• Cain and Abel; this is the great granddaddy of sibling rivalry, as Adam and Eve’s boys went at it over a rejected offering to the Almighty. Crop farmer Cain reacted badly when shepherd Abel’s lamb was preferred to his produce. So Cain slew his brother. The moral? Don’t mess with an angry farmer.
• It’s not just the boys who will fight. Girls can be every bit as mean and nasty, as Elizabeth I might confirm if she was still around. The younger daughter of Henry VIII, she was imprisoned when sister Mary became Queen, in a bid to silence her as a rival and prevent her becoming a figurehead for anti-Catholic forces. Then again Elizabeth was no saint, and was certainly not averse to lopping the heads off those who displeased her, as can be seen in everything from Blackadder to Anonymous.
• A number of sons born to a successful businessman might be expected to join the family firm. So it is in The Godfather films, only the business here is crime, a very lucrative line of work that produces a few bitter rivalries. And when a family member – we’re looking at you Fredo – sells out his own for mere money he can expect a swift and bitter vengeance.
• You live your whole life as the centre of attention to a doting parent and then they do the unimaginable and re-marry. Worse, the new step-parent has a spoilt son of their own. This is the premise of the Will Ferrell-John C. Reilly comedy Step Brothers, a very funny idea is given full rein by Ferrell’s broad brand of humour.
• The flipside of suddenly acquiring a brother is having one there by your side your whole life. So it is in the Farrelly Brothers’ Stuck On You, a typically ribald tale of two regular guys (Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear) who just happen to have been born joined – literally – at the hip. Plenty of mileage for comedy here, not least when Damon takes a phone call for his brother and says ‘he’s not here right now,’.
• More usually brotherly relationships in movies take the good son, bad son route which is so ripe with dramatic potential. Duel In The Sun, a steamy western from 1946, played with this idea as nice guy Joseph Cotten and his black sheep brother Gregory Peck both fall in love with gorgeous Jennifer Jones. Suffice to say the film was dubbed Lust In the Dust by those who worked on it.
• Forget noisy bickering of Liam and Noel Gallagher, music’s real brothers in arms are Ray and Dave Davies, founder members of The Kinks. Fights have broken out on stage, the mutual antipathy is regularly expressed in the press and on one possibly apocryphal occasion when a chip snaffled off a plate caused one brother to stab the other with a fork.
• The strongest bonds of loyalty were shared by twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray, who ruled 1960s London with a lingering air of menace. But they were also media savvy, and revelled in the limelight. In Peter Medak’s 1990 biopic the twins are seen as young boxers who face each other in the ring, and no quarter is asked or given as they set about each other. Pity the person they didn’t love as a brother.
• Jim Sheridan directed the American remake of Susanne Bier’s Brothers, a powerful drama focussing on traumatised soldier Sam (Toby Maguire) and his slacker brother (Tommy) Jake Gyllenhaal, and the degree to which he comforted Sam’s wife Grace (Natalie Portman) while Sam was held prisoner overseas. Tangled family loyalties have rarely been better explored on screen.
• Estranged brothers who enter a mix martial arts contest unaware of the other being involved – it can only lead to a titanic showdown in the ring. But Warrior takes these basic elements and spins them into a compelling drama that gradually brings Brendan (Joel Edgerton) and Tommy (Tom Hardy) drawn into a suitable arena to deal with all those years of hurt and resentment. Bruisingly brilliant entertainment it is too.
‘WARRIOR is out on Blu-ray, DVD and Download to Own on February 20, courtesy of Lions Gate Home Entertainment’
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