Movie Overview
The Four Brothers is a 2005 American drama action film directed by John Singleton and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was released on August 12, 2005, and runs for one hour and forty-nine minutes. The main stars in this film are André Benjamin (Jerry), Mark Wahlberg (Bobby), Garrett Hedlund (Jack), and Tyrese Gibson (Angel). They are adopted brothers who set to revenge the demise of their adoptive mother, who was murdered at the beginning of the film (YouTube, 2023). This movie was shot in Greater Toronto Area and Detroit, Michigan, and has been described as Blaxploitation.
Despite being an action film, it is much more than that. The main theme of this film is brotherhood. Based on this film, a family does not involve a blood relationship but involves how an individual cares about another person. In this film, the main stars were all adopted, but they treated and loved each other like brothers. The film also portrays a story about finding peace and grief. After Fionnula Flanagan (Evelyn), their adoptive mother, is murdered, they are all struggling with her demise.
Theory overview
Operant conditioning, also known as instrumental conditioning, is a mode of learning that was developed by B.F Skinner, which uses punishment and reward to influence or modify behavior. Through operant conditioning, behavior that is punished is not likely to occur in the future, and behavior that is rewarded positively is likely to be repeated (Arifin & Humaedah, 2021). For example, when an employee is rewarded with a good performance bonus for an excellent job, he or she will be inclined to continue performing at a higher level to increase the chances of being rewarded again because a positive outcome follows the behavior. In operant behavior, stimuli can either be aversive or appetitive. Aversive stimuli are those an individual tries to avoid or escape, while appetitive stimuli are the ones that a person approaches voluntarily. Responses to such stimuli can be negative or positive reinforcement; in this case, negative and positive do not mean bad or good. Instead, negative reinforcement means eliciting stimulus to increase the chances of good behavior, while positive reinforcement includes introducing stimulus to increase the chances of behavior being repeated.
As a way of explaining this mode of learning, Skinner identified three main forms of responses. The first response is the neutral response, which is a response from an environment that does not produce any stimulus apart from the attention being focused. They neither maximize nor minimize the chances of a behavior being repeated (Cherry, 2019). The second response is known as the reinforcer, which is a response that increases the likelihood of a behavior occurring again. The last response is punishment, which discourages behavior, and thus decreases the chances of it being repeated.
Theory application
After viewing this film from an operant conditioning perspective, the main stimuli and response are appetitive and reinforcer, respectively. After the death of their mother, Evelyn, they feel a big loss, and therefore they organize themselves on how they will get revenge for her death. In this case, the main goal is revenge, which can be considered, and the external stimulus and Evelyn’s death is the positive reinforcement. Therefore, the four brothers are motivated by positive reinforcement in order to achieve the external stimulus. In response to this, Angel, Bobby, and Jack initiate an investigation to determine the person who killed their mother. They visit their mother’s shop and view the camera footage to determine the person or people behind their mother’s demise. They realize that it was not a robbery but was a hit murder or a contract killing. Angel is familiar with one of the hit murderers called Damian, who is a basketball fan, and they approach him to get information on their mother’s death. Damian provides the brothers with the information, which leads them to two gunmen who they were to lead to the people who killed their mother. The shooters refuse to provide information, which makes Bobby and Angel mud. As a result, the brothers decided to shoot them in cold blood (YouTube, 2023). Basing this information on operant conditioning, the lack of information that could lead the three brothers to the person who killed their mother motivates them to kill the two gentlemen.
As they continue to find their mother’s killer, Jack is shot dead by a group of gangs, whom Angel and Bobby believe they were sent by the person who killed their mom. They managed to capture one of the gangs, and they ordered him to tell them who sent them, and he told them Victor Sweet sent them. After getting the information, Bobby shoots the person in the forehead and kills him. From an operant conditioning point of view, Jack’s death, which can be considered an appetitive stimulus, leads Bobby to behave violently and kill the guy who takes his young brothers’ life. Bobby, Angel, and Jerry realize the person who ordered their mother to be killed (YouTube, 2023). This motivates them to continue conducting their investigation and behaving violently to achieve their main goal, which is revenge for their mother’s death.
