The Brothers Warner (Cass Warner, 2008): USA

Reviewed by William Conlin. Viewed at 2009 The Santa Barbara Film Festival.

No matter how compelling a Hollywood script is, sometime the story of what happened behind the camera becomes ten times more interesting than the movie itself. This is evident in Cass Warner’s epic profile of her grandfather and his siblings, The Brothers Warner.

The film follows the Warner Brothers as they go from poor immigrants who invest every penny they have to buy a nickelodeon theater, to the pinnacle of Hollywood. Over the course of their 50 year reign, brothers Harry, Abe, Sam and Jack became responsible for classics such as The Jazz Singer, Little Caesar and Casablanca. But with their great successes came great personal hardship. The brothers struggled with each of their personal lives and eventually suffered a meltdown at the hands of their egotistical younger brother Jack.

My biggest criticism of this film is the poor technical style. Many interviews were very poorly lit and one interview with Roy Disney Jr. had an incorrect aspect ratio, creating a “carnival fun house” look that really distracts the viewer. The film is also marred by poor audio. I had trouble hearing many interviews, causing me to miss critical moments.

While watching it, I found myself comparing The Brothers Warner to another film from the 2009 Santa Barbara Film Festival about a entertainment family that destroys itself through greed: Inventing L.A.: The Chandlers and Their Times. I found the Chandler’s story to be very dry, but the technical merits of the film extremely interesting, whereas I found the Warner’s story to be very engaging but with the technical merits lacking.

Despite its problems, I found this film to be a true labor of love on Cass Warner’s part. She served as Director, Producer, Writer and Narrator. This project has been over 30 years in the making . Cass’ mission to preserve her grandfather’s legacy and set the record straight about the Warner Brothers was a success and will undoubtedly be a favorite for anyone interested in “behind the camera” stories.