The Brave

I expected this movie to be a real "stinker" based on comments I had seen. But I was pleasantly surprised to see how good a movie it is. It is a powerful story about desperate people and should have received more attention and respect than it did. The movie could use some work in places, but it deserves to be released.

I had read an article in a waiting room Entertainment Weekly while getting a punctured tire repaired, an article about unreleased (or little-released) films and albums by big-name directors and artists. An internet search indicates this was "Buried Treasure" by Tim Carvell in issue # 795, December 3, 2004. One of them was this film, unreleased in the US, but available on DVD in the UK. Happily I own a region-free player that does PAL-NTSC conversion (I wish they would abolish regional encoding!), and the DVD on the UK Amazon site was relatively cheap, so I ordered it.

I'm surprised to see that the author of the novel this film was adapted from was the author of the Fletch series! This is entirely different.

Johnny Depp plays a native American living with his wife, son, and daughter in a small trailer in a shantytown next to a garbage dump in the desert. Days seem to be spent mostly sleeping. He goes to town to apply for a job a man in a bar told him about. He goes to a pretty shady place, and we learn what the job is (reading the DVD box would tell you the same thing): to be tortured and killed (presumably on film) for $50,000. He's given some money up front (at least a couple thousand, not sure how much), and a week before he has to come back to do the job. Evidently in the book he's only offered $30,000 and given $200 up front!

He goes back home, and doesn't do much initially, but then tries bonding more with his family, who he'd grown apart from while drinking. He spends the money on things that delight his kids, but seem pretty frivolous. His wife is worried he's robbed a store or done something else that will get him put in jail again. He hopes the money will help his family move up in life, and it comes at an opportune time, since the shantytown is due to be demolished.

It's a bit longer than I think it need be, about two hours. However, it is well directed. I think Johnny Depp did a good job with it.

Marlon Brando's role is pretty small. He'd worked with Depp before in Don Juan DeMarco (1995), quite a different movie than this one! Iggy Pop, who worked on the soundtrack has a short cameo as a man at a fiesta eating a giant drumstick.

Continuing my plan to watch every Johnny Depp movie in order, I come to his first, and to date, only directorial effort The Brave (1997)

An unemployed alcoholic Native American Indian (Depp) lives on a trailer park with his wife and two children. Convinced that he has nothing to offer this world, he agrees to be tortured to death in a snuff movie in return for $50,000. He is given one week before he must make the movie.

Some of Depp's work is too sad or strange to watch often, but every movie in his unique filmography (at least at this point) deserves to be seen at least once. I don't think this is an easy watch, the first line of dialogue is not spoken until ten minutes into the film.

It's a slow mover, and truthfully it could have lost about 30 minutes and lost none of the impact. Depp is really good here. No surprise as he was always great. Thankfully Brando's screen time is limited and Luis Guzmàn pops up too.

I can see why some people will not like it, and complain nothing happens. You will probably not enjoy it. But it will certainly stay with you!!

Depp was so upset at negative reviews by American critics attending an otherwise successful screening at the Cannes Film Festival. He refused to release the film in the United States.

I regret that this movie was never released in the U.S.; I had to buy a Korean release to get to see it. But, it was SO worth it! The movie is very moving - a great work by Johnny Depp. Those of us who have always appreciated Johnny for his unique vision on the world as brought to life in so many of his characters will revel in Rafael. The work as Director is superb, especially as a first effort. The score and cinematography are sublime....this is one of those that got away...and was (sadly) missed by many. But, as Johnny said in the special features interview, whether the movie is well-received or not well-received, it is totally "his movie, and no one can take that away from him." Bravo! Well-done, Johnny!

I agree with those that say, that this is a good story. It's like a Twilight Zone episode. In the beginning, one is intrigued and guessing what will happen but then that breaks down, and it doesn't seem to be fantasy anymore. It just seems like we don't really believe in the story or the characters anymore. Why would any of them act like that? Seriously, I really think Rod Serling could have gotten some great stuff out of this, apparently, Hostel-like story and setup. The subject of snuff-movies is an epic theme, but this way of telling the story is just so weak that we lose interest. Still it is a lot more interesting than the average movie, and clearly Johhny Depp is a talented director but he should really have thought some more about creating some excitement in this story.