Deux frères

Plot synopsis:
Set in 1920s French Indochina, two tigers are separated as cubs after the ancient temple where they live is disturbed by Aidan McRory (Guy Pearce) who intends to steal and sell the ancient statues.Two tiger cubs are playing when one (later named Sangha) comes upon a young civet. Sangha chases the civet into its burrow and the mother civet appears and chases Sangha up a tree. The other tiger cub (later named Kumal) appears and chases the mother civet away. Gunshots are heard, and the tigress arrives to protect the cubs. She picks Sangha up and runs for safety. Kumal follows, but can't keep up and falls behind. The cubs' father appears, but the men have caught up with them and he is shot dead by McRory.McRory is an unscrupulous explorer, big-game hunter and temple looter. He discovers Kumal and befriends him, but McRory is arrested for stealing from the ancient temple and Kumal is kept by the chief in the Cambodian village where McRory had been staying. The chief then sells Kumal to a circus where he is to be the star attraction.
Sangha remains in the jungle with his mother, but both are soon trapped by McRory as game for a vain Khmer prince to hunt. The mother is shot in the ear and thought to be dead before she jumps up and runs off with a hole in her ear. Sangha is discovered by young Raoul, son of the French administrator, Normandin, and becomes the child's pet. However, Raoul's mother's dog, Bittsi, a schipperke, is a constant antagonist to the young tiger.
Kumal is trained by cruel circus ringmaster Zerbino to do tricks, such as jumping through a flaming hoop. Sangha meanwhile dwells peacefully with Raoul until he is at last cornered by Bittsi following a prolonged chase. In self-defence, Sangha attacks Bittsi, badly wounding although not killing him. This provokes a hysterical reaction from the household, particularly Raoul's mother, who insists that Sangha has "got the taste of blood now" and gets rid of him. As a result, he is made a part of the prince's palace menagerie, where he quickly gains a reputation as a ferocious beast. Sangha and Kumal are now very close to each other.The prince then decides to hold a festival in which a battle between two great beasts - the brother tigers - will be the centerpiece. When placed in the cage before the audience during the festival, the two brothers do not immediately recognize each other, and Kumal is afraid to fight. However, when the brothers finally recognize each other they begin to play together instead of fighting, and the audience likes this but the trainers don't. The trainer attempts to antagonize the tigers into fighting, but as he opens the cage to shoot one, the tigers escape, managing to frighten the trainers and the audience into the cage themselves.The two tigers escape, and McRory is determined to hunt them down. After Kumal showing Sangha how to jump through fire to escape, McRory and Raoul find them. However, as McRory takes aim at Sangha, Kumal appears, and demonstrates that he remembers the sweets McRory used to give him. McRory puts down his gun and vows never to hunt again.The two brothers make their way back to their temple home in the jungle where they meet up with their mother (who can be identified by the hole in her ear). Just before the credits, some comments to save the tigers (as a species) are shown.

Tags: violence, flashback

Review:
I loved this movie, not just for the obvious reasons of being a tiger loving artist that loves all animal films anyway.
This movie was making a statement regarding how these beautiful creatures are being hunted to extinction!How sad to have to hunt down and kill an animal to prove your manhood or to use them for mistaken ancient beliefs where their bodyparts are used for medicine.
But it was great, in fact, I love it, the tigers got billing over the human actors!It's the story of 2 tiger cubs that are captured when a hunter kills their father and they become separated from their mother.
All parents should take their kids to watch such movies, it will make them love and care for animals.
It is so precisely mixed, that at the beginning You will never realize is it real, You are watching or computer-made.In fact, the movie, I think I may say so, is sort of a masterpiece, but since I am not very competent of the technical details, will not discuss them, except mentioning just in brief.Wonderful graphics, exotic views, well mixed sound, good music, great story, interesting point of views...
Perhaps the people that promoted the film are to be blamed for that, or maybe Mr. Annaud was targeting the film for a more mature audience."Two Brothers" is a story about two tigers that are separated at a young stage of their lives, while their parents are killed by people that loved to engage in this type of hunting.
