Lonely Are the Brave (1962)
Lonely Are the Brave (1962), directed by David Miller.
The cowboy wakes up to see jet trails crossing the sky and we know we are long past the End of the West. After cutting some fence wire that is in his way he moves toward town. His young filly "Whiskey" is still in training and has a hard time crossing the busy highway. And yet: on the other side of the road is a pile of old junked cars, like a graveyard of industrial civilization.
If it is horses vs the internal combustion engine, who will win in the long run? We revisit the highway crossing in the tragic final scene and see who wins and who loses. This time.
I saw this many years ago and remembered it as "heavy", probably because of the sadistic beating Kirk Douglas receives when he gets himself thrown in jail to break out his best friend. Now I see that is off-scene and, although cruel, does not bring down the tone as much as I thought. He spits out a molar and says "I hate to lose one of the big ones". He worries the empty space in his jaw for the rest of the film.
Our cowboy does break out, fetches Whiskey, and with the police closing in makes a tense, exciting trek up into the hills. If he can just make it to the rim it is forest all the way to Mexico.
This is beautifully composed and photographed throughout, with often stunning panoramas of the New Mexico flats as seen from high up in the hills:
The cast:
Kirk Douglas was an intense actor, but I think performed so much better when he dialed it back, as he does here. I don't think I've ever seen better work from him.
Gena Rowlands just shines. Her frustration with men is understandable: her husband is in jail for being too noble, leaving her and their son alone for two years, and their best friend is an anarchist cowboy who can't obey the rules.
George Kennedy in his second film role as the cruel deputy.
Walter Matthau as the calm, sardonic sheriff. He has to catch the cowboy but privately is on his side.
Carroll O'Connor has his own plotline as a trucker hauling a load of toilets cross country to New Mexico. We know the stories will come together and the meeting can't be good.
Others: William Schallert, Bill Bixby, Karl Swenson (the "it's the end of the world!" drunk in The Birds (1963)).
Notes:
You might include this in the "End of the West" genre. Others: Ride the High Country (1962), Monte Walsh (1970), Junior Bonner (1972).
A little gem of a scene: the goodbye between Douglas and Rowlands. They hug and kiss -- for real -- and exchange uncomfortable glances. No need for guilt; both are loyal to her husband and wise enough to know it is time to hit the trail.
Our hero could have escaped if he'd left his horse. He tried, but couldn't. Loyalty again. A strength or a weakness?
The horse and horse-wrangler deserve great credit for their work. Scrambling up the slope looks like it was a dangerous, difficult effort.
This is an adaptation of Edward Abbey's The Brave Cowboy. I don't remember much about it, but from Abbey's other books he seemed like a terrible misanthrope, finding humans a disgusting species. His "monkeywrenching" inspired eco-saboteurs.
Filmed in and around Albuquerque.
Screenplay by Dalton Trumbo. First draft, no revisions.
Score by Jerry Goldsmith, his first feature film credit.
Photographed by Philip H. Lathrop -- The Americanization of Emily (1964), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), Point Blank (1967), The Gypsy Moths (1969), Hard Times (1975), The Driver (1978).
Available on Blu-ray from Kino. Howard S. Berger and Steve Mitchell provide an excited, appreciative commentary track. They say:
Everyone hated the title.
Every bit of camera and lighting gear had to be packed up the mountain by horse, mule, or human. Including a wind machine that was destroyed by high winds.
Kirk Douglas spoke fondly of the picture and praised everyone involved apart from the director, who he thought was not up to the job. Since the commenters find this to be a meticulously designed and well directed pictures, they think it more likely that Douglas was complaining about a director who wouldn't let him run the show.
