I really don't get the hype.

A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Since it's a well-known tidbit of film history that Lonely Are the Brave is Kirk Douglas's favorite of his movies, I'll try not to be too critical. There are some nice elements to the film, and I'll focus on those, even though this is a movie I'll probably never want to watch again.Kirk Douglas stars as a traditional cowboy: a wandering cowhand with no permanent address, a closer relationship to his horse than with most people, and a wealth of knowledge about his natural surroundings. He stops by normal civilization to check up on his old friends, Gena Rowlands and Michael Kane, and finds out that Michael has landed in a two-year jail stint. Determined to rescue his pal, Kirk gets himself arrested, thrown in jail, and then hopes to escape with Michael. Michael prefers to serve out the remainder of his sentence and return safely to his family, leaving Kirk to "brave" the escape alone.The early scenes between Kirk and an extremely young and pretty Gena Rowlands are my favorite scenes. They have a fantastic chemistry together, and I found myself wishing the entire film consisted only of the scorching pair. Despite their differences, they truly understand each other, and there's a love that runs deeper than any of their written lines. While the audience wonders about the characters' history, when it's finally revealed, their performances are that much more layered. It makes you wonder why they weren't cast in Hud!In the second half of the film, when Kirk and his horse are on the run from Sheriff Walter Matthau, whose addiction to gum and deadpan lines gets old fast, the film has a completely different feel to it. It's incredibly tense, and several times, I pressed pause and took a walk around the house just to shake off my worries. Animal lovers will be terribly affected by the movie, and non-animal lovers will still be on the edge of their seats, hoping that Kirk will be able to escape. The stunts are incredible, and in traditional old-Hollywood style, the long takes allow audiences to see Kirk's face as he wrangles his horse!You know I never spoil any plot points in my reviews, but just ask yourself what you imagine when you hear the title Lonely Are the Brave. If you imagine a cutesy classic, you might want to put this back on the shelf and rent My Dear Secretary instead. If you imagine a sad, tense, stark drama, you're probably ready for it.Kiddy warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to upsetting situations involving an animal, I wouldn't let my kids watch this movie.

The big, the biggest movie of Kirk Douglas, with a performance worthy of an Oscar. Jack Burns is a misfit, like so many of us. Has no address, no family, no job, and going from one place to another without obligation. Lives only this day, lives what happens now. The film is a true poetry dedicated to the lonely. Burns suddenly appears in the city where he lives the woman he loved but whom he could not devote precisely because it is a solitary being, can not live with someone. This woman married her best friend, making it clear that only married not to be so. And Burns does not measure sacrifices by his friend and his family. You can be arrested only to see him in prison. And flee when their mission is accomplished. Burns is a lot like Shane George Stevens. If it were possible to join the two films, Lonely Are the Brave could be the continuation of Shane, no doubt. It would need only put the two movies set around the same time. Both one and the other, when it comes to loneliness, hopelessness, what they do? They go to the mountains, the only place that can accommodate them. Are heroes out of your time. . Lonely Are the Brave is a powerful film. David Miller made his masterpiece. A wonderful moment in film history.

For a journeyman director David Miller had some interesting credits on his CV; Sudden Fear, Happy Anniversary, Midnight Lace, and the outstanding follow-up to this entry, Captain Newman M.D. It's well documented that Kirk Douglas has nominated this as the favourite of all his films but there is, of course, a distinction to be made between the overall film and the individual performance. I for one wouldn't like to say that Brave Cowboy eclipses say Minnelli's The Bad And The Beautiful or even Mank's A Letter To Three Wives, in both of which Douglas turned in fine performances. Be that as it may Brave Cowboy is definitely an exceptional movie surprisingly well cast with Walter Matthau and William Schallert making a fine double act, Carroll O'Connor saying nothing until the end and top-billed Gena Rowlands contributing little more than a cameo. In some ways it remains unique as a study of a man living out of his time and paying the ultimate price for so doing. Excellent.

Some 72 different reviews that I saw... most proclaim the movie as very good to excellent while one or two pan it and say 'Burns got what he deserved.' Interesting as the film portrays without really endorsing (aside from the fact that the 'to be Libertarian' Jack Burns is the hero) a man who feels that 'freedom' is valuable enough to engage in behavior that potentially could cost that rare commodity. Brave but some have said foolish. The film is engaging in that a variety of 'types' are represented. Certainly no one can argue that Matthau is a 'type' as are Rowlands (the wife in love with someone else perhaps) and the 'brutal' type of Kennedy's role. The buffoonery of some of the deputies and the over exuberance of the young Airmen... all types but mixed well in this film which I found extremely well done... and I was rooting for Whiskey all the time and there is NO mention of who owned or trained that splendid animal. The scenes urging her up the rocky cliffs was enough to suggest a Oscar for Whiskey. But the oncoming (Spoiler) 18 wheeler carrying toilets (would have been worse if it was toilet paper!) while close the book on Jack's valiant and brave efforts to elude his pursuers and get across the border(s) to freedom someplace else. The acting was superb by all and landscape, filming, locations... all really added greatly to the films attraction. Some might say that such an era is past but freedom loving people are still around who will die for it and, as many might suggest that such freedoms are waning, perhaps we'll see many such Jack Burns rising up to engage the Gutierrezs of today's oppressive society. Great film (spoiler alert)with a tragic ending but Burn's soul will not be snuffed out. Douglas is good in many films but I 'like' him in this one and, as Matthau discovered, such men are hard to corral if not impossible.