Recensioni degli utenti

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 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.

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.

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 am a cinema maniac and have a DVD collection of nearly 1200 movies besides other 300 VHS, including all the Hollywood Academy Award Winners. My tastes go to Italian, English, French and American films of 1930,40, 50 and 60. But I see and buy films of today even being the distribution here around 90% of American films, the majority very bad, not to mention the real word. I missed THE BRAVE when it passed here in our cinemas and yesterday I noticed by chance that it was to be shown on TV. AS the director was Johnny Depp I decided to see it. I knew J. Depp as an actor only. I enjoyed the film very much. It has substance and so I decided to keep it. However Leonard Maltin's 2008 MOVIE GUIDE does not even mention it. Why ? Why did Johnny Depp not let his film to be released in the U.S. . Can someone please explain ?

A down-on-his-luck American Indian (Johnny Depp) recently released from jail is offered the chance to "star" as the victim of a snuff film...

I should first say that I watched the Korean important version, which has over 20 minutes cut from the full version. I am unclear how much difference this makes, but it does seem to create a minor continuity problem here or there. I would gladly watch it again in the full version just to see what I missed.

This film captured the 1990s. The darkness, the nihilism. Surely not everyone approached the 90s this way, but industrial music was at its peak, and films like "Seven" and the works of Tim Burton were at the forefront of popular culture...

Casting Johnny Depp as an Indian was debatable, of course, as he only vaguely looks the part. But he does bring a certain star power to the film that probably gets it noticed by more people this way. And if Marlon Brando could be Mexican in "Viva Zapata", why can Depp not be Indian here? (In fairness, his great-grandmother was Cherokee, so it is not completely a fabrication... just mostly.)

This is really a very weak movie. The script is poor, the music sounds like a contribution from a mate of Johnny's and the direction is weak. Depp is really very unconvincing playing a Native American who has lived a hard, down-and-out life of poverty and failure (too well-spoken for a start) and his acting looks especially thin in the brief scene with Marlon Brando who seems to remind us what real acting is, although Brando's contribution (along with Marshall Bell's) is not enough to save this film. The only compelling scenes are the ones with Bell and Brando with the rest appearing as weak filler which fails to properly establish mood, depth or content or hold the attention.

The main faults are with Depp's acting (very shallow, altogether unconvincing and invoking little sympathy from this viewer), the characterization, the realization of the story and the direction. Perhaps most crucially, the story itself reaches for profundity but is pretty contemptible - if Raphael really loved his children he wouldn't be throwing away his life for some short-term bucks, thereby robbing them of the lifelong love and support of their father and increasing the likelihood of permanent disadvantage and psychological damage. The film does not explore this side of the situation and seems to infer some sort of deeper meaning and selflessness in his act (i.e., he is the "brave one", as well as the Native American "Brave" - the puerile turgidity of this pun suggests the facile nature of the film).

The plot also toys with ideas that are insufficiently explored or developed, tacked on, pointless or implausible: for example, the last-minute conversion to Native American spiritualism, which seems to go nowhere, mean nothing and develop nothing; there is the lunacy of giving up his life so his children can have the money to get out of the hole they're in and then spending much of it on a trashy fun park and a big party (perhaps intended to demonstrate the protagonist's generosity and good-heartedness but in a way that robs his gesture of value and meaning); there is the question of how the priest is supposed to ensure Raphael's family get the money from such vicious types as the film depicts; and the priest's sudden change from fury at the protagonist's fatal decision to a sort of stymied resignation and his ultimate failure to try and stop him on the day, which really makes little sense in light of his character and previous actions.

There is certainly social comment here but it's pretty ham-fisted. The Native Americans live in a garbage dump (not so subtle symbolism) and the film generally suggests the corner that the poor (especially poor non-whites) are backed into and the lack of regard for their lives by those with money and power. However, this too seems pretty thin, obvious and half-baked (try watching a Ken Loach or Mike Leigh film Johnny). Furthermore, by making two such louche and mysterious characters the villains in this social commentary, Depp does not point the finger of culpability in a very suggestive direction. In the final wash-up, it just doesn't explore the choice he makes with any real depth or profundity.

