BLOOD BROTHERS

US, 1978, 116 minutes, Colour.
Paul Sorvino, Tony Lo Bianco, Richard Gere, Lelia Goldoni.
Directed by Robert Mulligan.

Director Robert Mulligan has made a group of strong, popular films touched with compassion over twenty years. The initial sequences of raunchy behaviour make strong impact. But soon, after immersing us in this Bronx, Italian labouring family setting, Mulligan takes us into fine humane drama that, for the most part, rings painfully true. Very well acted (there are many truly moving sequences) by Paul Sorvino, Tony Lo Bianco and Richard Gere, issues of family life, pressures, expectations and freedom are engrossingly explored - what makes and breaks bonds and who is to blame, what it is to be manly, work as vocation. Despite the incessant language, strongly recommended.

1. The overall impact of this film? Success? Audience involvement, the change of moods, sympathy and understanding?

2. How authentic was the atmosphere, the people? The city streets, apartments, buildings, the hospital? Building sites? The sense of the location? The tone of the location? The stories of the people, the stories they told, their language, communication?

3. The colour? The Elmer Bernstein score and its appropriateness?

4. The significance of the title and its focus? For the two older brothers? The two younger brothers? one group mirroring the other? The relationship between sons and fathers, uncles and nephews? The nature of these bonds by blood? The closeness, support? The ending and its comment on the bonds?

5. The portrait of the two older brothers and the introduction of the film through them? Men, workers, language, communication, facades? The visit to the bar? Chubby and his relationship with Phyllis? Tommy setting him up with the date at the bar? The build-up to this, the men-watching, the woman herself, Chubby's anticipation and guilt? The religious fanatic and her portrayal of her character? The fight between the two brothers? The friends and joviality in the bar? The crippled owner and his outlook on life? The world of rough and readiness?

6. Sonny in this world and the same kind of background and behaviour? Taking the girl how, the thugs and the confrontation, the bashing and the violence? His relying on a telephone call to Chubby for getting him out of difficulty? Chubby's saving him?

7. The gradual revelation of the relationship between Chubby and Sonny? The phone call, Chubby coming, the fight and his prowess and scaring off the young thugs? His age and lack of breath? Love between uncle and nephew? As explained later to the barman in the long story about the death of Chubby's son? As explained when Tommy reacted and Chubby understood his nephew better than his father did?

8. The picture of home life - the younger son and his not eating, thinness, fear, watching television? The atmosphere of the house and the shouting? Dad and his work, his meals, wandering around the house, expectations of his sons, toughness, the Italian father? The mother and her nerves and her yelling? The ups and downs in the house? Sonny in this situation, the contrast with the little boy, the future for them both? The importance of the American Italian background?

9. Tommy's taking up with the girl at the bar? Her understanding of herself, knowing that she was the town pump? The dates with her, the nights? Their discussions and the mutual telling of the truth? Her urging him on? His testing her? His betraying her feelings and her reaction?

10. The importance of the hospital in the film? Sonny and his presence there and learning what it was like? The mother taking the little boy, the interview with the doctor, his advice, her reactions, Sonny's advice, possibilities for him?

11. How well did the film illustrate the bonds between Sonny and his brother? The scenes at home between the two, the tenderness of the hospital sequences? Sonny and his being part of the hospital, the getting of the job, the long telling of the story and its repercussions with the staff? The woman in charge? The pain of having to give it up? Why did Sonny respond so well in this hospital situation - as different from his home background?

12. Tommy and his attitudes towards his son, pressure for his following in his footsteps, jobs, education, ridiculing his son and his job? The persuading of Sonny and doing the deal about the working in the building site? The irony of the deal coming through on the day of the hospital arrangement? Themes of fathers and sons, emotional relationships, the dominance of the father?

13. At work on the building site - Tommy and his being at home, one of the boys, the tough work at the building site, the building itself, heights? Sonny and the incident with the lunches? Having to fight to prove himself and the effect of this on Sonny? Moodiness, ups and downs? His harshness towards the girl and abuse of her? His return to the former girlfriend? The final visit to her to apologise and to try to understand himself? Taking out his hostilities on her?

14. How well drawn was Chubby as a character? The quality of his life, its meaning, relationship with his wife, at work, relationship with his brother? The importance of the story about his son? The visit to the barman's son at the fashionable shop and trying to persuade him to go to his father's birthday? His helping of Sonny, the rest of the family? A good man?

15. The importance of the visit to the cemetery - family outing, family bonds, the brothers, the wives, the children. cars? The discussion about the cemetery and death, burial? The effect on all of them?

16. The importance of the party for the owner of the bar - the fact that he was crippled, his relationship with the men, the story of his son and his homosexuality, Chubby confronting the son. his joy at the party?

17. Tommy and the night out at the motel - the morals for the Italian man compared with the woman? The slip and Maria's discovery of it?

18. The drawing of Maria and her nervousness, as wife, mother, relationship with the two sons, her bullying of the little boy? Her reaction to the doctor's advice? The build-up to the laundry sequence - discussion with the other woman, discovery of the ticket in her husband's coat, knowing that the man was eyeing her sexually, going to his apartment and his nervousness, his mother and the telephone call?

19. The eruption of violence and the effect on Tommy, his bashing of his wife, the police, the hospital sequence? Maria and her not being able to change? Chubby and his intervention and wanting to make peace? Sonny and his reaction? The long sequence of repentance with Tommy and then his two-faced attitude at home? Audience response of revulsion towards Tommy's behaviour?

20. How credible was Sonny's decision to pack? His going to see Tommy and the confrontation between the two? Tommy's hardness? Chubby's presence? Tommy letting his son go yet his love, giving him the money?

21. Sonny's decision to take his brother, their going in uncertainty, hopes, the need to go? Sonny's articulation of the uncertainty of the future but the need to leave?

22. How real was the film? The portrait of a family, the nature of relationships, love and hate, the bonds, the limits? Expectations and pressures, change? Work and creativity and a person's potential?