"Imaginative, But Incredibly Grim"
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What You Need To Know:
The Grimm brothers are, of course, the famous chroniclers of ancient European fairy tales. This movie, however, is grim indeed. Although THE BROTHERS GRIIMM is beautifully filmed, the story contains extreme constant violence, including scenes of torture, children losing their faces and eyeballs being extracted. The movie also has a very strong occult worldview that supports nominalism and mocks Christianity. All of these horrible images and themes will surely imprint themselves on the viewer's mind.
Content:
(OOO, ABABAB, PaPaPa, LL, VVV, S, A, D, MMM) Very strong occult worldview that pointedly mocks Christianity, the Cross, the Church, the pastor, faith, and supports pagan nominalism, occultism, special knowledge, magic, and a plethora of other evils; seven obscenities and six profanities, as well as con man hits the Cross on the altar in a mocking way, has a phony Cross that spews flames, conducts phony exorcism rites to kill phony witches, and other blasphemous actions; extreme constant violence such as scenes of torture, decapitated heads displayed, children losing their faces, young girls locked in coffins, people shot with various different projectiles, people stabbed in the heart, people dragged by chains and ropes, people hit beaten, scarped and burned, and gruesome half-dead living dead wolves transforming into people, bugs falling in and out of people's orifices, horse swallows young girl, people screaming for help, man likes to torture, witch scattered like glass, limbs cut off, eyeballs extracted, and animal eats man; man in bed with two women, men cross dress, kissing, 500-year-old woman wants lover and tries to seduce two men (she looks beautiful in the mirror but really looks like a rotten corpse); no nudity; drinking; smoking; and, delighting in eating the blood of a cat that was kicked, delighting in torture, con men, theft, etc.
More Detail:
Terry Gilliam, the American-born graphic artist of the MONTY PYTHON comedy group, is a very imaginative filmmaker. His movie BRAZIL is a classic. Even so, he often loses control of his plot. Such is the case with THE BROTHERS GRIMM, where, at the end, he forgets to insert another plot point that would have held the story together.
Jacob and Will Grimm are two young boys in French-occupied Germany in the 1790s. Their family is starving, and their sister is on the verge of death. Jacob is sent to the market to sell a cow for just enough money to buy the food to save his sister, but Jacob gets taken by a con man and sells the cow for magic beans. Will is furious with his brother, and it is implied that the sister dies.
Years later, Jacob and Will travel from town to town conning people to hire them to perform exorcisms. One town is being bothered by a witch in the old mill. They demand an exorbitant price to get rid of the witch. They fight off this horrible demon with arrows tipped with baby tears, flaming crosses, catapults, and all sorts of Rube Goldberg devices. When the mill owner leaves to tell the townspeople that they got rid of the witch, it is revealed to the audience that the witch is one of the brothers Grimm’s cohorts and another cohort was operating extensive theatrical equipment to create their show.
With their ill-gotten earnings, Jacob and Will go to a tavern. While Jacob is writing his stories and waxing eloquent, Will retires upstairs with two barmaids. An evil Italian commander in Napoleon’s occupation army, Cavaldi, comes into the tavern and arrests the two brothers. Cavaldi literally drags the brothers before a Napoleonic general, Delatombe. Delatombe demonstrates what evil tortures they are going to face unless they go to the German town of Marbaden and rid it of a curse that seems to be taking all of the town’s young girls.
Jacob and Will are hauled to the town in iron cages. When they get there, they team up with a trapper named Angelika. With her help, they find out that, in the forest around the town, they are not facing smoke and mirrors, but real demons. The demons are the henchmen of a 500-year-old queen who lives in a tower in the middle of the forest and who needs 12 virgins to restore herself to her youthful beauty. In the process of fighting this queen in the forest outside of Marbaden, all of the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales make their appearance. One little girl ventures into the woods in a red riding cape and of course is taken by a wolf who is actually a man. The story of Sleeping Beauty and the other classic Grimm tales supposedly have their roots in this conflict. In facing real evil, the Grimm brothers turn from being con men to being heroes.
THE BROTHERS GRIMM is a very dark movie. Cavaldi loves to torture people. He shows decapitated heads. He dunks people in boiling water. He has a giant screw lowered down on a beautiful woman. Even mentioning some of the tortures would be excessive. When he kicks a little kitten, the blood splatters and his commander, Delatombe, takes delight in licking the blood. This is about as low as a moviemaker can go.
In the process of solving the plot problem, people are burned, people are attacked by ugly bugs and ugly tortures reign. Furthermore, the church is mocked, it is stated that Christians brought the evil to the forest and ruined the pagan village, the current minister is weak, the present day Christians are fearful, and faith has no part in solving the plot problem.
However, nominalism does, and seldom has a movie been so clearly occult in the name it and claim it manner of THE BROTHERS GRIMM. At a key plot point, Will tells his brother, Jacob, “This is your story; you’re imagining it. So change the ending.” Thus, life is but a dream. Some people are the dreamers and some people are caught in the dreams of others. However, as more than one character says, these fairy tales are real, so reality is the fabric of the evil that Jacob Grimm imagines.
Since this writer has known people who believe in such a worldview, it is nice to know that the truth is quite different. We live in a real world created by a real God who loves us and offers us salvation. We are not caught in a nightmare. And, best of all, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
That said, the movie is beautifully filmed. Although some of the acting is over the top, especially by Jonathan Pryce, and although the plot falls apart, the visual elements of this movie are incredible. The images, mostly bad, should imprint themselves on the viewer’s mind for years to come. Even so, if you want a great visual experience, with a positive moral worldview, you would be better off going to CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
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