Back in the 80s and even in the early 90s, TV executives were quite the lot. While many people of this new modern era claim television is trying too hard to be "woke" in a vain effort to shill for some free publicity and extra money, television in the 80s and 90s tried a more unusual tactic. "Think of the children!!!" After school specials were the norm and put out for us kids during the late afternoon hours while our parents were educated with the "moral panic" movie (which routinely had better production value and acting). Whether it be dungeons and dragons, steroids or gangs, these movies presented what if's to the parents and thus created some weird nuances to our world.
Heavy metal is bad. Pot is bad. Crack is bad (but not as bad as cocaine!). Sex is bad. It was like every TV executive was Mr. Mackey. Most of these movies exist in a bizarre time capsule that is horribly outdated, but Brotherhood of Justice just exists on a different plane all together.
First of all, the story was based on a real gang of white, upper class, mostly athletic students. Pushed by a football coach and coaxed by their own power, the students started going too far with bombs, beatings and other property crimes. The movie doesn't take it as far their real life counterparts, and the producers kept out the more blatant racist element of the gang (they routinely drew swastikas around their name, Legion of Doom). Instead we got a couple members of the group that hate Mexicans.
So what does this movie say? Strangely it presents arguments about crime and punishment the same way they do today....force must be met with force. Reasons be damned. While I am sure the producers were just thinking they were writing about the dangers of gangs, they inadvertently made an allegory that maybe we should not take our cues on law enforcement from the upper class. It brings about the notion that more police is good and therefore will weed out the bad element, i.e. Poor people and minorities. Of course, all crime is generalized.
Is the movie any good? I would say it was a decent effort. The escalation of the gang's activities would have been better suited for a mini-series, but that was reserved for bigger projects in those days like Thornbirds, North vs. South and V. My only gripe was how quickly the gang turned into a vigilante group craving real, destructive and potentially harmful violence. I would have loved to see the consequences of possibly getting bad intelligence. It might have been better if an authority figure had been directly involved and the movie had a chance to do that with the school's principal. But alas, moral panic films are not about adults manipulating young adults with no life experience, it's about justifying the hatred of things they don't understand.
I will say, this movie had an impressive cast for sure. I wish they had used Kiefer Sutherland more, but Young Guns and The Lost Boys were gonna do that soon enough. The acting wasn't bad, for even Keanu Reeves' limited range worked. I think this was a good idea to work with, but they just didn't have the right people behind the scenes. Plus television was much different in those days, and I'm sure a modern streaming and cable network can do a bang up limited run series on this subject. Here is to hoping.
