Here is a yet another excellent example of a heroic epic from a studio that left us a daunting number of classics. In All Men Are Brothers, Directors Chang Cheh and Wu Ma adapted a 14th century Chinese classic into a feature film. Did I mention that the original work spanned over 2,000 pages, and that, astonishingly, the directors managed to re-work the material into a film that runs just over an hour-and-a-half? I should, because that fact marks All Men Are Brothers as an incredible piece of cinema.
There are, in fact, many things about this film that are brilliantly handled. To start with, the narrative structure of All Men Are Brothers is so well done, that it could rightfully be compared to that demonstrated by Homer in The Iliad. Seasoned readers may balk at such a comparison, yet it is made with full knowledge of the implications. For just as The Iliad focuses on but a few pivotal events in the context of a larger history, so too does All Men Are Brothers take in its massive source material, and artfully arrange it such that the greater story is retained, while an accessibly personal heroic tale is told.
The means by which the directors do this elementary by design, and sublime in their simplicity. I say sublime, because these techniques demonstrate that the directors understood the strengths of the cinematic medium, and used them to their full advantage. For example, to establish the scope of the major conflict that provides the backdrop for the story, a number of battle scenes are shown. Preceding each of these battles is a single screen of text that names the battle, and highlights the important events that took place. Afterwards, this event is played out in a short scene full of furious combat. Together, text and action provide background, context, and the violent spectacle of battle, all in a matter of minutes.
After three of these textually introduced battle scenes, the nature of the conflict between the Liang Shan heroes and the army of Fang La can be understood, and the stage is set for the central part of the story. In the hands of lesser directors, this use of montage and text could have been a disastrous chain of nonsensical scenes, providing nothing more than wanton violence and confusing details that do not connect to the story. Yet Cheh and Wa understand that they only need to show the essentials of these battles to build their story, while the textual introductions provide a rapid shortcut for viewers to grasp the context of what they are watching. In other words, they understand what cinema can do.
Another technique they employ is the use of flashing a major character’s name onscreen when they first appear. In the original source material for this film, there are no less than 108 noteworthy heroes who fill the ranks of Liang Shan. Then there are the countless villains of equal notoriety, for what is a heroic epic without daunting adversaries? To accommodate this huge cast of characters, Cheh and Wa lose none of their momentum by inserting numerous introductory scenes, but bring them into the narrative in the middle of the action, offering only their displayed name as introduction. In this way, readers of the original story can watch the film and pick out the characters they know immediately, without any pause or interruption. [Sadly, these names were not subtitled on the Celestial edition of this film.]
This brings up in an important point about All Men Are Brothers. The directors made this film with an audience in mind that knows the source material. Instead of trying to retell all the background attached to the thousands of pages they were adapting, they relied on the audience to know the basic story and its characters, and focused on making a film that visually realizes this story. Thus, in a single scene, fully a dozen characters may be introduced by name alone, after which it is up to the viewer to understand who they are, and how they fit into the greater story.
While some may find this technique to be hasty, or at worse, lazy, I would argue that Cheh and Wa were wise in their decision to focus on the visual narrative of the film, and rely on the audience to understand the finer details of the story. The amount of story that can be fit into a film is limited by the nature of the medium itself. a prose work has the luxury of time to accommodate its scope; a film does not. Cheh and Wa understood this crucial limitation, and did not strain against it in vain, but rather capitalized on the strengths of the medium, which are by nature visual. In other words, they did not forget that they were making a film, not a pictorial novel, and thus focused on shooting scenes that are clear, well-paced, and worth watching.
This may sound obvious, but then look at the number of would-be film epics that fail, in some instances miserably. Even adaptations of shorter prose works do not always meet with success. All Men Are Brothers is a successful effort because its directors knew how to extract the salient aspects of the source material - heroes, adversaries, exciting battles, intrigue, and themes of sacrifice and honor - and make a film with the same ingredients in different proportions.
