''Lonely Are the Brave'' is a 1962 American black and white

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

film adaptation of the

Edward Abbey Edward Paul Abbey (January 29, 1927 – March 14, 1989) was an American author, essayist, and environmental activist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues and criticism of public land policies. His best-known works include '' Desert S ...

novel '' The Brave Cowboy'' directed by David Miller from a screenplay by Dalton Trumbo and starring

Kirk Douglas Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch; December 9, 1916 – February 5, 2020) was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in '' The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. D ...

, Gena Rowlands and

Walter Matthau Walter Matthau (; born Walter John Matthow; October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was an American actor, comedian and film director. He is best known for his film roles in '' A Face in the Crowd'' (1957), '' King Creole'' (1958) and as a coach of a ...

. Kirk Douglas plays

cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaqu ...

Jack Burns, Gena Rowlands portrays his best friend's wife and

appears as a

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

who sympathises with Burns but must do his job and chase him down. The picture also features an early score by composer

Jerry Goldsmith Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929July 21, 2004) was an American composer and conductor known for his work in film and television scoring. He composed scores for five films in the ''Star Trek'' franchise and three in the ''Rambo'' franc ...

. Douglas said repeatedly that this was his favorite film of his own work.Brian Cad
"Lonely Are the Brave" (TCM article)
/ref>

Plot

John W. "Jack" Burns is a veteran of the

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...

who works as a roaming ranch hand, much as the cowboys of the old West did, refusing to join modern society. He rejects most of modern technology and carries no identification, such as a

driver's license A driver's license is a legal authorization, or the official document confirming such an authorization, for a specific individual to operate one or more types of motorized vehicles—such as motorcycles, cars, trucks, or buses—on a publi ...

draft card Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day ...

. He cannot even provide the authorities with a home address because he just sleeps wherever he finds a place. As Burns crosses a highway into a town in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex , Offi ...

, his horse Whiskey has a difficult time crossing the road, confused and scared by the traffic. They enter town to visit Jerry. She is the wife of an old friend, 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. To break Bondi out of jail, Burns decides he himself needs to get arrested. After a violent barroom fight against a one-armed man, in which he is forced to use only one arm himself, Burns is arrested. When the police decide to let him go, he deliberately punches a cop to get himself re-arrested. He is now facing a probable sentence of a year in jail, which allows him to see Bondi, with the aim of helping him escape. The town is in a sleepy border area and the cops are mostly bored, occasionally dealing with minor offenses. The Sheriff, Morey Johnson, has to compel them to pay attention to their duties at times. Joining Bondi in jail, Burns tries to persuade him to escape. He tells Bondi he couldn't spend a year locked up because he'd probably kill someone. Burns defends Bondi from the attention of sadistic Deputy Sheriff Gutierrez, who picks Burns as his next target. During the night the inmates saw through one of the jail's bars using two hacksaw blades Burns had hidden in one of his boots. The deputy summons Burns in the middle of the night and beats him. On returning to his cell Burns tries to persuade Bondi to join him in escaping. Bondi has accepted his two-year sentence knowing he has a family waiting and has too much at stake to become a fugitive from the law. He therefore decides to remain, and Burns breaks out by himself, returning to Bondi's house, where he picks up his horse and some food from Bondi's wife. After the jail break the Sheriff learns that Burns served in the military during the

, including seven months in a disciplinary training center for striking a superior officer. He also received a

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...

and a

Distinguished Service Cross The Distinguished Service Cross (D.S.C.) is a military decoration for courage. Different versions exist for different countries. *Distinguished Service Cross (Australia) *Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom) *Distinguished Service Cross (U ...

with oak leaf clusters for his valour during battle. Burns heads for the mountains on horseback with the goal of crossing the border into

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

. The police mount an extensive search, with Sheriff Johnson and his Deputy Sheriff Harry following him in a

jeep Jeep is an American automobile marque, now owned by multi-national corporation Stellantis. Jeep has been part of Chrysler since 1987, when Chrysler acquired the Jeep brand, along with remaining assets, from its previous owner American Motors ...

. A military helicopter is brought in, and when the aircrew locates Burns they relay his location to the sheriff. Whiskey is repeatedly spooked by the helicopter, so Burns shoots the tail rotor, damaging it and causing the pilot to lose control and crash land. Deputy Gutierrez also chases Burns. He sees the horse and is preparing to shoot when Burns sneaks up, knocking him unconscious with his rifle butt. Burns leads his horse up impossibly difficult, rocky slopes to escape his pursuers, but the lawmen keep on his trail, forcing him to keep moving. Surrounded on three sides, Burns' horse refuses at first to climb a steep slope. They finally surmount the crest of the Sandia Mountains and escape into the east side of the mountains, a broad stand of heavy timber, with the lawmen shooting at him. The Sheriff acknowledges that Burns has evaded their attempts to capture him. Burns is shot through the ankle during his dash to the timber. Burns tries to cross Highway 66 in

