Lonely are the Brave

Jack Burns is a cowboy who lives on horseback; he moves cattle, goes under fences and carries no papers. His friend is in jail for helping migrants across. To break him out, Burns starts a fight in town and gets himself put in the same jail. But the friend does not want to escape; he chooses to serve his time and go back to his family. Burns escapes alone and takes his horse up the mountain. The sheriff who comes after him has a jeep, a radio and a helicopter. David Miller directs. Kirk Douglas plays Burns and Walter Matthau plays the sheriff. The screenplay is by Dalton Trumbo, from Edward Abbey's novel. Trumbo was one of the blacklisted writers and worked for years under other names. Kirk Douglas broke the blacklist in 1960 by putting Trumbo's name on Spartacus, and this film comes directly after that decision, again with Trumbo credited. Kirk Douglas said for years that it was his own favourite among his films. The subject is not the cowboy disappearing but the fact that he has already disappeared. Burns is not a hero; he is someone who fits nowhere and obeys nothing, and the film does not take his side, it only shows that there is no room left for him. The closing scene on the highway is among the known endings of American cinema. Who it is for: viewers who like late westerns and character driven American film. Who it is not for: the pace is slow, little happens, and the ending is openly symbolic.