BROTHERS WARNER, THE - DVD review

These days Warner Bros. is one of the biggest, oldest, and most-respected movie studios in Hollywood. But everything starts somewhere, and the 2008 documentary "The Brothers Warner" attempts to trace the history of the company and its founders from their beginnings through their rise to power. Of course, no documentary can be entirely objective; it is always focused through the lens of its maker, and the granddaughter of one of the studio's founding fathers made this one. Take that as you will. It's still a captivating glimpse into the company's background, a film filled with knowing insight and illumination.

Cass Warner Sperling, the granddaughter of one of the original four Warner brothers, Harry Warner, wrote, directed, and narrates the documentary. Harry was the oldest of four brothers who at the turn of the twentieth century began as simple, uneducated Polish-Russian Jews and ended up as very rich heads of the Warner studio for over fifty years.

Nowadays, WB is a part of a larger corporation, a conglomerate of many other companies, but it was not always so. The studio was actually run by and as a family for most of its existence. And Ms. Sperling says that as a child she pretty much had the run of the place. As long as the red light wasn't flashing, indicating a closed set, she could go anywhere in the studio she liked, see anything she chose, and talk to anyone she wanted. The studio must have been like one, big candy store for a kid.

Anyway, the brothers were Harry, the oldest and shrewdest, who headed up the studio; Albert, the next oldest, who dealt with distribution; Sam, the producer; and Jack L., the youngest, who handled the studio's day-to-day operations. Understandably, Ms. Sperling concentrates mainly on Harry and Jack; Harry because she probably knew him the best, his being her granddad and all; and Jack because he became the black sheep of the family, the brother many people came to despise. Yet it is Jack L. Warner whom most people remember because he had his name on most of the WB films of the Thirties and Forties, and because in the end he was the last man (brother) standing.

Sperling begins the film by telling us why she made it. She suggests the reason was that not many people anymore have any idea who the Warner brothers were. She goes on in an attempt to prove her point by interviewing a number of people on the street, asking passersby if they know anything about the Warner brothers or if they think the studio's title is merely a made-up brand name like "Betty Crocker." Needless to say, the people she interviews haven't a clue. I'm not sure if she was just being selective, or if people in general really are as ignorant as the ones she questions; but maybe it's a sign of the times that most folks anymore don't take much interest in company origins or wonder about company trademarks. That or most folks don't have much interest in their own country's history.

Naturally, Ms. Sperling uses plenty of film clips to illustrate her points, as well as vintage footage, home movies, and comments by those in the know, including family members, actors, critics, filmmakers, and film historians. Among the famous people we hear from are Tab Hunter, Debbie Reynolds, Dennis Hopper, Sherry Lansing, Norman Lear, George Segal, Haskell Wexler, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Angie Dickinson, and a host of others.

The documentary begins with the brothers' start in the business back in the time of the Nickelodeon, those arcade machines and theaters where you watched a short film for a nickel. They saw a future in the business, especially when they watched the Edison Company's 1903 production of "The Great Train Robbery," which inspired them to try it for themselves (first exhibiting and then making and distributing films).

The most-interesting parts of the documentary, though, are the discussions of the frictions among the brothers; the Warner studio's introduction of sound to their pictures (which is really where the company won fame and fortune); and the stands the studio took on social and political issues, particularly crime, prison reform, the KKK, economic injustice, anti-Semitism, and Nazi Germany.

Yet, in the final analysis, it is really brother Jack's betrayal of the family in taking over the studio that stands out as the documentary's most salient point. When the system finally forced Jack himself out, the Ms. Sperling makes sure we don't feel in any way sorry for him. So, no, this is no mere fluff piece on the Warner family; granddaughter Cass Warner Sperling shows us her relatives warts and all.

On a closing note, Ms. Sperling seems overjoyed by the end of the film finally to discover the Warner family's actual last name, before they changed it when coming to America. It's Wonskolaser. Can you picture that on a marquee: "Wonskolaser Brothers Pictures Presents...."

Video:
WB present the film in its original aspect ratio, 1.78:1. It's mostly in black and white, with occasional segments in color. In terms of the picture quality, the newly shot sequences are best, while the older film clips vary with the age of the footage. Interestingly, the oldest clips look best, with some of the material from the silent days looking better than much of the footage from the Fifties and Sixties. The most unfortunate aspect of the picture quality, though, is that the documentary squishes many of the widescreen movie clips to a 1.33:1 ratio, for reasons I can't even imagine. Worse, clips from some of WB's biggest and best movies, like "Giant," "East of Eden," and "Camelot," look positively awful--not only compressed but blurry and dull, too. Go figure.

Audio:
The sound comes to us via Dolby Digital 2.0 surround stereo, the "surround" part of the equation depending on your receiver settings. For the most part, the audio sounds like ordinary monaural, but at least it has the virtues of being clean and quiet. The soundtrack does what it needs to do, neither more nor less.

Extras:
You'd think the Warner studio could have come up with something to accompany the documentary, but they didn't. Maybe they didn't want any other documentary material to compete with the main attraction; I don't know. In any case, all they provide are twenty scene selections; English as the only spoken language; French and Spanish subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired.

Parting Thoughts:
Ms. Sperling treats the subject matter of her family with respect, admiration, affection, and not a little regret. She is Harry Warner's granddaughter, after all, not Jack L.'s. Nevertheless, for the viewer unfamiliar with their story, the Warner family make an engrossing topic for a documentary and one every film student as well as every film fan might want to watch.