In 1851, hired guns Eli and Charlie Sisters are sent to kill a chemist who has invented a formula for finding gold. Along the way they meet a private detective who sides with the chemist. Watch how Audiard takes the Western's violence and turns it into a story about two tired brothers.
The Sisters Brothers is a 2018 western, comedy and drama film directed by Jacques Audiard. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (2 narrative, 1 cinematography and 1 psychology), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Foxcatcher uses several of the same techniques.
Using a genre's familiar rules, like its heroes and its violence, to take those rules apart. The film turns your expectations into a political point the genre usually avoids.
How this film uses it
The film has the usual Western pieces, such as hired killers, a gold rush and gunfights. Audiard uses them to show what the violence costs the men who do it. By the end, the brothers lose someone and part of themselves, and the killing leads home to their mother.
Where to see it
The ending. The brothers set out to kill the Commodore, find that he has already died, and go home to their mother.
Making money or one necessary possession the force that moves the plot, so every choice is shaped by what characters can afford or keep.
How this film uses it
Gold sets every scene in motion. The Commodore wants the formula, Warm wants to use it, and the detective changes sides because of it. The characters make their choices around what they can get and what they can keep.
Where to see it
The river test. The four men dam a river and test the formula, which makes gold ore glow briefly but is extremely caustic.
Shooting a scene in one place and dressing it to pass for another, such as a stadium that stands in for an embassy. You accept the fiction as long as the details look right.
How this film uses it
The story is set in the American West, and Audiard shot it in Spain. Almeria, Tabernas, Navarre and Aragon stand in for the American West. You accept the fiction because the dry hills and dusty towns look the part.
Where to see it
The pursuit. The brothers chase Morris and Warm across the country after the two team up.
Showing two people bound together by mutual harm or guilt. They cannot leave and cannot heal, and the bond feeds on its own cruelty.
How this film uses it
Eli and Charlie are bound together by family, work and old habits. They bicker and protect each other and cannot leave. The loss of Charlie's arm and their return to their mother's house show how far that bond has pulled them.
Where to see it
The river and after. Warm and Morris die from the formula, Charlie's arm is later amputated, and the brothers go home to their mother.
Questions
The Sisters Brothers: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does The Sisters Brothers use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in The Sisters Brothers (2018): Revisionist Genre Argument, Money as Plot Driver, Location Stand-In and Toxic Codependency.
Who directed The Sisters Brothers?
Jacques Audiard directed The Sisters Brothers, released in 2018. CineCode also covers Emilia Pérez (2024).
What films are similar to The Sisters Brothers?
Films that share techniques with The Sisters Brothers include Foxcatcher (2014), Django Unchained (2012), Bicycle Thieves (1948), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).
