The Dhamma Brothers

Critics Consensus

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

78%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 340

Rent/buy from $3.99

Rent/buy

Rate And Review

Super Reviewer

Rate this movie

Oof, that was Rotten.

Meh, it passed the time.

It’s good – I’d recommend it.

Awesome!

So Fresh: Absolute Must See!

What did you think of the movie? (optional)
You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket.
Super Reviewer
Step 2 of 2

How did you buy your ticket?

Let's get your review verified.
Fandango

AMCTheatres.com or AMC AppNew

Enter your Ticket Confirmation# located in your email.More Info

Cinemark Coming Soon

We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.

Regal Coming Soon

We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.

Theater box office or somewhere else
By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie.
You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket.
Super Reviewer

Rate this movie

Oof, that was Rotten.

Meh, it passed the time.

It’s good – I’d recommend it.

Awesome!

So Fresh: Absolute Must See!

What did you think of the movie? (optional)
How did you buy your ticket?
- Fandango
- AMCTheatres.com or AMC AppNew
  
  Enter your Ticket Confirmation# located in your email.More Info
- Cinemark Coming Soon
  
  We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.
- Regal Coming Soon
  
  We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.
- Theater box office or somewhere else
By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie.
You haven’t finished your review yet, want to submit as-is?

You can always edit your review after.
Are you sure?

Verified reviews are considered more trustworthy by fellow moviegoers.
Want to submit changes to your review before closing?

The Dhamma Brothers Photos

A scene from the film "The Dhamma Brothers."

View All Photos (13)

Movie Info

In 2002, psychotherapist Jenny Phillips begins intensive meditation retreats for inmates at a maximum-security prison in rural Alabama. Based on the principles of Vipassana meditation, the 10-day retreats are conducted in total silence. This documentary explores the lives of four convicted murderers before, during and after the arduous retreats, as well as reactions from residents of the nearby town of Bessemer, many of whom object to the program on religious or social grounds.

Genre:

documentary
Original Language:

English
Director:

Jenny Phillips, Andrew Kukura, Anne Marie Stein
Producer:

Jenny Phillips, Anne Marie Stein
Release Date (Theaters):

Apr 11, 2008 limited
Release Date (Streaming):

Mar 8, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA):

$31.4K
Runtime:

1h 16m
Production Co:

Northern Light Productions

Cast & Crew

Jonathan Crowley

Jenny Phillips
Director

Andrew Kukura
Director

Anne Marie Stein
Director

Jenny Phillips
Writer

Bestor Cram
Executive Producer

Show all Cast & Crew

Critic Reviews for The Dhamma Brothers

All Critics (23) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (19) | Rotten (4)

Quote not available.

November 16, 2011 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Joshua Land
Time Out
An example of advocacy filmmaking at its most inspired.

June 13, 2008 | Full Review…

Andrea Gronvall
Chicago Reader
A sincere but unevenly made documentary about Buddhism on death row.

May 16, 2008 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…

Ty Burr
Boston Globe
Most of these men will never know freedom beyond prison walls, but they have learned liberation from within.

May 9, 2008 | Rating: 3/4

Tom Keogh
Seattle Times
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…

Gary Goldstein
Los Angeles Times
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 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

Ruthe Stein
San Francisco Chronicle
Quote not available.

April 4, 2011 | Rating: 3.5/5 | Full Review…

Dave White
Movies.com
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 | Rating: B | Full Review…

Marc Mohan
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

Bob Strauss
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 | Rating: C | Full Review…

Bill White
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 | Rating: 2/5 | Full Review…

Jurgen Fauth
About.com
If nothing else, it might change stereotypical perceptions about convicts and prison life.

April 15, 2008 | Full Review…

Eric Monder
Film Journal International

View All Critic Reviews (23)

Audience Reviews for The Dhamma Brothers

Apr 16, 2008

[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]

Walter M Super Reviewer