The brave are lonely
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The brave are lonely |
| Original title | Lonely Are the Brave |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1962 |
| length | 107 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | David Miller |
| script | Dalton Trumbo |
| production | Edward Lewis |
| music | Jerry Goldsmith |
| camera | Philip H. Lathrop |
| cut | Leon Barsha |
| occupation | |
| |
Lonely Are the Brave (Original title: Lonely Are the Brave ) is an American drama from 1962 . The script is based on the novel The Brave Cowboy by the American writer Edward Abbey .
action
The prairie in the American Southwest, a typical western landscape . A cowboy and his horse rest when the cowboy is awakened by an approaching noise. He looks up at the sky and sees three jet fighters chasing over him, drawing white contrails in the sky.
It's the "Wild West" in 1953. Jack Burns lives his life by his own standards, like a 19th century cowboy . He has no permanent address, no ID and no permanent job. He earns his living as a seasonal worker on various ranches in the American Southwest. When he comes to a town in New Mexico on his horse, Whiskey , to visit his friend Paul Bondi, he learns that he is serving a two-year prison sentence for helping illegal immigrants .
The truck driver Hinton is on his way from Joplin, Missouri to New Mexico at the same time . He's under time pressure to deliver a truckload of toilet bowls.
Burns decides to free his friend Paul, so he starts a brawl in a bar to get himself locked up. But when he tries to free his friend, he refuses to come along. So Burns has to break out on his own. From then on he is hunted by Sheriff Johnson. He flees with his horse into the mountains to escape across the border into Mexico , in the hope that the sheriff and his people would not follow him there.
But Sheriff Johnson is persistent and even calls for an army helicopter. Burns manages to get the helicopter from the sky. When he overcomes the ridge and, despite a gunshot wound, reaches the protective forest, he seems to have made it. But in the pouring rain his horse shies when crossing the border road to Mexico, and they are hit by the truck driver from Joplin, who is now close to his destination. Jack and his horse are seriously injured on the side of the road. Sheriff Johnson arrives and doesn't seem pleased to have caught the hunted man. He has Jack's horse redeemed by one of his people. Jack is taken away in an ambulance.
music
Jerry Goldsmith's music adds to the sadly melancholy tone of the film. In the first half, initially with introspective and subtle accompanying pieces, which are adapted to the quiet moments and underline Jack's character and make him appear a little more human and warm than he actually is. Later, when Jack’s prison break is imminent, the music creates an atmosphere of desperation. In the second half, during Jack's escape through the mountains, the music underlines the superhuman effort that Jack takes to drive himself and his hesitant horse over the mountains through dramatic outbursts of temper.
Goldsmith made his breakthrough as a film composer with his soundtrack for Lonely Are the Brave . Some of the motifs are reminiscent of the title track from his later “Rambo” soundtrack. His famous composer colleague Bernard Herrmann once said: "His music is too good for this film".
Reviews
- Malte Krüger: "... It is not surprising that Kirk Douglas repeatedly called" Lonely are the brave "his favorite film, because with his animal energy he is the ideal cast for the role of Jack Burns and in it he delivers one of his best performances off .... But especially in the final scene, Kirk Douglas achieves a masterpiece of acting; in the discipline that is one of the most difficult exercises for actors, namely showing the face in close-up without acting physically ... "
- Kino.de praised: ".... Director David Miller delivered probably the best performance of his career with" Lonely are the brave "- even if the film made less impression on the box office, it is considered one of the classics of American cinema of the 1960s ... "
background
On the bonus material from the DVD release, Kirk tells Douglas that this is his favorite movie. His son Michael Douglas and director Steven Spielberg also called it one of the best films by Kirk Douglas. Kirk Douglas says in the interview on the DVD with a wink that the film unfortunately has a serious disadvantage: his horse Whiskey stole the show from him, because most viewers would have liked the horse more than him.
Dalton Trumbo, screenwriter of Hollywood classics such as A Heart and a Crown (1953), Red Dust (1956), Spartacus (1960), or Papillon (1973), was before the committee for un-American activities because of his membership in the Communist Party and his refusal to testify eleven months in prison and blacklisted on Hollywood . For many years he worked under a pseudonym . It wasn't until Spartacus that his real name reappeared in the movie titles, after producer and lead actor Kirk Douglas advocated it.
The one-armed actor Bill Raisch, with whom Douglas plays the fight scene in the bar, was also the actor of the one-armed man in the television series On the Run . He was also a frequent stunt double for his friend Burt Lancaster .
Web links
- Lonely the Brave are in the Internet Movie Database (English)