Lonely Are the Brave (1962) Reviews

• A Classic Finally Unearthed

  jpdoherty2009-08-05

  At Last! One of the most eagerly requested movies gets a Region 1 DVD release. For many years now collectors have been hollering for LONELY ARE THE BRAVE (1962) to be issued. So Universal have finally seen the folly of their ways and here it is in a splendid 2.35 sharp as a button Monochrome widescreen presentation that everyone will adore. Although there is in existence a reasonably good Region 2 version from Spain it cannot compare to this new release. Kirk Douglas is terrific in the story we all know and love of the free- spirited latter day cowboy who resents the conventions and restrictions of the modern day west ("everywhere you go, keep out, stop, no entry, go away, get lost", drop dead"). The wire cutters he carries in his saddle-bags gets plenty of use! On the run from the law because of a misdemeanour he takes to the hills with his faithful horse Whiskey in an attempt to escape into Mexico. But the rough terrain and upward climb is not easy particularly for a man on horseback. In a wonderful scene where he realizes he would make it without the animal he leaves Whiskey and begins to climb a cliff. But looking back at her and with that soulful look in her eyes as she watches him climb he just can't do it. He comes back down to the horse mumbling..... "you're worse than a woman". It is one of Douglas' best and most likable roles! Being alone for a good portion of the movie he dominates the screen. It is an admirable and engaging performance plus his expert handling of the horse is quite remarkable. Giving excellent support is Walter Matthau as the pursuing but compassionate sheriff Morey Johnson ("ye son of a gun - ye made it"!). John Schillart gives an amusing turn as the guileless deputy. "Judas priest Morey!" he exclaims as the sheriff bumps his way along the rough trail at speed in the jeep. The female lead is taken by a young and quite beautiful Gena Rowlands as the wife of Douglas' jailed best friend. However the relationship between her and the cowboy is kind of puzzling! The kisses and clinches to my mind appear a tad steamy for a pair who are supposed to be just good friends.Hmmm! Also in one of his early roles is George Kennedy as a sadistic guard and watch out for the late Bill Bixby as the helicopter pilot. The only drawbacks I found in the picture is the over emphasis on the Carroll O'Connor character as the truck driver. After all the horse could have been hit by a motor cycle and end up the same way. Also the great scene where the cowboy makes that dash for the trees under gunfire and in the ensuing shot rides into a indoor exterior. Wow! I thought they had stopped using indoor exteriors by 1962! Also I thought the downbeat ending somewhat severe for what is essentially a light hearted drama and we never do learn what becomes of our cowboy! Sharply photographed in Panavision by Phil Lathrop the film based on the novel "The Brave Cowboy" by Edward Abbey had a fine screenplay fashioned by Dalton Trumbo. David Miller - who never really distinguished himself except maybe with "Sudden Fear" (1953) - does a nice job in the director's chair and composer Jerry Goldsmith provided a wistful score with one of his early efforts. Surprisingly there is no trailer but the extras do have two interesting featurettes. One called "Lonely Are The Brave - A Tribute" has contributions from Steven Spielberg, Michael Douglas, Gena Rowlands and a very aged Kirk Douglas. The other, blandly presented by some record producer, shows Jerry Goldsmith at work scoring the picture. AN EXCELLENT ISSUE OF AN OVERDUE AND MUCH VAUNTED CLASSIC!

• One one of the warmest, most deeply felt characterizations in all Western movies…

  Nazi_Fighter_David2005-06-01

  No Western could be more out of time-scale than "Lonely are the Brave," and yet, paradoxically, no central character was ever more truly Western than Jack Burns, the strange wanderer, played by Kirk Douglas… Douglas in this film version of Edward Abbey's moving novel 'Brave Cowboy' is, among a number of other things, a man who hates barbed wire… He showed, a similar dislike for it in King Vidor's "Man Without a Star" (1955), which was a traditional cattle range movie, and in those circumstances that seemed reasonable enough… But "Lonely are the Brave" is a film set in the New Mexico of 1953 and such behavior now seems totally irrational… But then he's an irrational, quite extraordinary man… He rides a horse called Whisky when the world flashes past him in Cadillacs… He carries a guitar and sings folksy ballads of the old West... Arriving in the concrete of Duke City he is quite confident that in order to free a pal he has only got to break into jail, fool a sheriff and make his getaway… After all, it's Western territory and this was always the way of it… Who and what is he? The question bears examination for he is one of the most intriguing characters in the whole Western portrait gallery... He is never really explained in the book, nor indeed in the film… He is drawn and stated and the rest is left to the reader or audience… You watch the way he moves, you listen to what he says and the way he says it… You observe his strange actions and reactions… But most1y you are left to make your own conclusions… Is it a case of a fantasist totally hooked on the Western legend? Has he seen too many Western movies (probably 'B' features)? Has he read too much Western pulp fiction? Is he so deep in thought by it all that he is incapable of realizing that the world has moved on, is running out of grass, or tolerance for oddballs with a preference for grass? Is he making a protest about what the West has become, and is seeking, in his inarticulate way, after different values? Is he just pure throwback, a man belonging to another time? This figures, as he might say… He would belong so splendidly, with his simple values… Whatever he is, he's a profoundly tragic conception.... The old friend he is there to aid (Michael Kane) has been jailed for giving shelter to over-the-border illegal immigrants… Douglas calls on his buddy's wife, sensitively played by Gena Rowlands, who seems as touched and dazed by him as anyone in the audience… In order to get Kane out of prison he decides that he first needs to get into it himself and so after a saloon bar fight, followed by more fisticuffs at the jail, he gets the cell he wants… In jail, however, he finds himself once more knocking up against the twentieth century—its mores and inhibitions… The pal doesn't want to conform to the old Western pattern by making a break for it… Far better to serve out his two years and then return to his wife and child knowing that his 'debt to society' has been paid and they will have nothing else to worry about… This is not just pure self-interest… He honestly thinks it the right thing to do… So having fought his way in, Douglas now has to fight his way out… This he does with the aid of files he brought with him to effect his friend's escape… And out with him go a couple of characters not inhibited by fears and scruples… So he becomes a man on the run, but, since he still has his horse, an old-style outlaw on the run, heading for the mountains with—naturally—a posse after him… But no ordinary posse… This is the 20th century version, supplied with all sorts of technological devices… If this very recent cowboy in his strange, ancient times way, is challenging the rule of technology, it is only logical that the long cold arm of science should reach out for him… It does so with walkie-talkie radios, jeeps and even a specially borrowed helicopter… What chance has he? The sheriff seems puzzled by the situation—that a man on a horse should dare everything against such a formidable array of gadgetry… Since the enigmatic wanderer is determinedly playing out a Western drama he must inevitably come up against a compassionate sheriff… The sheriff is a man doing a job, without any keen enjoyment for the job or, in fact, for anything particularly… He's bored, skeptical, laconic, and you feel that he would like nothing better than for Burns to get out of his territory… But while the sheriff goes about his manhunting duties in a routine way he lets slip another implication—that deep, down in the lethargy and disillusion there's a soft spot for the man on a horse… Is the sheriff at heart—if you could ever find his heart—a bit of a rebel, too? Kirk Douglas will be remembered most of all for his performance as the man out of step, out of his proper time… His Jack Burns in "Lonely are the Brave" is one of the warmest, most deeply felt characterizations in all Western movies… David Miller directed the film with simplicity and a similar warmth… No more was needed…

