Saturday Night Cinema: Lonely are the Brave

Tonight's Satruday Night Cinema feature is Lonely are the Brave, produced and starring Kirk Douglas. This was Douglas's favorite film, where he plays the "epitome of the rugged individual in the classic neo-western."

Although it never quite escapes the pitfalls of pretension, this film was Kirk Douglas's
bid for the affections of the art house crowd, and it remains one of
his best efforts. The star plays unreconstructed "rugged individual"
Jack Burns, who rides throughout the modern west knocking down man-made
fences. Visiting his equally rebellious friend Paul Bondi (Michael
Kane), Burns deliberately gets himself thrown in jail to be nearer his
pal. Frustrated that Bondi doesn't want to join Burns on the road, Burns
breaks out of jail, thereby becoming a fugitive. His trail is dogged by
Sheriff Johnson (Walter Matthau), a frustrated frontiersman who secretly admires the freewheeling Burns. Meanwhile, a truck driver (Carroll O'Connor)
is ominously driving down the highway with a truckload of toilets. If
you think there's supposed to be some symbolism in this seemingly
peripheral character, you're absolutely right. Bill Raisch, a genuine amputee who played the one-armed man on TV's The Fugitive, is Douglas' surly opponent in the café brawl sequence. Filmed on location in New Mexico, Lonely are the Brave was adapted by Dalton Trumbo from Edward Abbey's novel Brave Cowboy. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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The Fretful Birth of the New Western

Everett Collection

Kirk Douglas in “Lonely Are the Brave” (1962), adapted from a novel by Edward Abbey Alex Cox, NY Times

KIRK DOUGLAS was worried. It was 1961, and this actor-producer had recently gambled on a big history picture, “Spartacus.”
He had fired the director — Anthony Mann — after a week of shooting,
replacing him with Stanley Kubrick. Mr. Douglas thought the picture had
turned out well, but it still hadn’t been released. Meanwhile he had
encountered a paperback novel — “The Brave Cowboy,” by Edward Abbey
— and optioned it through his production company, Byrna. And Byrna,
which had a production deal with Universal, commissioned a screenplay,
by Dalton Trumbo.

Mr. Douglas was gambling again, but playing a good hand. The material —
the story of a modern-day cowboy who breaks into jail to rescue his best
friend — is original for a western, and gets better as it goes along.
Its screenwriter was talented and hard working. (Blacklisted and jailed
after refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities
Committee, Trumbo had for 10 years written scripts under assumed names,
winning an Oscar for one of them as Robert Rich. Mr. Douglas went to bat
for Trumbo on “Spartacus,” promising him a screen credit with his real
name.) And Trumbo had solved the story’s two biggest problems: Why was
the hero’s best friend in jail in the first place? And why wouldn’t he
leave?

Abbey’s novel, published in 1956, is set a decade earlier, following the
introduction of the military draft. Paul, the hero’s friend, has
refused to register, not because he is a pacifist (he isn’t) but because
he considers a draft unconstitutional. Like Abbey, Paul is an incipient
libertarian or a patriotic anarchist. He has written the government and
local authorities about his resistance to unjust authority and been
given a year in jail. So it’s a moral imperative for Paul — when his old
compadre John W. Burns shows up with two files and a plan to ride for
Mexico — to turn him down.

Fifty years after the release of that film, “Lonely Are the Brave,” westerns may not be much in evidence at the multiplex. But on the small screen this summer, complex takes on the genre like “Hell on Wheels”
(returning Aug. 12 to AMC) and “Longmire” (which has drawn big ratings
for A&E) are in vogue again, and it’s worth taking another look at
one of the bleakest westerns ever to grace the big screen.

In 1961, when Trumbo wrote the first version of the screenplay, it was
unthinkable in Hollywood to feature a draft resister. It would be years
before the Vietnam War made the draft an issue — so Trumbo, at his most
sardonic, thought of an alternative crime for Paul: associating with
parrot smugglers. This lasted one round of what is otherwise an
excellent screenplay. In the next version, titled “The Last Hero,”
Trumbo came up with another solution: Paul is in jail for assisting
illegal immigrants find food and work. It was a prescient choice,
anticipating the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s and our current turmoil
over undocumented workers.

Having addressed Paul’s “crime of principle,” Trumbo follows Abbey’s
novel closely: Burns gets locked up then busts himself and two Indians
out of jail, heading for the hills on his coquettish horse, Whiskey. The
film’s second half tracks Burns’s evasion of his pursuers and his
encounter with a nemesis both inevitable and ludicrous. Trumbo shows a
clear sense of location and landscape, including as his title page a
hand-drawn map of the cowboy’s intended route, via the Sangre de Cristo
and Manzano Mountains, into Mexico.

Armed with a map, a great script, and a first-rate cast — he was playing
Burns himself — Mr. Douglas seemingly had nothing to worry about. Yet
on May 4, 1961, from the Western Skies Hotel in Albuquerque, with
production already under way, he wrote a troubled letter. It was
addressed to Mr. Gary Cooper, Beverly Hills.

