- For the Jørn Lande music album, see: Lonely Are The Brave (album)
Lonely are the Brave is a 1962 film adaptation of the Edward Abbey novel The Brave Cowboy. It stars Kirk Douglas as cowboy Jack Burns, Gena Rowlands, and Walter Matthau as a sheriff who sympathizes with Burns but must do his job and chase him down.
Douglas has said that this is his favorite movie.[1]
Plot
John W. "Jack" Burns (Kirk Douglas) works as a roaming ranch hand much as the cowboys of the old West did, refusing to join modern society. He rejects much of modern technology, not even carrying any kind of identification such as a driver's license or Social Security card.
Burns rides up on his horse to visit Jerry (Gena Rowlands). She is the wife of an old friend named Paul Bondi who has been jailed for giving aid to illegal immigrants. Jack explains his dislike for a society that restricts a man on where he can or can't go, what he can or can't do.
After a violent barroom fight against a one-armed man in which he is compelled to use only one arm himself, Burns is arrested. When the police decide to let him go, he punches a cop to deliberately get himself thrown in jail so he can see Paul.
While there he incurs the wrath of a sadistic deputy (George Kennedy). Burns is badly beaten while under arrest. He tries to persuade Paul to bust out of jail, but Paul has a family and too much at stake to become a fugitive from the law, so he refuses to go. Burns breaks out by himself.
He heads for the hills on horseback. The police mount an extensive search, Sheriff Johnson (Walter Matthau) in charge of the manhunt. When a helicopter joins in the chase, Burns shoots it down with his rifle by damaging its tail rotor, causing the pilot to lose control. The deputy who beat him is also out looking, but Burns gets his revenge.
During the course of the story, the seemingly extraneous progress of a tractor-trailer truck, driven by Carroll O'Connor, is intercut with the principal events. The pursuit of Jack Burns comes to an end when the truck driver, vision impaired by rain, collides with Burns and his horse while they try to cross a busy modern highway.
Production
Lonely Are the Brave was made after star Kirk Douglas read Edward Abbey's novel The Brave Cowboy and insisted that Universal film it as a vehicle for him to star in.
It happens to be a point of view I love. This is what attracted me to the story - the difficulty of being an individual today.[1]
Douglas assembled the cast and crew through his production company, Joel Productions, recruiting ex-blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo, who had written Spartacus several years before, to write the screenplay, and, through the recommendation of Alfred Newman, giving composer Jerry Goldsmith his first major studio opportunity.[1]
The movie was filmed in the area in and around Albuquerque, New Mexico: the Sandia Mountains, the Manzano Mountains, the Tijeras Canyon, and Kirtland Air Force Base.[2]
The working title for the film was "The Last Hero",[3] but the release title of the film was a matter of contention between Douglas, who wanted to call it "The Brave Cowboy" after the novel, and the studio. Douglas wanted the film to open in art houses and build an audience, but Universal chose to market the film as a Western, titling it "Lonely Are the Brave" and opening it widely without any particular support. Despite this, the film has a cult following, and is often listed as one of the best Westerns ever made.[1]
Lonely Are the Brave premiered in Houston, Texas on 24 May 1962.[3]
Cast
Cast notes
Awards
Kirk Douglas was nominated for a 1963 BAFTA Award as "Best Foreign Actor" for his work in Lonely Are the Brave, and placed third in the Laurel Awards for "Top Action Performance". The Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA gave the film a "Golden Reel Award" for "Best Sound Editing", in a tie with Mutiny on the Bounty.[6]
Quotes
- Jerry Bondi (Gena Rowlands): "Believe you me, if it didn't take men to make babies I wouldn't have anything to do with any of you!" [7]
- Jack Burns (Kirk Douglas): "Know what a loner is? He's a born cripple. He's a cripple because the only person he can live with is himself. It's his life, the way he wants to live. It's all for him. A guy like that, he'd kill a woman like you. Because he couldn't love you, not the way you are loved." [8]
- Jack Burns: "A westerner likes open country. That means he's got to hate fences. And the more fences there are, the more he hates them." Jerry Bondi: "I've never heard such nonsense in my life." Jack Burns: "It's true, though. Have you ever noticed how many fences there're getting to be? And the signs they got on them: no hunting, no hiking, no admission, no trespassing, private property, closed area, start moving, go away, get lost, drop dead! Do you know what I mean?" [8]
- Jack Burns: "I don't need [identification] cards to figure out who I am, I already know." [8]
Notes
External links