Tijeras Canyon Tijeras Canyon (sometimes also referred to as Tijeras Pass) is a prominent canyon in the central part of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It separates the Sandia Mountains subrange to the north from the Manzano Mountains subrange (specifically the l ...

during a heavy rainstorm on Whiskey but the horse gets spooked by the traffic and blinded by the lights. A truck driver strikes Burns and Whiskey as they are attempting to cross the road. The sheriff arrives and, asked by the state police if Burns is the man he has been looking for, says he can't confidently identify him, because he's never seen the man he is looking for up close. Both seriously wounded, Burns is taken away in an ambulance and Whiskey is humanely put down.

Cast

as John W. "Jack" Burns * Gena Rowlands as Jerry Bondi *

as Sheriff Morey Johnson *Michael Kane as Paul Bondi *

Carroll O'Connor John Carroll O'Connor (August 2, 1924 – June 21, 2001) was an American actor, producer, and director whose television career spanned over four decades. He became a lifelong member of the Actors Studio in 1971. O'Connor found widespread fame a ...

as Truck Driver *

William Schallert William Joseph Schallert (July 6, 1922 – May 8, 2016) was an American character actor who appeared in dozens of television shows and films over a career spanning more than 60 years. He is known for his roles on '' Richard Diamond, Privat ...

as Harry (Johnson's deputy) *

George Kennedy George Harris Kennedy Jr. (February 18, 1925 – February 28, 2016) was an American actor who appeared in more than 100 film and television productions. He played "Dragline" opposite Paul Newman in ''Cool Hand Luke'' (1967), winning the Academ ...

as Gutierrez (sadistic deputy) * Karl Swenson as Rev. Hoskins (prison inmate) *

Bill Mims William Cleveland Mims (born June 20, 1957) is a senior justice on the Supreme Court of Virginia. He is a former member of the Virginia General Assembly and Attorney General of Virginia. He is the second person in Virginia history to serve in thes ...

as First Deputy Arraigning Burns *

Martin Garralaga Martín Garralaga (10 November 1894 – 12 June 1981) was a Spanish actor who worked in Hollywood from the 1930s through the 1960s. He was married to opera singer and actress Rosa Rey. Biography Garralaga first came to the United States wh ...

as Old Man *

Lalo Ríos Lalo Ríos (7 February 1927 – 7 March 1973) was a Mexican-born American actor best known for his lead role in '' The Ring'' (1952) as Tommy. Biography Lalo Ríos was born on February 7, 1927, in San Miguelito, Sonora, Mexico. At the age of ...

as Prisoner *

Bill Bixby Wilfred Bailey Everett Bixby III (January 22, 1934 – November 21, 1993) professionally known as Bill Bixby, was an American actor, director, producer, and frequent game-show panellist. Bixby's career spanned more than three decades, includi ...

as Helicopter Pilot (uncredited) *

George Keymas George Keymas (November 18, 1925 – January 17, 2008) was an American film and television actor.Martin p.68 Keymas graduated from Springfield (Ohio) High School. Keymas began his Hollywood career in 1950, mainly in Westerns. His first screen ...

as Deputy (uncredited) * Harry Lauter as Deputy in Canyon (uncredited) *

Bill Raisch Carl William Raisch (April 5, 1905 – July 31, 1984) was an American dancer, actor, stuntman and acting coach. He was best known as the One-Armed Man pursued by Richard Kimble (David Janssen) on the 1963–1967 TV series '' The Fugitive''.Whitt ...

as One Arm (uncredited) *

Dan Sheridan Dan Sheridan (September 3, 1916 – June 29, 1963) was an Irish-American actor who appeared in more than thirty-five television series between 1957 and his death at the age of forty-six in 1963. He was cast in forty-one episodes of the ABC/W ...

as Deputy Glynn (uncredited)

Production

''Lonely Are the Brave'' was filmed after Kirk Douglas read

's novel '' The Brave Cowboy'' and convinced Universal Pictures to produce it with him in the starring role:

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.

Douglas assembled the cast and crew through his production company, Joel Productions, recruiting ex-blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo, who had written ''

Spartacus Spartacus ( el, Σπάρτακος '; la, Spartacus; c. 103–71 BC) was a Thracian gladiator who, along with Crixus, Gannicus, Castus, and Oenomaus, was one of the escaped slave leaders in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprisin ...

'' two years before, to write the screenplay. The movie was filmed in the area in and around

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding i ...

: the Sandia Mountains, the

Manzano Mountains The Manzano Mountains are a small mountain range in the central part of the US State of New Mexico. They are oriented north–south and are 30 miles long. The center of the range lies due east of the town of Belen. The name "Manzano" is Spani ...