Freddie Highmore is a child actor with an expressive face that shows a child of great intelligence without any trace of ego.As Mr. Annaud proved with "The Bear", he has a good eye for involving the animals in his stories about them with surprising results..
Other footage seemed to be just film of the tigers acting naturally, which was important for the movie.Two Brothers was a great children's movie.
It is not a totally cheerful movie, but I did enjoy the parts where the tiger cubs were being brothers, and the ending.
Never even heard of this movie before.PlotTwo tigers are separated as cubs and taken into captivity, only to be reunited years later as enemies by an explorer (Pearce) who inadvertently forces them to fight each other.I love Animals, this movie really hard to watch, i felt very emotional about this movie and tigers in this movie, great and acting, You will actually real sorry for this man-eaters .This movie can be predicable however is still really moving movie, 8 out of 10 Great for all ages to watch!.
Simply a brilliant story and one that can hopefully , drill into peoples heads that animals , have feelings and desires just like humans.
Guy Pearce was effective as the hunter Aidan McRory, the movie was realistic for the most part yet hopeful towards the end...The Administrator and his oily obsequeisms to the Oriental Excellency were all too real for that time of the world's history, as for the village headman's playing both ends against the middle to survive was all too typical of what then called Indochine by the French at that time...Kumar and Sangha were endearing and ironic, the brave one became passive as a pawn of the Circus/System; while Sangha the gentle became fierce at being rejected by the Colony/System for him exhibiting his nature when cornered by that pestilential dog "Bitsy" - he was defending himself!
The story is touching, and I confess it had me a bit tearful during especially tense scenes.The interaction between the people and the tigers is unforgettable.The camera work and the top notch editing gave the film its life.Recommend..
i loved the scene of them playing with each other infront of ppl instead of killing each other ,, and also when saungha was a baby sleeping beside Raoul and the milk container in his hands like a true baby , so cute ,, I would recommend to anyone especially who don't care about animals and their matters ..
Those extremely adorable tiger cubs that I'm sure everyone will fall in love with the second that they lay their eyes on them.This is also an very emotional film for it depicts how cruel can humans be, and the moral of it all is to reserve wildlife and give these magnificent animals one more chance on this planet..
I was very much reminded of his 1992 film "The Lover" from a story that floats through a wonderfully thought out path without feeling like any story ever told."Two Brothers" is about a pair of baby tigers who are separated from their father and eventually each other.
Annaud's message communicated, through the different sections of the film, is that we must respect animals like tigers (who are dwindling in existence) enough to coexist with them.A pivotal character in the film is a famous, revered big game hunter played with charm, equanimity and excellence by Guy Pearce.
Although I instinctively recoil at any attempt by filmmakers to convert majestic animals into little more than furry, four-legged human beings, I had hoped that director Jean-Jacques Annaud would be able to avoid that pitfall in "Two Brothers," a tale of two tiger cubs who become separated for a year, only to be reunited when they are each fully grown.
Guy Pearce plays a pragmatic but tender-hearted hunter/black marketeer whose life path intersects with those of the cubs throughout the course of the story, and whose character transformation is one of the least believable aspects of a film that is not all that rooted in credibility to begin with.Admittedly, Annaud does an impressive job getting up close and personal with the tigers, and he certainly has an amazing ability to get these wild beasts to do what he wants them to do on camera.
In this, not really defined place (somewhere India or Bangladesh) they kill people and domestic animals (buffels).When Aidan McRory (Guy Pearce), who plays a man who steels authentic artifacts from the forests, kills the mother-or father of the two small tigers (not defined), the two brothers are brought to two different places.At that time the place is controlled by French politicians who have a colony in the region, and one of those high ranked officer s son gets a tiger.
But the two brothers recognize each other and wont fight and escape.In general not bad, but the visual effect could be done a lot better and off course in such sentimental films the script is made for children to understand.A feel good movie.Nice movie, but still: 5.5/10.
One was due to the fact that the achievement of training animals to work so immaculately is just an incredible achievement because the use of real animals in lieu of the visual effects that films today are fairly reliant on is excellent in making Two Brothers seem like nothing short of a true story, and it's so stunning that I cried within the first twenty minutes because the sound and sight of an actual little tiger cub crying for it's family and struggling to run from human oppressors just hit me all too hard.