Wow. I just watched The Brave. Before I saw it, I knew that it was the only film which Johnny Depp has directed. After seeing it, I can add 'unfortunately' to the beginning of the fact. In every film that he's been in, nevermind the quality of the film itself, Johnny Depp has always given a wonderful performance. As a director, he's no different. The Brave is truly outstanding. How to describe the film? It's impossibly really. All I can say is...wow. Every actor is great. It's hard to get good child actors, but here it had been done. Johnny Depp is fantastic as usual, the wife is brilliant too. I don't think that there is a single performance that I would criticise. With the film, I did something that I've never done before - I didn't move for the last 10 or 20 minutes, and when it was over, I just sat through the credits completely in shock, crying. I even stayed in front of the DVD menu for a while afterwards, completely still. How anyone can call this film 'boring' is beyond me. Heartbreaking, uncomfortable, yes, but it is far from boring. Everyone should watch The Brave if they have the chance, but don't expect to go away smiling.

I watched THE BRAVE tonight and it reminded me of EXECUTION OF PRIVATE SLOVIK. Yeah, I know those two have very different plots and are quite different in every way, but didn't anyone find some likeness in how Raphael and Private Slovik were assigned to die by the end? In the mid-part of both movies, it wasn't quite certain for the characters and even for who was watching that any of the characters would die. Slowly, then, it keeps becoming more and more likely they are really going to. Isn't it similar how Raphael and Slovik become resigned as they notice what's going on and have only a last moment mourning when death is visibly near? Raphael cries by his resting family and Slovik cries as the priest blesses him for his death.

When this came on Tasmanian television, (oh yes) I did have some misgivings about staying up late to watch it. Then the "directed by Johnny Depp" came on and I thought....boy if Brando wasn't in this I am off to bed. But I sat up, watched it, and it one of those films that stays with you. The horror and the torture come later, and it is awful to think of this brave young man subjecting himself to these monsters, but that is the lure of the story I guess. Perfect casting by Depp, cant argue with the direction or the story. It's bleak but somehow beautiful at the same time. Yes it shows the best and worst of humanity. Not something to watch with the family on a movie night, but it does deserve an audience...you will not enjoy it but you will remember it.

For anyone who's followed Johnny Depp's career it was pretty interesting to watch his first movie as a film director. The story he chose dealt with an Indian-Mexican-whatever (it's not very precise) that's gonna make a big sacrifice for his family. What kind of sacrifice? Well, you'll have to watch "The Brave" to know it, 'cause thats the movie's main secret. They're poor, they live in a place that looks like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre farm... Everything's so tough. One of Depp's biggest mistakes was not to give a normal personality to any of the characters. They're all so eccentric, they're all freaks, and that makes the story a little bit unbelievable. He shouldn't had played the main character, because he looks more like a "cock-rocker" than like a wretched Indian native. Besides, the script has no rhythm at all, and it's quite irregular.

In short: "The brave" is not as bad as all the critics think, and we have to thank Depp for trying to make a different cinema, so influenced by his friends Jarmusch or Kusturica. But he's not Jarmusch, he's a great actor, not a director. Anyway, this was his first try... Let's give him a break.

*My rate: 5/10

Vincent Gallo with "Brown Bunny" Marlin Brando with "One-Eyed Jacks" Dennis Hopper with "The Last Movie" Jack Nicholson with " Drive, He Said" Tim Carey with "The World's Greatest Sinner" Ed Norton with "Keeping the Faith" Jodie Foster with "Little Man Tate" Kevin Spacey with "Albino Alligator"

All of these are similar actors who make huge mistakes in misunderstanding cinematic vision. All of these choose to act from the inside out, so they don't understand how to build a long form composition from a visual vocabulary. You can start many places in building a film, but rarely does it work to start with a inner performance. (Rarely, "Bunny" worked because he had those two clever twists at the end that restructured what went before.)

