Product Details

• Actors: Jack Mulcahy, Michael McGlone, Edward Burns, Shari Albert, Maxine Bahns
• Directors: Edward Burns
• Writers: Edward Burns
• Producers: Edward Burns, Anthony Bregman, Bill Baldwin, Dick Fisher, Edward J. Burns
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures
• VHS Release Date: February 3, 1998
• Run Time: 98 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303952984
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #204,933 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Edward Burns's debut film as an actor-director makes a virtue of its limited budget in the same way John Sayles's The Return of the Secaucus 7 did in 1980. Stuck with limited technical means, Burns wisely puts his energies into a sophisticated story, knowing an audience couldn't care less about lighting problems if they're caught up in a terrific, character-driven movie with good actors. The tale concerns three adult brothers (Burns, Jack Mulcahy, Mike McGlone) whose complications in love and problems with commitment are rooted in their common experiences in a violent, loveless family. Burns has a hang- loose style that keeps the film from getting drunk on intense drama. He sets up the emotional backdrop and lets the characters' lives speak for themselves. Moreover, this is a filmmaker who enjoys life too much to spread any more misery; Burns delights as much in the things that aren't necessarily good for people--illicit lovers, castration anxiety, too much time with one's family, too much beer--as those things that are. The results are frequently very funny. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pleasant., November 14, 2002

By 

Inger Watts (Trondheim, Norway) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Brothers Mcmullen [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a pleasant film about problems concerning love. There are three brothers who run into difficulties that they have to solve. My favourite is the second oldest brother. Barry has seen how his mother had to struggle for years with a man that she did not love. After Barry's father is dead, Barry's mother is finally able to marry the man she has always loved.
Barry's reaction to his mother's fate and also to his own relationship with his father, makes Barry afraid to form a steady relationship with the woman of his dreams.

This film touches important issues like love, committment and religion. There were many funny scenes in this film too, so it was good to sit down and watch it.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars If You Grew Up Irish-Catholic, You Will Be Intrigued, July 14, 2002

By 

Stephen M. Bauer (Hazlet, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Brothers McMullen (DVD)

The Brothers McMullen is supposed to be about what it's like having grown up Irish-Catholic in America, which, in the context of this movie, is supposed to be about being sexually repressed. It's an outstanding movie that everyone should see.
The movie is about the relationship of three brothers to the women in their lives and to each other. I must warn you, this is a serious romantic comedy-there's no severed limbs, exploding buildings, or sensational car wrecks. It's a quiet movie with no action. It's also a movie you can watch more than once and still be equally engrossed.

The oldest brother is a high school basketball coach, but, oddly, he's very non-jock like. He's somewhat sensitive and a little thoughtful for crying out loud! And he doesn't drink enough beer for a coach. He is friends with another woman who has the serious hots for him, but he keeps turning her down out of respect for his marriage.

Middle brother was engaged to a Jewish girl, but it broke up due to his own moral and emotional conflicts. Later on, he then picks up an old friendship with the Irish-American girl that grew up next door. She repairs cars in the backyard, drinks beer like the guys and has big hair to remind you she's a girl. I liked her better anyway.

The youngest brother is the most likable. He hasn't been a practicing Catholic since junior high; yet, he considers himself a believer. His charismatic crudeness and way of treating woman remind me of the characters Sean Penn plays, but this guy's got better personality and looks. Both older brothers tell him he drinks too much, but I'd say he drinks just the right amount for his age and station in life! He doesn't seem sexually repressed to me, but his slightly overplayed male bluster and beer drinking might suggest to a shrink that he's keeping his true feelings on ice.

At first glance I thought the McMullen family didn't typify mine--the brothers seem like libertines by comparison! But they call movies and plays drama because they're supposed to dramatize. I think the characters act out things that all of us have thought, felt, wished we'd done, experienced or observed, either consciously or unconsciously. The incongruity of values and lifestyle between the conventional straight-laced oldest brother and the carousing youngest brother was interesting. Unlike most men and unlike most Irish-Catholics, the brothers talk about all their conflicts with each other and their wives and girl friends (Otherwise, there wouldn't be a movie!).

There's some funny, typically Catholic hypocrisy. Middle brother is sleeping with his Jewish girlfriend. When they go looking for an apartment together, he decides they can't live together before marriage because he's Catholic. In another scene, they are in bed together having hank-panky and he tells her they shouldn't be using contraceptives because he's Catholic. Oops. I didn't use the word sex or intercourse. Does that make me sexually repressed?

Apparently, if a woman pursues a man and he's attracted to her, but he chooses to remain faithful to his wife, Hollywood considers that sexually repressed. And if a person is torn between what they've been taught is right and what their passions command, that is considered sexually repressed. I'd call it being a normal human being. I don't think the movie makers were trying to portray the youngest brother as liberated; rather, I think they were trying to portray him as another kind of emotional cripple, but I'm on shaky ground here.

I thought the brothers did O.K. in their relationships to others, but I was a little disappointed that none of the brothers lacked the intellectual depth and sophistication to sort out and resolve their inner conflicts. This is the real tragedy.

Unfortunately, the movie barely touches on the woman's point of view. It would make a great sequel.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great story, July 31, 2002

By 

MrsMue "respgirl" (Orlando, FL USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Brothers Mcmullen [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I love Ed Burns and I thought this film was good (I do like "She's the One" better) It's about 3 brothers, their lives and the reprocussions of growing up in a Catholic Irish American household in New York city.