Plus, the musical score is all too excellent and the cinematography was stunning, as well as the exceptionally beautiful locations it was all filmed on.The other part is the simple fact that I just loved the story and the adventure of this movie, as well as the fact that the tigers were so adorable as cubs and majestic as adults and so it was just a treat to witness, and at times it was funny.
And it's impossible not to get so attached to the animals because they're all such beautiful creatures that have been mistreated for so long, and as the end if the film reveals it's gotten to the point where the number of Tigers has decreased from 100,000 to less than 5000.
When you have such beautiful source material as a Tiger to work from, you'd better make it true to the original in a CGI movie-making world.
with the exception of the wonderful guy pearce and the little french boy- the actors/characters were silly generalizations.highly recommended and beautiful film..
They are parted and brought up very differently, one having a life of hardships and cruelty at the hands of circus people, while the other is pampered at the hands of a rich family, serving as an exotic pet."Two Brothers" is a movie that is fully wholesome, and watchable for the entire family, kids and adults alike.
There is action, there is sadness, there is joy, there is excitement, there are majestic animals, there are friendships between different species.I was especially impressed with how they had trained the tigers, because they were performing quite well.This was a nice surprise of a movie that actually proved worth sitting down to watch.
They have the power to transform minimal, routine story lines (two tiger cub siblings are divided from their mother, removed from the wild by separate parties of high-handed humans, grow up in different captive grounds and finally find themselves pitted against each other in the battle ringokay, I'm sure we all know where this one's going, sweet and warm-hearted as it is  it's essentially little more than a variation on the story of Androcles and the lion, in which both protagonists, on this occasion, are creatures of the wilderness) into gripping, engaging and dazzling delights, simply by being animals acting in their animal ways.
They're expressive, appealing and a pleasure to watch in whatever stage of their growth  whether as wide-eyed, adorable cubs, or beautiful, majestic adults, they bring a real magic to the story that keeps it afloat and mesmerising, and if, like me, you're an avid animal lover, the odds are you'll fall completely in love with these beasts and everything they stand for.
It's refreshing to know, certainly, that not every animal-orientated flick aimed at the family market nowadays has to rely on smarmy human voice-overs and overdone special effects (of all the movies spawned by that phenomenon over the past decade or so, only 'Babe', their much-loved pioneer, had the charm or the subtlety to pull it off convincingly) to communicate the thoughts and feelings of its four-legged cast.
Though, to be fair, the scenes between the tigers themselves aren't completely spotless  what probably should have ranked as the most powerful and gut-wrenching sequence in the film, that is, the showdown in the arena, in practice actually feels very rushed and docile.Still, the good intentions in this one always shine and, in spite of the problems mentioned above (or possibly in some small way because of) the central message, that the true spirit of nature has the potential to always prevail above humanity's short-sighted efforts to curb and control it, is still nicely delivered.
But if we suspend disbelief, Two Brothers is the classic animal story: two tiger littermates are separated by humans and of course, reunited as adults with lots of complications and cute animal scenes along the way.
This is clearly not a movie for children, if it had been would narrate the story of two tiger brothers living in the jungle.....but placing this story with humans it's bound to be a cruel and sad story as in fact it is.
The movie begins with the two precious, and beautiful Tiger cubs, Sangha and Kumal, as they frolic and play in the jungle with their parents.
If anyone thinks you can make a movie about tigers that live physically near humans without showing a dead tiger, then they have absolutely no idea of what life is really like.
Alhough this film may be too emotional for young children, I think this film said a lot of wonderful things and supports the humane treatment of animals FULLY.
The sense of family the tigers share is something I've seen in my own housecats.All in all, a visually beautiful movie, a disturbing movie, a thought-provoking movie.Because of the implied violence to animals, I would not take a very young child to see this movie, but perhaps a child of 10 or older..
Its about the tearful story of 2 beautiful wild animals who spend a wonderful childhood in the jungles and are torn away from their mother and each other by the cruel hunting nature of man.
Its about the tearful story of 2 beautiful wild animals who spend a wonderful childhood in the jungles and are torn away from their mother and each other by the cruel hunting nature of man.
