Lonely Are The Brave (1962)

Although this is a western, it really is a drama above all. This film an adaptation of the novel "Brave Cowboy" by Edward Abbey. Kirk Douglas liked this book so much that he gave it to a friend, Dalton Trumbo,  to write the screenplay. Considered by himself and his son to be his best work, I personally still liked Spartacus more.

The film is about a man who almost lives in the wrong era. Some might even call him a little nuts, but just because they don't understand. The film starts with John Burns [Douglas] sleeping at his campfire on a barren western plain with his horse nearby. He awakes to the sound of an airplane passing by. As he gets up and starts his day, he needs his wire cutters at the ready as he has to cut through fence after fence to get to the next town. He arrives at his sister-in-law's place and it becomes evident that this is the middle of the 20th century. He learns that his brother is in jail for a year for helping immigrants who have crossed a border he didn't think much of.

John gets in a bar fight and punches a cop so he can "break into jail" see his brother, then break out. A strange film, I'm not sure I understand the message, but I do get the western man unable to conform to a changing society. Not an award winner, just one of the 50 western films in my 501 Must-See films, nothing special to me.

Vote: 7/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056195/

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