Review: ” The Brotherhood of Justice” (1986)

A lot of “Teen Movies” are shit. There have been plenty of stupid “Teen Movies” where the “ugly girl” gets transformed into a babe just by the removal of her glasses and the loosen up of her ponytail.  Or those stupid high school movies that turn into a science fiction film when the jock who can pretty much bang any cheerleader or hot chick he so desires chooses the ugly fat pig in the school because he comes to the realization that love is what matters…yeah right.

But there have been some good teen movies, some even manly over the years. So let’s take a trip back to the 80s, as we often do, to talk about one teen movie that it’s not only a vigilante movie but also features a cast of future Hollywood stars before they became really famous. That movie is “The Brotherhood of Justice”

“The Brotherhood of Justice” is a TV movie that is actually based on real life events.  In 1984 in Fort Worth Texas, some students attending R. L. Paschal High School decided to form a vigilante group and call themselves “The Legion of Doom”. At first their motives were said to police the school themselves like a “neighborhood-watch” kind of a deal but then they just started to beat the shit out of everyone they wanted, were responsible for thousands of dollars in property damage and even used explosives in some occasions. Members of this crew were all white, middle- upper-class, honor students and athletes. One was even reported to have a 4.0 grade point average. In other words, if these kids would have done this today, everyone working at CNN would be masturbating to this story.

This movie pretty much follows that same narrative. Long before John Wick and long before Keanu Reeves was putting the moves on Sandra Bullock on a bus carrying a bomb, Reeves starred in this movie as a high school rich kid by the name of Derek. Derek and his friends live in a California town that has recently seen an increase in crime. Theft is on the rise and undisciplined lower class hoodlums have even taken to vandalize their precious school, time & time again. The high school principal is receiving pressure from the sheriff’s department about taking measures against these acts of crime. The sheriff wants the principal to hire a private security company and or hire undercover cops to work on school grounds but the principal is reluctant to do so. He believes that his school has enough good students so things can get still get better. One day he calls upon the senior class and gives them a speech about being role models, about the importance of setting an example and being leaders. Needless to say, this inspires Derek and his friends to form a group which eventually they will end up calling “The Brotherhood of Justice”.

The Brotherhood had a set of rules. They made up a list of those they believed deserved to be hit or messed with, they needed to agree unanimously who they went after and clearly a reason or reasons as to why and they also had a pact of silence. Nobody could talk about the Brotherhood outside of the Brotherhood.

At first it was all fun and games but then Derek’s crew started to get really into it and started to break their own rules. They started to attack people without a vote, used weapons, etc. This led Derek to reevaluate his decision to start this group. And of course this conflict leads to the conclusion of the story.

“The Brotherhood of Justice” has a cast of future stars. Not only does it has Keanu Reeves in one of his earliest roles but it also has Kiefer Sutherland who you think will be a shoo-in to play one of the vigilantes but in this movie he plays Victor, a quiet shy student who befriends Derek’s girlfriend played by Hot Aunt Becky from “Full House” Lori Loughlin. Also future “Phantom” Billy Zane co-stars as Derek’s friend and member of the Brotherhood.

“The Brotherhood of Justice” is a TV movie that first aired on the ABC Network on May 18th 1986. The movie subsequently would air on TV & Cable & it was also released on VHS.

The movie is not a gory film, it does not feature “Death Wish 3” style violence, it is kinda low-budged-rish & it is kinda cheesy. But 80s cheese is great and I still found the movie to be very enjoyable and entertaining.

I admit I am very biased towards these kind of movies. I just love the time period and the culture that it produced.

A few years back I was subjected to an hour of the TV show “Glee” at a Dinner Party. In that one crappy episode I saw,  I saw horrible acting and effeminate so-called boys butchering popular pop songs. Needless to say I couldn’t digest my food properly. So a TV movie like this compared to that is a masterpiece in my book.  So if you like 80s movies and TV shows and you haven’t seen this one, this 80s TV movie is a good way to spend 90 minutes on a laid-back afternoon.

7/10

Here’s the entire movie on YouTube