One thing that makes “Four Brothers” exciting, even now, is the lawlessness of its world, the lack of rules, which comes directly from the “urban westerns” John Singleton watched growing up. In those movies corruption was the word — one unsympathetic, violent man may be enough to save the day, but that wouldn’t fix the whole unjust system. For the Mercer brothers, their only way out was leaving Detroit the second they could — now, they’re stuck there again, until they’re able to break free from this case.

The brothers make up to the extent that they can, and Jeremiah and Bobby team up to face off against Victor Sweet while Angel tries to take down the dirty cop, Fowler (Josh Charles). Bobby’s arrival at the climax, a figure in the distance walking across frozen Lake St. Clair, is incredibly cool — a bit like a Midwestern “Lawrence of Arabia” riff. Even if that’s not a movie that Singleton cited among the many he claimed as influences. 

Singleton told blackfilm.com about his voracious film-watching as a kid, saying that “all I did was watch movies … I could just look out the window and I could see Kung Fu movies and blaxploitation movies and slasher movies.” “Four Brothers” was clearly made by someone obsessed with genre film. Even if it isn’t one of Singleton’s best movies, it’s still a great, gnarly display of film mastery and a tribute to a singularly nihilistic era of American film.