Sean Penn, alone in this class knows what to do. His "The Pledge" is one of the purest performance experiences I know, together with his similar collaboration with Woody Allen in "Sweet and Lowdown." In both those, the director knew how to shrinkwrap the cinema around the performance because the single performances (Nicholson, Penn respectively) were not of a character, but a range of characters.

If this weren't Depp, it wouldn't be so amazing that it lacks imagination. That's because time and time again Depp as an actor shows that he understands a creative director's cinematic structure and how he fits in. And not just one type of approach; he has collaborated with a wide variety of visions from the synthetic to the abstract, through folded and flat, annotated and straight.

And gosh, take a look at the sets. They were designed with such amazing richness and possibilities by an eastern European creative team that understands circus. And then not leveraged in the slightest by Depp.

Much has been made of Brando's manner through his career, especially the notion that he needs a strong director who will force not only a deep performance, but will indicate the slots for him to fill in the greater composition. I'm not sure about that; I see him trying amazing things even when in otherwise lazy movies.

Brando and Depp were friends and had worked together before. Its unsettling that Brando's work here seems unintegrated with anything else in the project, not even the world of Depp's character.

I hate to agree with the conventional wisdom that this is a poor film, an unsuccessful Jesus parable.

I come to these primarily to get another window into the soul of a valued actor. Some of his performances have mattered to me, and I believe no actor can be rich without being a rich person.

Well, he may be rich, but he lacks a rich compositor's eye.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

"The Brave" is a film based on an interesting variation of the Dr Faustus theme of selling your soul for immediate gain--in this case, pecuniary gain for an American Indian living off a garbage dump.

Obviously Mr Brando would find the American Indian's social and political plight close to his heart. Depp, the director, makes the social statement in a heavy handed way--the sun scorching on a pile of rubbish that seems to be last frontier for the American native living in the US at the end of the twentieth century. It is a hard life, and "the Brave" knows that he cannot have a bright future for his two kids and wife living in a ramshackle caravan. Yet the modern "Brave" looks wistfully at new houses being built for those have the money from the bus he takes to town and makes a "brave" decision to sell his soul/body.

This is not a film one would expect Hollywood to make. It has a thorough "independent" flavor to it. The brothers Depp who wrote the story are probably looking at parallels to the American Indian psyche over centuries: honesty (the Brave keeps his word), family values (the Brave gives his life for the sake of his family), strong religiosity (he trusts the Christian priest and gives him the responsibility of ensuring the family gets the money, suggestions of crucifixion, etc.). This is what the Brando character with tears in his eyes recognizes in the Brave.

This is a clean film--no gratuitous violence or sex abound. Instead you are provided some interesting reflective statements on life, death and sacrifice with lucre as the underpinning force. It is an honest film that reminds you of "Billy Jack" minus the sex and violence.

What makes the film weak is the direction. I was amused to see the priest with his sacramental vestments on the street watching Depp the actor proceed on his final journey. Depp the director seems to love adopting cinematic statements that were popular in the Sixties and Seventies, e.g., the final journey, the closed warehouse with lifts to heaven/hell, etc. Johnny Depp is good as an actor, but he is out of his depth as a director. What is creditable is the music by Iggy Pop and co., which blends with the film's philosophy. The performances are about average (Luis Guzman, Frederick Forrest, Elpida Corrillo) and even the kids look real. Brando and Depp are, of course, a delight to watch.

I wonder why Depp made this film. Was it just because his brother wrote the story? Does he identify with the American Indian? Is he religious? Or was the story important for Depp at a difficult period in his life? Actor Richard Burton chose to direct "Dr Faustus" with himself in the main role. The effort was great drama which few appreciated. But then Depp is not in the same league as Burton.

