Brothers: an inappropriate love story

"What they learned is that the remake could largely stand on its own. The structure is virtually the same. Some shots are identical, including a scene of the young wife in a bathtub or a sequence on an ice rink.But there are significant adjustments. Principally, the characters are younger: Mr. Sheridan’s stars are in their late 20s or early 30s, while the actors in Ms. Bier’s movie are about a decade older. “Go to Pendleton, any place where they prepare Marines, and they’re 22,” Mr. Sheridan said. “The wife who gets left behind is 21 and has three kids.”Other differences are cultural: When the ex-con brother in Ms. Bier’s film calls the wife at 4 a.m. to pick him up at a bar, she leaves the kids and comes to get him; in Mr. Sheridan’s almost identical scene, the wife brings the kids with her, despite the hour.“Once we had Sam on board, you wanted to give him as much as possible,” Mr. Benioff said. “But from the beginning it was thought that if Tommy comes from a military family, it makes him much more the black sheep. Actually that character was the one I loved best in the original.”“Her ‘Brothers’ is a kind of inappropriate love story,” he added. “Mine is kind of about putting the family back together. So I think they’re different stories. Even though they’re close.” Source: www.nytimes.com