I think I can speak for a lot of people when I say Warner Brothers films have been in our households and our hearts for many decades. One, in particular, is my favorite film of all time. That’s Casablanca. The story behind that film is in and of itself very compelling. That’s just one of the great films from Warner Brothers. It was a huge success but they’ve had a lot of success over the 100 years of their existence. 

The beginning of Warner Brother was a bit inauspicious though. These Four Brothers  Jack L. Warner, Harry Warner, Sam Warner, and Albert Warner, were the founders of the studio but they didn’t always have the best interest of the studio. Sometimes they had their own interests in their hearts. These Brothers all brought different things to the table to keep making this studio a success even though they had their ups and downs.

Over the years Warner Brothers had different mantras. They concentrated on various things and sometimes they had to have different leadership to run the company. One of those leaders who led them through a tough time was Steve Ross who led the company to a lot of success but one glaring mistake, Atari,  in the early eighties. He appointed one man, Robert A Daly, who then appointed another, Terry Semel, to work together to make this company great again. These two for lack of a better word were rock stars. 

With Warner Brothers being a one hundred-year-old company this year they have had to have had to work with a lot of talent over the years. They worked with Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Barbara Streisand, and Clint Eastwood among others as far as actors go. They have also had exclusive deals with some of the greatest filmmakers as well. Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Mel Brooks, Tim Burton, Christopher Nolan, and the aforementioned Clint Eastwood. These men have directed many big hits for the company and won a bunch of awards. 

With all the famous actors and actresses and directors comes the inevitable properties they have to buy the rights to. Some important things Warner Brothers bought was DC Comics which bore a lot of fruit in the last forty-five years. Superman, Wonder Woman, and especially Batman kept on making money for the studio. Another couple of franchises that helped WB stay on top were the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings franchises. They made billions off of all of the films in these franchises. 

Warner Brothers even had a lot of success in the television sphere with Friends, ER, The West Wing, and The Big Bang Theory. Television was an untapped medium until they bought Lorimar Telepictures which gave them the MGM library. Along with television, they owned Time magazine, the WB, now the CW, Turner, and other studios. They have many different avenues to create great films and shows. That’s why they’ve stayed so relevant throughout history. They can change with the times if they have to. 

The docuseries is narrated by a very famous WB star, Morgan Freeman. He has had his hands in many different pies, most notably his working friendship with Clint Eastwood. They’ve done a bunch of films together. The most popular is Unforgiven which won Best Picture, Best Director for Eastwood, and Best Supporting Actor for Gene Hackman. Before that, he was in Driving Miss Daisy, another Best Picture Winner. Freeman finally won an Academy Award himself for another Eastwood and WB collaboration Million Dollar Baby.

The part of the docuseries that I loved the most was all the archival footage from years past. All the footage gave me a lot of nostalgia for so many of the various films and television shows I’ve watched during my forty-something years of being able to watch movies and television. Going back to the WWII era of WB was a treat for me. Seeing so much behind-the-scenes footage was amazing. Seeing so many people who had a hand in working for this company like George Clooney, Tim Burton, Alphonso Cuaron, Alan Horn  Barry Meyer, and Daly and Semel who I’ve already mentioned talk about their time working for this great company was the icing on top of the cake. Watching this series brought back so many memories of sitting and watching these films I’ve loved my entire life.

All episodes of this docu-series are streaming on Max

5 stars

Dan Skip Allen