time to figure things out, but it wasn't convoluted. But I do admit that I lost interest because a lot had happened, but there was still half of the movie to go. Even when it was revealed that Jean-Francois was the big bad villain, there was still approximately 30-45 minutes left in the film and I'd already been ready for the movie to end for a while.
Production
Atmosphere
The world in this movie was pretty grimy. There was a lot of scenes involving trekking in the mud and slogging through nature. But I think it went well with the rest of the movie. It wasn't as grimy as, say, Hard to Be a God (the 2013 Russian movie).
Special Effects
The CGI for the beast was surprisingly okay. I mean, I could tell that it was CGI and not practical effects, but they weren't outrageously bad.
Characters
Gregoire de Fronsac
He was the main character of the movie, with both brains and brawns. He was a typical hero, always striving for the truth, and super righteous and charming. He was also sympathetic, since no one else could understand how he could be brothers with a Native American man.
Fronsac was getting closer and closer to the truth. Along the way, he was asked to fabricate a beast based on the evidence that was revealed to ease public fears. The breakthrough was when Mani died and Fronsac retrieved a silver bullet from his corpse, Jean-Francois' signature weapon.
With the help of Sylvia, Fronsac feigned death which took him off the radar of the secret society. He appeared at a secret society meeting and killed Jean-Francois, and the rest of the members were arrested by the authority. As for the the beast, it was put to death out of mercy after being tortured all these years.
Fronsac returned only to find out that Marianne was dying. What happened to them was not explicitly described, but the narrator of the story, Thomas d'Apcher, likes to think that they're sailing the high seas together, away from the mess of France.
Mani
Mani was a Native American friend that Fronsac had met while in New France. He was a man of few words. While technically Fronsac's muscle, he also had his own share of investigative smarts.
In the end, he died after attempting to follow the Beast to its sacred lair where he was ambushed and slaughtered by the secret society's members.
Thomas d'Apcher
He was technically the narrator of the story, but he didn't really need to be. I didn't think it made much of a difference to the story. Thomas was kind of Fronsac's connection to the Beast case, because Thomas was a noble and therefore had an in.
After the Beast case was "officially" closed, Fronsac, Mani, and Thomas tried to hunt the Beast on their own, but Thomas got hurt and so he didn't really play much of a role afterwards.
After the Marquis finished telling his story, he was apparently on his way to be executed as part of the French revolution. So I guess he was telling this story to show how messed up the aristocracy and ruling class was at this time. However, he himself was technically part of the aristocracy so he also had to go, but Thomas seemed content and accepting of the situation.
Marianne de Morangias
She was Fronsac's love interest, but didn't particularly have a big role. She was smart and savvy, which drew Fronsac's attention.
Marianne hated Fronsac for a bit when she saw that he'd painted nude pictures of Sylvia at the brothel. Sylvia had to visit her in person at the church and tell her that there was nothing between them, and then Marianne forgave everything. This was a pretty weak story line in my opinion. When Marianne showed the pictures to Fronsac, Fronsac even said that it wouldn't be fair not to let him explain but she did just that. But I guess this is the classic trope of having the other party in the "relationship" explain the truth of it. The purpose of this mini squabble was probably to show how the de Morangias family hated what Fronsac was doing.
Marianne rejected Jean-Francois' romantic feelings for her, and he raped her. At the end of the film, Marianne was apparently dying. Fronsac was sprinkling some powder on her. I sort of recall seeing the powder earlier, but I don't remember if its exact properties were described. In any case, I think we're supposed to be hopeful that Fronsac nursed her back to health and then they lived happiliy ever after.
Jean-Francois de Morangias
He was the master of the Beast. He apparently only had one arm, which was lost when fighting in Africa. In reality, he still had both arms. His "amputated" arm had these gross long fingernails, which we saw on the hand of the Beast's master.
When Jean-Francois returned from Africa, he'd brought home some cubs and trained/tortured the strongest one to be this murder machine.
Jean-Francois was part of the secret society that wanted to gain political control. The secret society also included the local religious leader, and the Beast was a tool to get all the citizens back in line.
Jean-Francois had romantic feelings for his sister. He claimed that he returned from Africa because he loved her so much. Jean-Francois suggested to Marianne that they move somewhere far and leave all of this behind them. When Marianne rejected him, he raped her. In the end, Fronsac killed Jean-Francois.
Sylvia
She was a fortune teller and also a worker at the brothel. She was the kind who always seemed to know more than she let in on. She had a sexual relationship with Fronsac, but she knew that he only loved Marianne.
She revealed that she was a spy for the Holy See, and was tasked with taking out the local priest because the pope thought he was mad for thinking that he should develop a beast to scare people into believing in God. She helped Fronsac feign death and revived him so that he could help take down the secret society.
Overall
This movie seemed pretty ambitious in terms of production. I think in the end, it came out pretty well for a movie made in 2001.
As I said, this movie has everything. Mystery, action, suspense, and even a love story. It wasn't exactly up my alley, but I can definitely see this movie being fun to watch with a group, or just for other people who like this sort of hero's tale.