“Dear Coop,” he wrote. “When for years you’ve had affection for a guy
and you find it suddenly turning to resentment, you begin to think it
deserves some comment.” He went on to say, “Put yourself in my spot. I’m
doing a picture that should have been done by only one guy. I know it —
my entire company knows it. Start with the title — The Last Hero. Now
whom does that fit — me? Hell, no!”

Mr. Douglas complained to Cooper that his director, David Miller, was
uncommunicative and focused on realism. The only direction Miller had
given was, “try and play this the way Gary Cooper would.” Even worse had
been Abbey’s arrival on set. Mr. Douglas reported that he’d driven to
meet Abbey at the Albuquerque airport: “Fifty guys step off the plane
but I spot him immediately — why? He looks like Gary Cooper. To make
matters worse, when I meet him, he talks like Cooper!”

For a moment it sounds as if Mr. Douglas the producer was angling for
Cooper to take over the lead. But this was impossible. Cooper was
terminally ill and would die nine days later. Certainly Mr. Douglas knew
this when he wrote he wanted to follow in Cooper’s footsteps throughout
the shoot: “I know now that at best I will come remotely close. But
more important — I do know also that just trying to be you will make a
better me.”

Such heartfelt words acknowledged that outside help would not be
forthcoming. It is the message of the film as well. Abbey’s presence
looms over the film — both Burns and Paul contain aspects of his
character — but did he really look like Cooper? To a certain extent. Did
he really visit the set? Recalling Abbey after his death in 1989, Mr.
Douglas wrote, “I never met Mr. Abbey, but we wrote to each other
several times.”

Which was it? Does it matter? Either way, the story of Abbey’s visit
gave Mr. Douglas an opportunity to write a fan letter, and to prepare
for a role he felt his mentor could have better played. As the pressmen
conclude in “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” the other great western made that year: If confronted with two conflicting versions, “print the legend.”

Before the shoot Byrna put out a release emphasizing Miller’s realism:
nonactors would be cast, a genuine painter would play Paul’s wife, the
sets would showcase her work. It was all for naught: professional actors
— Gena Rowlands, Walter Matthau, George Kennedy — were used instead.
“The Brave Cowboy,” shot as “The Last Hero,” was released in 1962 as
“Lonely Are the Brave” — elegantly photographed, theatrical rather than
“natural,” exuberantly acted, deftly paced. There is no greater western,
and certainly no more tragic one. Despite his doubts Mr. Douglas
personified Burns, flouting cinematic rules by doing his own stunts and
co-starring with an animal, a high spot of his career.

The Truth Must be Told

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livingengine

11 years ago

This is an excellent movie. Dalton Trumbo was an individual. I love the way the cowboy picks a fight. Very sophisticated stuff. One of my favorite movies. I dig Pamela Geller.

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livingengine

11 years ago

Nick Newell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG4BJEu-zsU

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Beau Peyton

11 years ago

Nice review…still one of my favorite films and Abbey works.
Incidentally, Jack Burns is actually the most frequently occurring character in all of Abbey’s fictional works. He appears in Monkeywrench Gang, Hayduke Lives! and Good News, all written after The Brave Cowboy. The descriptions vary slightly, but it’s clear it’s the same guy. So, Jack Burns survives the crash with the toilet truck.
Oh, and the horse is “Whisky” without the “e.”

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MA02169

11 years ago

Fantastic photos of New York City.
When Manhattan went dark: Historic photograph from the air captures New York City left powerless by Hurricane Sandy
By Helen Pow and Leslie Larson
PUBLISHED: 22:42 EST, 3 November 2012 | UPDATED: 12:03 EST, 4 November 2012
A spectacular photograph has captured the historic moment the lights went out over half of Manhattan.
Taken by photographer Iwan Baan from the air, the incredible image, which is splashed across the cover of this week’s New York Magazine, shows the Island of Manhattan half aglow and half in dark.
Hurricane Sandy left thousands without electricity when it struck on Monday evening, and the confronting, yet beautiful, photo encapsulates how one of the world’s most powerful cities was rendered powerless in an instant by mother nature.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2227574/Hurricane-Sandy-Historic-photograph-captures-moment-worlds-powerful-cities-went-black.html#ixzz2BErxcMwp

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MA02169

11 years ago

Photos of New Yorkers coming together to help each other.
A little kindness goes a long way: Heart-warming photos show how Eastcoasters rocked by Sandy came together in their time of need with random acts of generosity
By Helen Pow
PUBLISHED: 13:50 EST, 4 November 2012 | UPDATED: 13:58 EST, 4 November 2012
A heart-warming collection of photographs and tweets has captured the myriad acts of kindness from the past week, as the hardships of Hurricane Sandy brought devastated communities across the tri-state area together.
From the Mayor of Newark inviting constituents into his home to charge their phones and watch DVDs to an East Village doctor offering free treatments and kids selling cookies to raise money for the relief effort, the stories encapsulate how, in their time of need, people were helping each other.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2227739/Hurricane-Sandy-Heart-warming-photos-Eastcoasters-rocked-Sandy-came-time-need-random-acts-generosity.html#ixzz2BEvI3kgj

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