And credit should go to Philip Laphrop’s harsh, dusty photography and Jerry Goldsmith’s flavorsome music. As the hero’s tough but human pursuer, Mr. Trumbo’s steady pen, the vignettes shaping the chase flow easily and meaningfully-the hero’s barroom fight with a mean psychotic, his warm reunion with two old friends (affectingly played by Gene Rowlands and Michael King)-until a fade-out almost too good, and moving, to be true. (“Brave Cowboy,” the title of Edward Abbey’s adapted novel, is still a better label.)įrom Mr. David Miller’s disciplined, keen direction indicates real understanding of the picture’s heart, soul and humor, all stemming from one of Dalton Trumbo’s finest scripts. Douglas is superbly convincing-a shrewd if not overly bright hero. And as this leathery derelict, a man not about to mark time on a dude ranch or stop at fences, Mr. Douglas and the horse are trapped in roaring highway traffic, the scene and mood are set for a contemporary character study of a dying prairie breed.

Although the picture bears down graphically on the climactic chase-with the old-timer inching his horse over the mountains as a jeep-helicopter unit closes in-it is the people themselves who matter.įrom the fade-in, when Mr. The plot? An aging, knock-about cowpoke, who has seen better days, breaks into jail to help an old pal, then escapes and lights out for the border with the sheriff, played by Walter Matthau, in crafty pursuit.

With a tiny cast, the simplest of story situations and a sure understanding of human behavior, this quietly penetrating film is a joy to watch. This perfectly swell little Western drama, with Kirk Douglas giving one of the best performances of his career, opened yesterday on the circuits) with a broad, harmless serving of British slapstick called (“Nearly a Nasty Accident”). THERE have been bigger, and more expensive Westerns, but none lately has been half as good as “Lonely Are the Brave” which must have cost Universal comparative horsefeed.

Lonely are the brave cast