Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Brothers Till We Die Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 6, 2023

Note: This version of this film is available on Blu-ray as part of Severin's Violent Streets: The Umberto Lenzi/Tomas Milian Collection box set.

In one of several worthwhile supplements Severin has aggregated for Violent Streets, commentators Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson make the case that director Umberto Lenzi may not have achieved the renown of some of his contemporaries at least in part perhaps due to the fact that, at least according to Howarth and Thompson, his directorial style wasn't "flashy" enough, though the fact that Howarth's book about Lenzi includes the word kinetic in its title might subliminally undercut this thesis, one way or the other. There is a certain stolid quality to some of Lenzi's work, to be sure, but there are also at least moments of flourishes, but one way or the other, when you have a star like Tomas Milián snarling in front of the camera, how much additional "style" do you really need? Milián is a near feral presence in all five films Severin has aggregated in this appealing new collection culled from Lenzi's rather impressively long filmography. Some of the supplementary interviews with Lenzi included on the various discs in this set might suggest that his relationship with Milián may not have always been smooth sailing, so to speak, and in a way I was reminded (perhaps only due to it very recently passing through my review queue courtesy of a bonus feature on Arrow's release of Black Sunday) some remarks by John Frankenheimer speaking to his evidently intermittently stormy relationship with Burt Lancaster, another leading man with a somewhat feral presence. One way or the other, much as with the Frankenheimer - Lancaster collaborations, Lenzi and Milián formed a viscerally compelling symbiotic unit for whatever reason, and the five films collected here offer more than abundant proof of the energy the duo brought to some admittedly at times otherwise pedestrian efforts. Severin has perhaps sweetened the pot for a certain demographic by including soundtrack CDs with some of the films.

Lovers of kitschy mid-sixties television series may remember two obviously linked enterprises, Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie , where both lead actresses got to ostensibly stretch their acting muscles by playing somewhat nefarious doppelgangers of their original characters. Something at least a little similar is at play in the goofy Brothers Till We Die, which offers a double dose of Tomas Milián as curly topped cop Monnezza from Free Hand for a Tough Cop, and his twin brother, a "hunchbacked sociopath" (as the back cover of this release terms him) named Vincenzo, who has his own nickname "Il Gobbo", who was kinda sorta also a character in The Tough Ones .

There's a famous book about Broadway called The Season, by inimitable raconteur and screenplay titan William Goldman, and one of the chapters in that book is about the so-called "muscle" behind any given production, and in that regard, it's probably inarguable that Milián was that force in this film, not necessarily to the benefit of things. As is even overtly mentioned on the back cover of this release, Milián pretty much wrote his own dialogue as the film was being shot (he was already known for his wild interpolations into screenplays in previous films), but here is pretty much goes Full Gonzo, especially with regard to that aforementioned "hunchbacked sociopath". Things evidently got so bad in this production that it finally convinced Lenzi to no longer work with the actor.

Brothers Till We Die, like the other films in this set, received a previous release on Blu-ray, in this case from 88 Films for the Region B market. Those wanting a detailed plot recap as well as another reaction to the film are encouraged to read Svet Atanasov's Brothers Till We Die Blu-ray review of that release.

Brothers Till We Die Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Brothers Till We Die is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. As with the other titles in this set, the back cover of this release offers only a generic "scanned uncut in 2K from the original negative" as its sole technical data point. This is by and large a very pleasing looking transfer, especially in terms of color, and while I don't have the 88 Films version to do a side by side comparison, based only on screenshot comparisons, it looks to me like the 88 Films version had a somewhat yellowish tone to the transfer that is commendably absent here (compare, for example, screenshot 4 from this review with screenshot 1 from Svet's review to see some of the color timing differences, which are more than noticeable). While I didn't notice any aggressive noise reduction that led to deficits in detail levels, there are some curious inconsistencies, including a number of sequences in the police station that look either out of focus or like a defective lens may have been utilized (see screenshot 9, especially toward the edges of the frame). Very minor signs of age related wear and tear have made it through the restoration gauntlet.

Brothers Till We Die Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Brothers Till We Die features DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono options in either English or Italian. Once again, I'd argue that the differences between these tracks are at best minimal, and possibly indiscernable, but if pressed, the Italian track arguably has a bit more presence and ambient reverb than the English. Kind of amusingly, if you toggle between the tracks, you'll discover that the underscore doesn't align exactly between the two. One way or the other, dialogue, score and effects are all presented without any problems. Optional English subtitles are available for both versions.

Brothers Till We Die Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Tomas and Tomas (HD; 12:05) is an interview with director Umberto Lenzi. Subtitled in English.


• He Called Me "The Tamer" (HD; 19:28) is an interview with editor Eugenio Alabiso. Subtitled in English.


• Music and Bullets (HD; 19:32) is an interveiw with composer Franco Micalizzi. Subtitled in English.


• Heart of Rome (HD; 18:51) is an interview with composer Antonello Venditti. Subtitled in English.


• Trailer (HD; 3:50)

Brothers Till We Die Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Even one Tomas Milián may be too much for some viewers, and so this outing may simply offer too much of an obviously out of control actor. This release sports some generally solid technical merits and some appealing supplements, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.