No child screamed while we were there, but were instead enthralled in the tale of the two tiger cubs.Yes, I was disturbed by how badly the tigers were sometimes treated and grateful that no actual abuse was shown, but I was also glad for the opportunity to talk to my two girls, both during the film and after we left, about the correct and humane treatment of animals, wild and/or domestic.
Although not a film for preschool children, I would recommend "Two Brothers" to any of my friends and family as a great family film with a much needed message about wild animals and natural environments..
now i just saying that my kids that i was watching liked it, not that it is a horrible movie because my little baby was crying during the sad parts!:( well thats them not me not other people and maybe other parents or babysisters feel the same but THE TWO BROTHERS WAS A GREAT MOVIE AND ALL THE KIDS THAT I HAD LOVED IT AND WANT TO GET IT WHEN IT COMES OUT ON DVD!E-MAIL ME IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS WITH THIS INSIGHT!.
I am afraid that I cannot provide a complete review of this film due to the fact that after fifty five minutes I could watch no more and headed for the exit.( I go to the cinema almost every week and I have never walked on a film before) Please believe me when I say that they should have saved this turkey for Christmas.You would think that the idea of two cute tiger cubs, beautiful scenery and Guy Pearce, would be a sure fire winner.
This movie was *painful to watch* if you believe in humane treatment of animals, and if you don't, then it's just boring.Don't see this film.
It seems to me like the movie makers shot a bunch of cute tiger scenes and then through together a film with 1) no plot/a whole lot of stories going on that don't go anywhere and that you don't really understand, 2) no diffinitive moral ending, 3) a bunch of stock character-- including a nauseatingly cute boy, 4) a main character who is passive and never stands out as good or evil.
I wonder about this as no matter how you slice it this is one of the worst films I have seen.My advice is to save the money and donate it to a more worthy cause...The movie ends with some trite message about saving tigers.
On the one hand, I think it IS fair to call this feel-good movie a compromised, saccharine, and childish story that panders to fearful parents who want to protect their children from real life.
This movie has it all...Love, Courage, Determination, Heroism, and Wonder, but certainly not cruelty, and hatred toward tigers or any animal for that matter.
In this film a tiger family teaches what it is to be human..
This movie makes things like Brother Bear and Old Yeller look like Mary Poppins!!I gave it a 3 for the truly beautiful shots in the movie and it's good message about saving the tigers.
Great tiger acting, and wonderful interaction between the tigers & the people.I have always thought that tigers were the most regal of all the great cats and these two are the most unforgettable and so is this movie, a real 'PIECE OF WORK' plus it took the film company, the actors & the cats huge commitment of over a year to make, and that is reflected in the final product, a genuine work of love by a genuine master of his craft.Another nod to Annaud by the animal loving Oscar Academy committee is highly probable..
I have seen other commenter's massively complaining and asking why the filmmakers had the beautiful tigers shot, and why the film was even made...I've also noticed most of these people left before the movie ended...here's a hint, watch the whole thing, wait for the ending.
My 6-year-old niece loved the movie and later asked questions about tigers, trophy hunting, Asia, and animal play.What about violence?
There's no need to "protect" your children from this film, in fact it would do them a favour to see it as who wants their children to grow up so sensitive that they think nobody kills animals - if anything this films will help raise kids awareness of the animals plight!P.S. The cute noises the tiger cubs make make it worth while seeing it tee hee - not depressing but a happy ending!.
I agonized over whether to take my mature 6 1/2 year old to see this film after reading some of the reviews about people walking out, etc?Bologna, this was a perfect child movie especially if they are cat kids like my grandson is!
For older kids and adults this film conveys an important message along with a touching story; tigers in the wild are in real danger of disappearing from this planet and the futility of a "just say no" approach to poaching (either animals or antiquities).
Writer-director Jean-Jacques Annaud has given us a beautifully photographed story about two tiger cubs who become separated from each other when their world is violated by man.Many have dismissed `Two Brothers' as a kiddie film.
Boy, was I wrong.Two Brothers tells the story of Kumal and Sangha, two tiger cubs, who get separated at a young age.
This movie reminds me of the animal films I saw as a kid, like "Born Free".