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Lonely Are the Brave

  • 1962
  • Approved
  • 1h 47m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
11K
YOUR RATING
Kirk Douglas, Gena Rowlands, Carroll O'Connor, Michael Kane, William Schallert, and Bronze Star in Lonely Are the Brave (1962)
Watch Official Trailer
Play trailer0:56
1 Video
87 Photos
Contemporary WesternEpicPrison DramaDramaWestern

A fiercely independent cowboy gets himself locked up in prison to escape with an old friend.A fiercely independent cowboy gets himself locked up in prison to escape with an old friend.A fiercely independent cowboy gets himself locked up in prison to escape with an old friend.

  • Director
    • David Miller
  • Writers
    • Dalton Trumbo
    • Edward Abbey
  • Stars
    • Kirk Douglas
    • Gena Rowlands
    • Walter Matthau
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.5/10
    11K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • David Miller
    • Writers
      • Dalton Trumbo
      • Edward Abbey
    • Stars
      • Kirk Douglas
      • Gena Rowlands
      • Walter Matthau
    • 128User reviews
    • 38Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
      • 1 win & 2 nominations total

    Videos1

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 0:56
    Official Trailer

    Photos87

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    Top cast53

    Edit
    Kirk Douglas
    Kirk Douglas
    • John W. "Jack" Burns
    Gena Rowlands
    Gena Rowlands
    • Jerry Bondi
    Walter Matthau
    Walter Matthau
    • Sheriff Morey Johnson
    Michael Kane
    Michael Kane
    • Paul Bondi
    Carroll O'Connor
    Carroll O'Connor
    • Hinton
    William Schallert
    William Schallert
    • Harry
    George Kennedy
    George Kennedy
    • Deputy Sheriff Gutierrez
    Karl Swenson
    Karl Swenson
    • Rev. Hoskins
    William Mims
    William Mims
    • First Deputy Arraigning Burns
    • (as Bill Mims)
    Martin Garralaga
    Martin Garralaga
    • Old Man
    Lalo Rios
    • Prisoner
    John Barton
    • Prisoner
    • (uncredited)
    Ray Beltram
    • Bar Patron
    • (uncredited)
    Audrey Betz
    • Bar Patron
    • (uncredited)
    Bill Bixby
    Bill Bixby
    • Airman in Helicopter
    • (uncredited)
    Eumenio Blanco
    Eumenio Blanco
    • Prisoner
    • (uncredited)
    Oscar Blank
    • Prisoner
    • (uncredited)
    Don Carlos
    • Bar Patron
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • David Miller
    • Writers
      • Dalton Trumbo
      • Edward Abbey
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews128

    7.510.5K
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    Featured reviews

    8Captain_Couth

    The original "First Blood".

    Lonely Are the Brave (1962) is a film about a man who's content with life on the open range. He's the last of his kind, the wandering cowboy. The problem is the open range is disappearing around him. A guy like that can't live off the land anymore because there's no land for him to live off of. Everywhere he goes the land is either owned or forbidden for him to enter. Kirk Douglas stars as the last cowboy who just can't get it into his head how much the times have changed. Especially when he tries to rescue his good friend from the local jail. This causes more trouble than he can comprehend.

    What's so funny about this movie is how much of the story, scenes and situations were later used in it's quasi-remake "First Blood". The basic story line and his troubles with the law are quite similar. Walter Matthau and Gena Rowlands co-star in this awesome film about a dying way of life. I saw this film several years ago on Turner Classic Movies. It's a sad tribute to the old west.

    Highly enjoyable and recommended.

    P.S. Gena Rowlands looks pretty good in this picture!
    bengleson

    a powerful portrayal of a man left behind and way out of step with the times

    I pity those who cannot, even in a small way, identify with Douglas' character, Jack Burns in this ageless work of art. This is a self described 'lonely man,' of no use to his true love( who has married his old friend) because he cannot share his life with anyone. He acknowledges that he is of no use to anyone. Rather he is a constant threat to whatever social order he encounters. The one time he makes a commitment, to his horse no less, he loses his edge. And probably his freedom. What a wonderful movie this is.It steeps itself in the fading of the West. While much of it is seemingly allegorical, there is also a truthfulness, and a tenderness in Burns search for escape over the mountains. Someone else has commented on the similarities between Burns and Bogart's rendition of Roy Earle in HIGH SIERRA. Surely any thoughtful movie goer has experienced that rush to the mountains, that sense that time has passed you by and you are not of this place.
    8Hey_Sweden

    A chase thriller with a real heart.

    Kirk Douglas shines in what is apparently his favorite role. Kirk plays John W. "Jack" Burns, a VERY independent minded cowboy who hears that an old friend, Paul Bondi (Michael Kane), is in prison for his efforts to help illegal immigrants. Jack works, and he works hard, to get himself locked up in the same prison. There he appeals to Paul to make like the wind, bringing along some hacksaws to saw through the bars of their cell. But he breaks out alone, spurring the local authorities to pursue him using modern methods of communication, transportation, and surveillance.

    Right away this fine film struck this viewer as a time honored tale of an old fashioned man out of step with the changing times. The first we see of Jack, he's reclining in the wilderness while jets pass by overhead. He knows that he's something of a dinosaur in this current setting. And since he's far from being a hardcore criminal, our hearts do go out to him. We root for him all the while to make it to freedom, even as he's saddled with a temperamental horse named Whisky.

