The Brave

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.

At the first glance one could believe that "The Brave" is an action movie: a desperate man enters in the wrong place and he has to run away in order to keep himself alive. For those who love the adventures and action movies this one could be the prefect beginning for another one. Instead, the film moves into the philosophical reflection of meaning of life and death. The story is about love and struggling against fatality.

Depp gives us a beautiful movie that shows an excellent director: the photography is wonderful, the first sequence is hallucinant; the only regret is that it remembers Jarmush's "Dead Man".

Brave, The (1997)

* (out of 4)

Johnny Depp's directorial debut is a film I've been dying to see since I first heard about it back around 1996. In the film Depp plays an American Indian who can't get a job due to being a drunk and this doesn't leave much of a future for his wife and two children. Somehow he is introduced to a man (Marlon Brando) who offers his $50,000 to be tortured and killed in a snuff film. With no other future in site the man takes the job. There's been all sorts of reasons why this film was never released in America. I've heard stories of Depp being mad at American critics who trashed the film in Cannes and I've heard the storyline was just too depressing for release here. I think the real reason is that the film is simply a piece of junk. Since Depp was director, star and co-writer he certainly has to take the majority of the blame. The film has a terrific storyline but he doesn't do a thing with it and in the end the film is simply a mess. Everyone delivers their lines at such a slow and drawn out way that had they sped it up just 1% then I'm sure the film would have lost an hour of its running time. The performances are also dull and that includes Brando. I might sound like George here but this film has gotten a lot of great reviews from fans but to me it sounds like people love this film just because it has a foreign, non-Hollywood feel to it. Add in the fact that he didn't get released and they seem to be hailing this as some sort of masterpiece that "normal folks" can't "get". I think Depp is an incredibly talented guy but you wouldn't know it by watching this film.

I just saw this movie on DVD. As soon as I finished watching, I felt I had to see it again.

The thought of being killed for money may sound bizarre, but in this movie, it's very realistic.

The movie caught the mindset of a man about to be sacrified very well and you could feel the intensity. It neither condemned nor aprove his decision. But his actions all made sense, so we sympathize but not pity him.

Johnny Depp played the role so well, he was able to convince us that he was just doing his best to help his beloved family.

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.