Western readers may be wondering, What about those of us who don’t haven’t read the 2,000 pages that lead to this film? They need not be concerned. Yes, without knowledge of the prose work, many of the characters that come and go in the fury of battle are nothing more than bit players on a grand stage. Yet there is something tantalizing in knowing that this character, whom you only get to witness in action - or in some cases, alive and breathing! - for a few short minutes, has their own story to tell. And though you don’t know it, you do know that it’s there. Thus one can perceive a sense of depth to the story in the same way that we see the ocean: we witness the actions of the waves, and know that they roll over vast, dark distances, yet we have not tread them ourselves.
This is not to say that there are no major characters in All Men Are Brothers to attach one’s sympathies to. Far from it. Once the context of the story has been established, the major heroes of the film are introduced in a scene that is the traditional Gathering of Heroes that one expects from an epic. Again, many names are displayed on the screen, and in these panning shots, there is no doubt that we are privy to meeting of great and rare personalities.
From this august assembly, seven heroes are chosen for a dangerous mission, and from here, the film narrows its focus, and settles upon the rigors and exploits of this band. Once again, I turn to The Iliad for comparison. Homer’s story takes place during the Trojan War, a campaign that lasted a full 10 years. Yet the actual events in The Iliad take up no more than about a month’s time. And rather than focus on the armies that are involved, the story deals with only its most exceptional members i.e. heroes, and their exploits in the field.
So too, does All Men Are Brothers dive into the world that it has established, and focus upon the mission of the seven chosen heroes. This transition from a higher to a lower level of narration is brilliantly done, drawing the viewer further into the film and its story after having provided them with background, and some hellacious battle sequences. Now the element of intrigue is introduced, as the heroes face dangerous odds while pursuing their mission. This precarious position tests the mettle of their character, and brings out their deep sense of camaraderie. Surrounded by the enemy, they end up in frequent fights, and the stakes for the audience are that much higher, because the heroes involved have captured our compassion, along with our awe.
These fight scenes are another aspect of All Men Are Brothers that contribute to its stature as an incredible film. According to the background material in the Celestial edition, the film had no less than four fight choreographers attached to it, including Lau Kar Leung (Once Upon a Time in China, Seven Swords). This is understandable, because there is so much fighting in All Men Are Brothers, and each scene is truly awesome. In one scene, the hero rips a six-foot long post from a fence, and wields it like a bo staff, fending off two of Fang La’s best generals. Another fight takes place in a cramped room that houses the mechanism for a critical gate, and there is barely enough room for the camera to capture all the ferocious action.
Every time the heroes take on Fang La’s soldiers, there are dozens of footmen against a single person, and they are slashed, stabbed, and beaten in droves. So many of them fall beneath the fury of the heroes that one begins to wonder if there will even be an army left for the final conflict! Every fight scene is fantastic, featuring multiple types of weapons, streams of blood, and crisp choreography that moves at full, breath-taking speed. The cinematography is also excellent, and often-times dives right into the middle of the fight, such that weapons will flash in front of the screen, drawing blood that is barely in focus.
True to the heroic epic, All Men Are Brothers pits its heroes against their opposite number from the adversarial camp. Again, the narrative focus has shifted to a lower level, swapping big battles for personal, grim duels between skillful opponents. Here, the honor and heroism that make up the essence of the narrative are distilled to their most basic forms, as the hero takes on the skilled but morally corrupt opponent who will employ any means to overcome. The central conflict of Right vs Wicked plays out in the physical exchange of blows, and every drop of blood spilled is a single star in a galactic history of warfare and combat over the Right to Rule.
The end of All Men Are Brothers is appropriately a tragic one, for in the telling of its story, many heroes have died, along with countless other lives that History does not remember. We have witnessed amazing exploits, but at a high price in blood and lives. Yet in this case, the ending is overall a triumphant one, because it is the close to a film that succeeds in every task it set out to fulfill.
All Men Are Brothers is a brilliant film, and an incredible cinematic experience. Without a doubt, I will come back to it repeatedly, and lose myself it its epic portrayal of heroism.