    Kirk has some mighty fine moments with both Kane, and Gena Rowlands, who plays Pauls' wife. He just pours out his heart to this people. In this viewers' humble opinion, Kirk never has been better. And he's very well supported by a rich gallery of actors: Walter Matthau as a lawman, Carroll O'Connor as a trucker, the great William Schallert as a comedy relief deputy (he may remind you of Harry Dean Stanton in "Alien", the way that he keeps saying "Right." to requests), George Kennedy as a brutish prison guard, and Karl Swenson as a "reverend" doing time. A young Bill Bixby has an uncredited bit as an airman in a helicopter. Matthau plays the type of pursuer in this type of tale who has sympathy for his quarry but who knows that he still has a job to do.

    There's a wonderful score by Jerry Goldsmith (one of his earlier ones), and plenty of hair raising moments along the way, especially when Jack & Whisky are trying to make their way up the mountain.

    Played with real humor and heart, this is a delightful yarn about a man whose well developed sense of loyalty is something to admire.

    Eight out of 10.
    8Richie-67-485852

    Modern Western That Hooks You Good

    It never fails when a movie has a good story. It may not win awards every time, but every person who ever sees a movie with a good story has warm and fuzzies in that moment and somehow Karma rules the day. The Universe doesn't forget a good movie with a good story to it. Such is this movie. Kirk Douglas knew what he excelled in and what he did not. He instantly recognized himself in the lead role and he was right. You can identify with this cowboy of a man, the last of his kind for thinking the way he does to want to get away while being chased and you join him as he is being chased. Live and let live rules the day, but you cannot break laws while carrying or living that belief out..Kirk Douglas goes fine line on the subject. We are reminded that the Wild West consisted in a man, his horse and his gun for its beginnings. Here, we are treated to how the three got along and depended on each other. Great scene of a bar fight with twists and good discipline practiced by Jack Burns (Kirk). I am a big fan of food scenes in movies and this has one where Kirk goes at a plate of ham and eggs. I know sales hiccuped for both with this scene. A good meal to a cowboy is a gift and Kirk makes the scene speak just that. Highly recommended movie and I have seen this at least 5 times over the years always pleased and captured and held unto The End....enjoy all you pards out there
    9bkoganbing

    Be A Cowboy Hero

    Kirk Douglas has said often enough that Lonely Are The Brave is his favorite among the films he's done. I think of it the same way that Bette Davis says about Dark Victory that the role of Judith Traherne is 98% of me.

    Like the film's Jack Burns Kirk Douglas has charted his own way through life in Hollywood the way Jack Burns does. Burns's problem is that he's a man born a century too late.

    Run another of Kirk Douglas's classic westerns Man Without A Star side by side. Dempsey Rae in that film isn't too much different from Jack Burns, in fact they have opinions on certain subjects almost identical.

    But the frontier that Dempsey dealt with in that film has changed, it just doesn't exist any more. But Burns won't recognize it. I'm also not so sure how much film and television have influenced 1962's Jack Burns in the way a cowboy should behave.

    Kirk is returning to his home town from God knows what and meets up with Gena Rowlands who is married to his best friend Michael Kane. Kane's in jail for helping illegal immigrants cross the US/Mexican border. What to do but be a cowboy hero and bust him from jail. So Kirk gets himself in a nasty bar fight with one armed Bill Raisch and gets tossed in sheriff Walter Matthau's jail. While there Deputy George Kennedy works him over.

    So when Kirk's ready to bust jail, Kane refuses to go to his surprise. But that doesn't stop Kirk who breaks loose and the chase is on.

    The non-conformist part of Jack Burns certainly must have appealed to Kirk Douglas. He invests so much of himself in Burns it's hard to tell where Kirk leaves off and Burns begins. And he's one of the most appealing of all the roles Kirk Douglas has. You root for this law breaking maverick every step of the way.

    Mention must also go to Walter Matthau as the wise and laconic sheriff who really does understand Douglas's mentality as no one else really does. In a lot of ways it's like the Charles Bronson classic Death Hunt where Mountie Lee Marvin truly is sorry he's on this particular job. Of course if Douglas had actually killed someone in eluding the law, Matthau's duty would have been clear.

    The ending is truly an ironic one as the cowboy loses that part of him that makes him a unique American icon.

    Absolutely don't miss Lonely Are The Brave when it is broadcast, especially fans of Kirk Douglas.

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      After Kirk Douglas read "The Brave Cowboy" by Edward Abbey, he purchased the rights to it and gave the project to his friend Dalton Trumbo. Douglas said Trumbo's screenplay was perfect, the best he had ever read, and he didn't change one word of it.
    • Goofs
      At the 1:33 mark, whilst Burns is resting with his horse, Whisky, under a tree, you can see a thin black line attached to the horse's bit, coming in from the left. It appears that it is being pulled on by a crew member to keep Whisky's head up from where she is grazing.
    • Quotes

      Jack Burns: I didn't want a house. I didn't want all those pots and pans. I didn't want anything but you. It's God's own blessing I didn't get you.

      Jerri Bonds: Why?

      Jack Burns: 'Cause I'm a loner clear down deep to my guts. 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.

    • Crazy credits
      the credits at the beginning of the film use a font with uppercase consonants and lower case vowels (of various sizes) , but for the names only.
    • Connections
      Featured in Walter Matthau: Diamond in the Rough (1997)
    • Soundtracks
      Oh! Susanna
      Composed by Stephen Foster

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • May 25, 1962 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Languages
      • English
      • Spanish
    • Also known as
      • Chase a Hero
    • Filming locations
      • Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
    • Production company
      • Joel Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • $2,000,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 47 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.39 : 1

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