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.
- Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
- 1 win & 2 nominations total
- First Deputy Arraigning Burns
- (as Bill Mims)
- Prisoner
- (uncredited)
- Bar Patron
- (uncredited)
- Bar Patron
- (uncredited)
- Airman in Helicopter
- (uncredited)
- Prisoner
- (uncredited)
- Prisoner
- (uncredited)
- Bar Patron
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
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!
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.
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.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAfter 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.
- GoofsAt 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 creditsthe 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.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Walter Matthau: Diamond in the Rough (1997)
- SoundtracksOh! Susanna
Composed by Stephen Foster
- How long is Lonely Are the Brave?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $2,000,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 47 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1
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