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The Dhamma Brothers (2008)

tomatometer

83

Average Rating: 7/10
Reviews Counted: 24
Fresh: 20 | Rotten: 4

This thoughtful if rough hewn doc about death row inmates who discover Buddhism inspires hope that all of us are worthy of redemption.

91

Average Rating: 6.6/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 1

This thoughtful if rough hewn doc about death row inmates who discover Buddhism inspires hope that all of us are worthy of redemption.

audience

83

liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 303

My Rating

Movie Info

As co-directed by Anne Marie Stein, Andrew Kukura, and Massachusetts-based psychologist-cum-anthropologist Jenny Phillips, the documentary The Dhamma Brothers relays one of the most astounding recent tales of social evolution in contemporary America. The events in question began circa 1999, with several lifetime convicts incarcerated in Alabama's Donaldson Correctional Facility who commenced regular Buddhist meditation sessions in that institution. Deeply intrigued by this unusual sociological

Nov 2, 2010

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All Critics (24) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (20) | Rotten (4)

An example of advocacy filmmaking at its most inspired.

June 13, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
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A sincere but unevenly made documentary about Buddhism on death row.

May 16, 2008 Full Review Source: Boston Globe | Comment (1)
Boston Globe
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Most of these men will never know freedom beyond prison walls, but they have learned liberation from within.

May 9, 2008 Full Review Source: Seattle Times
Seattle Times
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A sort of cross between The Shawshank Redemption and an episode of MSNBC's Lockup, the intriguing documentary The Dhamma Brothers makes a cogent case for prisoner rehabilitation over, as one inmate here bluntly puts it, being 'warehoused till you die'.

May 9, 2008 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
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There's one image you're likely to take away from this mind-boggling documentary. It's of rows and rows of men dressed completely in white and seated cross-legged on royal blue mats.

May 2, 2008 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
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The Dhamma Brothers offers a constructive alternative to the hopelessness of human warehousing.

April 11, 2008 Full Review Source: New York Times
New York Times
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The thoughtfulness and humanity of these inmates is a potent reminder that there's almost no such thing as a lost cause.

May 16, 2008 Full Review Source: Oregonian
Oregonian

Though compelling as far as it goes, a little more skepticism and drama would have made for a more engaging film and enhanced its message.

May 9, 2008 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News
Los Angeles Daily News

The film does a poor job of explaining the discipline or how it works, and naively takes the convicts' testimonials at face value.

May 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | Comment (1)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Beyond the visual novelty of murderers and rapist sitting in silent practice, The Dhamma Brothers seems to be interested in surprisingly little.

April 15, 2008 Full Review Source: About.com
About.com

If nothing else, it might change stereotypical perceptions about convicts and prison life.

April 15, 2008 Full Review Source: Film Journal International
Film Journal International

(W)hat many will remember about this otherwise informative film is the way in which we get to know these men.

April 12, 2008 Full Review Source: PopMatters
PopMatters

It's a truly inspirational piece of documentary filmmaking bolstered by a fine soundtrack featuring the music of Low, New Order and Sigur Ros.

April 11, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Not polished enough to spread, or strike a nerve, within the wider moviegoing community.

April 11, 2008 Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | Comment (1)
Boxoffice Magazine

A remarkable documentary about inmates at an Alabama prison who do a 10-day silent meditation retreat which opens them to the experience of inner peace and compassion.

April 11, 2008 Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice
Spirituality and Practice

The film presents an intimate, compassionate and sympathetic portrait of a group of individuals that much of society has written off as savage and brutal and who reconnect to their humanity through the act of meditation.

April 9, 2008 Full Review Source: New York Press
New York Press

Audience Reviews for The Dhamma Brothers

[font=Century Gothic]"The Dhamma Brothers" is an insightful documentary about an intense ten day course on Vipassana meditation taught at the Donaldson Correctional Facility(which is infamous for its level of violence) in Alabama in 2002. The inmates were kept apart for the ten days, forced to adhere to a rigid schedule and were not allowed to talk to each other.(The instructors spent all 10 days in the prison, mostly with the prisoners, many of whom were in jail for violent offenses.) This meditation technique may look easy but it was not. The hard part was not on the physical side, but on the mental side as the inmates were forced to examine their lives and how they got to this place in their lives.(In a world overflowing with cell phones and iPods, we do not do this often enough.) Time will tell if this has any lasting effect. [/font]
[font=Century Gothic][/font]
[font=Century Gothic]The film spends too much time on the admittedly odd juxtaposition of the Bible Belt and Buddhism, relying too much on generalizations. What is definitely more interesting are the concepts of law and order. Shouldn't rehabilitation be more important in a prison than simply punishing the inmates?[/font]
April 16, 2008
Harlequin68
Walter M.

Super Reviewer

Inspiring human transformation...in such an unlikely place. It fills me with hope for humanity.
December 7, 2012
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