Terrence Green, a police officer and a friend to Bobby, realizes that his colleague, Fowler was withholding information about Evelyn’s death which could aid in the investigation process. He asks him the reason for holding back the information and he responded that he failed to tell him because it was not relevant at all. Fowler also lied to Green that the police report Evelyn filed was handed over to another police department, though Green already knew that he gave it to Sweet, which shows that both were collaborating. After realizing Fowler is a crooked cop, Green attacks him with a pool stick and orders him to hand in his police badge. After they leave the bar, Fowler gets his gun, shoots Green from the back, and calls dispatch claiming that two black men had fired upon Green (YouTube, 2023). On the basis of operant conditioning, Fowler knew that Green was a threat to him, and therefore he could face criminal charges and probably lose his job. Therefore, he decided to kill him in order to be safe and cover up his bad action. In other words, he killed him to avoid the punishment that he could face.
The surviving brothers come up with a scheme to pay off Victor Sweet using the $400,000 from their mother’s life insurance. While at Fowler’s, Angel manages to control him. As Sofi, Angel’s lover, arrives at the police station, she informs them that Angel is preparing to murder a police officer. When Sofi is on her way to the police station, Jeremiah is on his way to meet Sweet. Fowler hears sirens in the distance and assumes Angel is being pursued until Angel lifts his jacket to show a wire (YouTube, 2023). The whole conversation, including Fowler’s admission that he killed Green, according to Angel, was recorded. Fowler defeats Angel after the police show up at his house in full force. Despite the police officers’ assurances that they are there to save him and that they are directing their guns at Angel’s head, Fowler orders them to back off, and since the police do not obey his orders, he opens fire on the officers who kill him. In reference to operant conditioning, the three brothers acted as if they were surrendering in order to fool Fowler and Sweet. This enabled them to achieve their main goal; revenge on Fowler, since he was working with Sweet despite the fact that he was a police officer.
Sweet tells Jeremiah he plans to kill him when they meet at a frozen-over Lake St. Clair. Later Jeremiah discloses that the $400,000 will be used to buy Sweet’s assassins’ cooperation in exchange for killing Sweet, who is already enraged by him due to his egregious maltreatment of them. Just as Bobby arrives, Sweet confronts him aggressively and demands to know who will be the one to murder him. During their altercation, Bobby uses his hockey prowess to gain the upper hand and knock Sweet out cold. His former henchmen seal his doom when they throw him into a hole cut out of the ice. This marks the end of their long journey since they had accomplished their mission of avenging their mother’s death (YouTube, 2023). According to instrumental conditioning, people tend to behave in a certain manner in order to get rewarded. In this case, Bobby, Angel, and Jerry considered revenge on their mother as a reward, and therefore they had to kill the people who participated in their mother’s death to get the reward.
After getting their reward, they are arrested and taken to police custody where they are beaten in order to make them confess to the killing of Sweet, but they do not provide any information. They knew that if they confessed to Sweet’s death, they would be incarcerated, and they would not feel like they had accomplished their mission. They were released from police custody and went back to their mother’s house, and they repaired it and continued living there as they used to (YouTube, 2023). They celebrate with their wives the achievement they have made even though they were mourning the demise of their younger brother, Jack, who was murdered while seeking revenge for their demised mother.
In conclusion, operant conditioning is among several theories that explain the reason why people behave the way they do. It states that rewarding behaviors are likely to be repeated, while those with negative consequences are likely not to be repeated. In reference to the film, the four brothers considered revenge for their mother’s death as a reward, and therefore they acquired criminal behaviors, such as killing in order to achieve their main goal or reward.
Reference
Arifin, Z., & Humaedah, H. (2021). Application of Theory Operant Conditioning BF Skinner’s in PAI Learning: Penerapan Teori Operant Conditioning BF Skinner Dalam Pembelajaran PAI. Journal of Contemporary Islamic Education, 1(2), 101-110.
Cherry, K. (2019). What is operant conditioning, and how does it work? How reinforcement and punishment modify behavior. Verywell Mind.
YouTube. (2012, March 2). Four Brothers (1/9) movie clip – Evelyn’s Murder (2005) HD. YouTube. Retrieved April 12, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcW6m0Rg1-8&list=PL1DF5CBA8A1861482&index=1
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