, the

and

Kirtland Air Force Base Kirtland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in the southeast quadrant of the Albuquerque, New Mexico urban area, adjacent to the Albuquerque International Sunport. The base was named for the early Army aviator Col. Ro ...

. The working title for the film was "The Last Hero,"TC
Overview
/ref> but the release title of the film was a matter of contention between the studio and Douglas, who wanted to call it "The Brave Cowboy" after the novel. 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. Miller directed the picture with a reverent and eloquent feeling for the landscape, complementing the story arc of a lone and principled individual tested by tragedy and the drive of his fiercely independent conscience. ''Lonely Are the Brave'' premiered in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

on 24 May 1962. President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

watched the movie in the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

in November 1962. In his memoir ''Conversations with Kennedy,''

Ben Bradlee Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee (, 1921 – , 2014) was an American journalist who served as managing editor, then as executive editor of ''The Washington Post'', from 1965 to 1991. He became a public figure when the ''Post'' joined ''The New Y ...

wrote, " Jackie read off the list of what was available, and the President selected the one

ilm Ilm or ILM may refer to: Acronyms * Identity Lifecycle Manager, a Microsoft Server Product * '' I Love Money,'' a TV show on VH1 * Independent Loading Mechanism, a mounting system for CPU sockets * Industrial Light & Magic, an American motion ...

we had all unanimously voted against, a brutal, sadistic little Western called ''Lonely Are the Brave''."

Soundtrack

The score to ''Lonely Are the Brave'' was composed by

. Goldsmith's involvement in the picture was the result of a recommendation by veteran composer

Alfred Newman Alfred Newman (March 17, 1900 – February 17, 1970) was an American composer, arranger, and conductor of film music. From his start as a music prodigy, he came to be regarded as a respected figure in the history of film music. He won nine Aca ...

who had been impressed with Goldsmith's score on the television show ''

Thriller Thriller may refer to: * Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television ** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre Comics * ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...

'' and took it upon himself to recommend Goldsmith to the head of

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

' music department, despite having never met him.

Cast notes

has a small part as an airman in a helicopter, his first film appearance. *It is one of the first film appearances of

(TV's ''

All in the Family ''All in the Family'' is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS for nine seasons, from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. Afterwards, it was continued with the spin-off series ''Archie Bunker's Place'', which picked up where ''All in ...

''). *

is the one-armed man who fights with Douglas in a barroom brawl scene. The following year Raisch began appearing with David Janssen in the TV series '' The Fugitive''.

Awards and honors

Kirk Douglas was nominated for a 1963

BAFTA Award The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTA Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The cer ...

as "Best Foreign Actor" for his work in ''Lonely Are the Brave'', and placed third in the

Laurel Awards The Laurel Awards was an American cinema awards system established to honor films, actors, actresses, producers, directors, and composers. This award was created by the ''Motion Picture Exhibitor'' magazine, and ran from 1948 to 1971 (with the ...

for "Top Action Performance". The Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA gave the film a "Golden Reel Award" for "Best Sound Editing" ( Waldon O. Watson, Frank H. Wilkinson, James R. Alexander, James Curtis, Arthur B. Smith), in a tie with ''

Mutiny on the Bounty The mutiny on the Royal Navy vessel occurred in the South Pacific Ocean on 28 April 1789. Disaffected crewmen, led by acting-Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship from their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and set h ...

''. The film is recognized by

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Lead ...

in these lists: * 2008:

AFI's 10 Top 10 ''AFI's 10 Top 10'' honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres. Presented by the American Film Institute (AFI), the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008. In the special, various act ...

: ** Nominated Western Film

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!"TC
Quotes
/ref> *''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."IMD
Quotes
/ref> *''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?" *''Jack Burns'': "I don't need dentificationcards to figure out who I am, I already know." This line was used by the fugitive sailor in ''

The Death Ship ''The Death Ship'' (German title: ''Das Totenschiff'') is a novel by the pseudonymous author known as B. Traven. Originally published in German in 1926, and in English in 1934, it was Traven's first major success and is still the author's second ...

'', the 1926 novel by

B. Traven B. Traven (; Bruno Traven in some accounts) was the pen name of a novelist, presumed to be German, whose real name, nationality, date and place of birth and details of biography are all subject to dispute. One certainty about Traven's life is ...

References

External links

* * * * {{David Miller 1962 films 1962 Western (genre) films American black-and-white films American Western (genre) films Bryna Productions films 1960s English-language films Films based on American novels Films based on Western (genre) novels Films directed by David Miller Films scored by Jerry Goldsmith Films set in New Mexico Films shot in New Mexico Neo-Western films Films with screenplays by Dalton Trumbo Universal Pictures films Revisionist Western (genre) films 1960s American films