THE BRUTALIST

THE BRUTALIST is a drama about a Jewish architect and refugee from the Holocaust who finds success in America from 1957 to 1960, but not much satisfaction because his wealthy patron is unreliable and pretty nasty when things don’t go his way. THE BRUTALIST is a long slog of more than three hours that ends up having slimy socialist attacks on America, Christianity and the American Dream, with gratuitous scenes of incredibly explicit and even pornographic sex and nudity, lots of strong foul language, scenes of heroin addiction, and unlikeable characters.

THE BRUTALIST stars Adrian Brody as László Tóth, an architect who emigrates to Philadelphia in 1947 after escaping the National Socialist death camp at Buchenwald during the Holocaust. He and his wife, Erzsébet, got separated, however, and she became sick and stayed in Europe to look after his teenage niece, Zsófia, who suffered at Dachau with László’s wife.

In Philly, László stays with his cousin, Atilla, who’s converted to Catholicism to marry a beautiful woman. Atilla runs a furniture store, and László stays in a back room.

László helps his cousin make furniture. He applies his modern architectural style, brutalism, to the furniture. Brutalism is an example of European and Soviet “social realism” using a lot of concrete. It emerged from modernism in the early 20th Century, and became popular in the Soviet Union and France before World War II, then in postwar Britain and Europe. According to the movie, László was put in the concentration camps not only because he was a Jew, but also because he favored this kind of modernist, international socialist architecture.

László and his cousin are hired by Harry, the son of a wealthy WASP industrialist, Harrison van Buren, to remodel Harrison’s library. Harrison. Is away on a trip to Europe. However, when he returns, he’s angry with his son and László for messing up his library, and Harry refuses to pay them.

László’s cousin suddenly falsely accuses László of sleeping with his wife and kicks him out. László becomes a day laborer and a heroin addict. He hangs out with a black heroin actor with a young son.

Three years later, Harrison shows up and is profusely apologetic. Over a fancy dinner, he tells László that the library he designed has become a noted piece of architecture. He also tells László that he did some research on him and found out that László was a noted architect bedore the Hitler’s goons threw him and his family into a concentration camp.

Harrison pays László what he owed him and introduces him to high society. He hires László to design a memorial building for his late mother. The building will include a community center, a library, a gymnasium, a theater, and a Protestant chapel. László’s vision for the building is really expensive, but Harrison loves the notoriety László brings to the project. He even introduces László to his attorney, who works to bring László’s wife and niece, now a young woman, to America.

László greets his wife and niece in 1953. He discovers his wife is in a wheelchair because of a bone disease and his niece is mute, issues brought about by their starvation and trauma during the Holocaust.

László plugs away at the project, but the contractors cut some corners, damaging László’s artistic vision for the building. This makes László unhappy, especially since he foregoes his pay to put the project back on track. Also, in one scene, Harrison’s son, Harry, tells László that they merely tolerate him, and he even makes a pass at László’s niece. Then, a train derailment carrying building materials and creating expensive legal issues forces Harrison to stop funding the building.

In 1958, László and his wife retreat to New York City, where László becomes a lowly designer at an architectural firm and his wife becomes a writer. Happily, though, his niece has gained her voice, married and become pregnant. She and her husband don’t want to raise their child in Protestant, Capitalist America, so they decide to move to Israel.

[SPOILERS FOLLOW] However, Harrison rehires László to resumes the project, and they take a trip to a huge marble mine in Italy. At a local party, Harrison becomes jealous of László, who gets drunk and flirts with a local woman. László wanders away from the party to explore one of the large marble caves. Harrison follows him. Then, when László collapses in a drunken stupor, Harrison rapes him. This scene comes out of the blue, even though, throughout the movie, Harrison clearly enjoys spending time with László discussing intellectual matters.

Eventually, László sours on the American Dream and becomes sullen. He has also abandoned his Jewish faith. His wife takes a cab out to Harrison’s estate. Using a walker, she interrupts a dinner party and confronts Harrison. She accuses Harrison of raping her husband in front of everyone. Harrison’s son violently pushes her away, but his daughter, Maggie, helps her out to her cab. Meanwhile, Harrison disappears, and Harry organizes a search party.

After the outcome of the search party plays out, the movie suddenly jumps to an epilogue set in Venice in 1980, at a retrospective celebration of László’s work over the years. His wife has died, but his niece makes a speech while László proudly watches from his wheelchair. Also, the movie reveals that László has suffered a stroke, but that he finally completed the community center and memorial in 1973.

THE BRUTALIST is a long slog of more than three hours. It ends up having slimy socialist attacks on America and the American Dream. While it’s true that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely, the movie’s depiction of the despicable wealthy, Protestant industrialist descends into Marxist melodrama. The industrialist isn’t just sometimes haughty, sometimes condescending and sometimes really mean. He also has to be a homosexual rapist with an Oedipal complex for his mother. There’s also a scene directly attacking Christianity. In that scene, set during the lengthy search for the industrialist, a shot of the Protestant chapel in the building that László designed shows that the cross design in the ceiling actually forms an upside down cross when the sun rises. Apparently, László specifically designed the ceiling to mock Christianity. This image matches László’s first view of the Statue of Liberty, which is upside down.

THE BRUTALIST also contains some strong foul language, including seven “f” words and seven strong profanities. Worse, there’s an incredibly graphic scene where the title character watches a pornographic movie in a theater. Such movies used to be called “stag” films. Yet, the movie retains its R rating. How was THAT possible? There’s also an explicit scene where the title character and his wife have marital relations, plus a scene implying oral sex with a prostitute. Lastly, the scene where the capitalist industrialist rapes the title character is shown from afar, with no nudity. Finally, THE BRUTALIST shows at least two scenes of heroin abuse and two scenes of drunkenness.