Brother

Danila was like the Angel of Death. He felt obligated to help and protect weaker people from stronger individuals that tried to exploit them. Danila probably used violence so much because he did not know how to do anything else to solve problems. After all, in the army he had been taught that the only way to deal with the enemy was to eliminate them using violence. However, he did not seem as though he wanted to use violence to create solutions to all of the problems that he encountered. After all, he could have easily killed Viktor, but instead sent him home to his mother and told him to become a police officer. Danila seemed to only want to use violence to punish the wicked. He clearly was creating his own enemies and most likely chose his enemies based on how dangerous they were to society or to those that he loved. The audience was most likely meant to 'cheer' for Danila because he was dealing violently with the scum of society. He seemingly gave them what they deserved.

His background as a soldier in the war against Chechnya made him a deadly killer. Danila had probably not been a clerk at headquarters but rather part of some special forces division that was given dangerous assignments. He always seemed calm when involved in threatening situations. The military had probably given Danila a great deal of training because he was comfortable around all sorts of weaponry. However, when he was in the military Danila probably had to kill people for 'impersonal' reasons. The Chechens that he was killing would most likely have caused Danila no personal harm had he not joined the military. Danila was more than a mobster because he was more than the blunt instrument that he had been in the military. Most hitmen probably killed without question, but Danila would not kill anybody that was 'innocent'. In a way, there was something almost robotic about Danila in the way that he seemed so detached about killing people and using violence. The war had probably made him numb to committing horrible acts of murder and abuse.

Music was Danila's only escape. Whenever he knew that he was going into dangerous situations Danila listened to music to calm himself down. Perhaps, music was the only thing that reminded him of how beautiful life could be. Danila seemed as though he was dead inside and music was the only thing in his life that made him feel alive. He connected with Cat and Sveta so well because they were like him in that they were more 'dead than alive'. Cat was broken to the point that drugs were the only thing that made her feel anything. Sveta was apparently forced to work as a trolley driver and as a hooker and was chillingly calm after she had been raped by Kruglyi's henchmen. She almost looked as though she was dead when Danila walked into the room. However, Sveta had sadly seemingly become used to being beaten and taken advantage of. The abuse that the sustained was most likely the only thing in her life that reminded her that she was alive.

The Russian world of the 1990's seemed much more chaotic than the Russian world of the 1980's. Apparently, the policemen could easily be former gangsters. There was apparently no order in the Russian world of the 1990's. Little Vera depicted police officers breaking up a fight and walking around with attack dogs. There was no such presence in Brother. Policemen were not anywhere to be found in this film. This was a 'Darwin-esque' world where the only rule that applied was 'survival of the fittest'. Apparently, in Russia in the 1990's the strong would thrive and the weak would be exploited. Brother created this atmosphere on multiple occasions. Perhaps, the best example of this occured when the two thugs riding the electric trolley refused to pay for their tickets. Had Danila not helped the ticket collector, the two thugs would have had a free ride because the ticket collector would not have been able to make them pay for their tickets. Also, Nemets would have had his wares stolen by a thug had Danila not been there to save him. Russia had seemingly gone from being the land of Karl Marx to being the land of Charles Darwin.

Foreigners were portrayed in a negative light in this film. Americans were maybe seen as having been responsible for Russia's poor state of affairs. Also, foreigners were portrayed as being ignorant to Russians. This was perhaps best shown when Danila went up to the French man at the nightclub and harassed him. The French man's techno music was not compatible with the Russian spirit. The two Westerners that asked for directions to a nightclub also seemed to view Danila with a sort of condescending air. Perhaps, Brother captured the Russian feeling during this time that they were looked down upon by the rest of the world because of their poor economy.

There were definitely scenes from Brother were definitely artistic in the way that they seemed to capture the spirit of St. Petersburg (and Russia on a larger scale). Danila traveled all over the city. The audience was shown shots of the market, appartments, stores, and night clubs. There were also many ornate buildings on occasion in the background of shots that served as reminders of either Russia's Tsarist or Soviet past. Brother did not seem to hold anything back in regard to the storyline so one would naturally assume that nothing was attempted to be portrayed in a certain way in regard to the city. This movie just seemed to show St. Petersburg as St. Petersburg probably was.