• Be A Cowboy Hero

  bkoganbing2008-04-13

  Kirk Douglas has said often enough that Lonely Are The Brave is his favorite among the films he's done. I think of it the same way that Bette Davis says about Dark Victory that the role of Judith Traherne is 98% of me. Like the film's Jack Burns Kirk Douglas has charted his own way through life in Hollywood the way Jack Burns does. Burns's problem is that he's a man born a century too late. Run another of Kirk Douglas's classic westerns Man Without A Star side by side. Dempsey Rae in that film isn't too much different from Jack Burns, in fact they have opinions on certain subjects almost identical. But the frontier that Dempsey dealt with in that film has changed, it just doesn't exist any more. But Burns won't recognize it. I'm also not so sure how much film and television have influenced 1962's Jack Burns in the way a cowboy should behave. Kirk is returning to his home town from God knows what and meets up with Gena Rowlands who is married to his best friend Michael Kane. Kane's in jail for helping illegal immigrants cross the US/Mexican border. What to do but be a cowboy hero and bust him from jail. So Kirk gets himself in a nasty bar fight with one armed Bill Raisch and gets tossed in sheriff Walter Matthau's jail. While there Deputy George Kennedy works him over. So when Kirk's ready to bust jail, Kane refuses to go to his surprise. But that doesn't stop Kirk who breaks loose and the chase is on. The non-conformist part of Jack Burns certainly must have appealed to Kirk Douglas. He invests so much of himself in Burns it's hard to tell where Kirk leaves off and Burns begins. And he's one of the most appealing of all the roles Kirk Douglas has. You root for this law breaking maverick every step of the way. Mention must also go to Walter Matthau as the wise and laconic sheriff who really does understand Douglas's mentality as no one else really does. In a lot of ways it's like the Charles Bronson classic Death Hunt where Mountie Lee Marvin truly is sorry he's on this particular job. Of course if Douglas had actually killed someone in eluding the law, Matthau's duty would have been clear. The ending is truly an ironic one as the cowboy loses that part of him that makes him a unique American icon. Absolutely don't miss Lonely Are The Brave when it is broadcast, especially fans of Kirk Douglas.

• a powerful portrayal of a man left behind and way out of step with the times

  bengleson2002-09-27

  I pity those who cannot, even in a small way, identify with Douglas' character, Jack Burns in this ageless work of art. This is a self described 'lonely man,' of no use to his true love( who has married his old friend) because he cannot share his life with anyone. He acknowledges that he is of no use to anyone. Rather he is a constant threat to whatever social order he encounters. The one time he makes a commitment, to his horse no less, he loses his edge. And probably his freedom. What a wonderful movie this is.It steeps itself in the fading of the West. While much of it is seemingly allegorical, there is also a truthfulness, and a tenderness in Burns search for escape over the mountains. Someone else has commented on the similarities between Burns and Bogart's rendition of Roy Earle in HIGH SIERRA. Surely any thoughtful movie goer has experienced that rush to the mountains, that sense that time has passed you by and you are not of this place.

• A memorable movie

  LACUES2005-02-13

  This is certainly Kirk Douglas' best movie and that is saying a lot! The loss of individuality and the valuesof the West, if anything, are more pronounced today than when the film was made. Kirk's performance is perfectly understated as fits the character he portrays. No false heroics, gore, or sensationalism which all too often ruin today's movies . One reviewer commented that there was not a satisfactory conclusion... no last words by Douglas, uncertainty about his fate, and the ambivalent response of the sheriff, Walter Matthau. This is no simple movie with clear cut heroes and villains. There are only people who contend with the compromises one accepts or, in the rare instance of Kirk's character, one attempts to overcome. The affinity between Kirk and his horse are central to the theme and end of this fine film. Everyone connected in the making of this classic. I rate it a 10.