The Brave is one of those odd little films that quietly sits in the corner of someone's filmography and dares you to seek it out. Directed by and starring Johnny Depp, it's slow, atmospheric, and emotionally weighty. It doesn't rush to explain itself, and it sure as hell doesn't offer easy answers.

The vibe here is heavy. It's set in a place that feels forgotten and stripped bare, and the whole movie leans into that despair without feeling exploitative. The performances are quiet and haunted, especially Depp's. It's clear this was a passion project, for better or worse.

It's not perfect. The pacing drags at times, and some parts feel like they're trying a little too hard to be profound. But it stuck with me more than I expected. There's something honest in its sadness, something that digs into dignity and sacrifice without falling into cheap melodrama. Definitely worth watching if you're in the mood for something strange and somber.

Don't get fooled by the title. It does not refer to Johnny Depp. No it refers to the viewer who is brave enough to endure this waste of time. I watched this movie at a friends house and I did not know the movie, but he said it got good reviews. We were all outraged that Johnny Depp wasted 2 hours of our lives with this crap. Most boring movie ever. We wanted to turn it off, but my friend said that it had a good ending. He lied. Afterwards we decided to give him a couple of punches for this terrible movie, and it was the last time he decides which movie we'll see. If somebody you don't like asks you: Hey seen any good movies lately? Point him towards The Brave.

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.

This is a very mixed-up movie, which just doesn't come off at the end. Its an unusual, dark, story about a man who decides to sell his life to a strange man (played by Brando in a very moving, electric five minute cameo, the only real reason to see this movie - its about twenty minutes in) in exchange for a sum of money which will be used to give shanty-town-dwelling family a better life. The people at Cannes, or some such film festival, went for it and gave it a prize - but i'm not so sure i agree. It takes risks, by being weird and unconventional, but it does so in an empty way. It sacrifices having a real emotional centre, and most of it simply doesn't follow. The character-motivations do not all link up. Like, if Depp's character gave his life for this money, why does he p*** it away on a widescreen TV and other niknaks which may make the audience go "wow, that's what money buys" but in terms of practicality for the poor girls who have to miss out on an education and a good home, i didn't think it made sense at all. I think Johnny Depp is a class act, a superb actor, made all the more great for the fact that he's not scared to play parts far removed from himself, and indulge in imitation and mimickry, something method actors are shy of, because there is little room to identify and feel your character, because the character is so different from yourself (how do you go about "feeling" the part of an invention with scissors for hands? Or Errol Flynn-cum-Keith Richards, or J.M Barrie? First, you have to be a sort of master-actor!). Having said all that, he's not especially good in this film. I think he was distracted by the worries of directing. Orson Welles' performances suffered for the same reasons in his Othello, Stranger and Lady from Shanghai. Its a tricky thing, directing yourself, and even a great director like Welles needed the perfect environment to be able to do it (such as Kane, Falstaff). With due respect to Johnny, and i think he knows it because he hasn't directed again, this should be his only directorial effort, like One Eyed Jacks for Brando.

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.

THE BRAVE (3 outta 5 stars) Bear in mind that this review is based on an incomplete version of the film which was missing 25 minutes in the middle. However, I doubt that those 25 minutes will affect my rating much anyway... so here goes. Johnny Depp plays a down-on-his-luck Native American/Mexican (yes, it is a bit of a stretch... but just go with it) who makes a deal with an eccentric movie producer to star in a "snuff film". Depp gets some money in advance and gets one last week to spend with his family before the movie starts shooting. They live on the outer edges of a huge garbage dump. Raphael (Depp) figures that the money he makes from doing the film will be enough for his family to move away and find themselves a real home. To explain his newfound wealth, Depp tells the rest of the town that he got a new warehouse job but they wonder why he is so reluctant to help anybody else get on there. It's a very slow-paced movie and never got released in North America. (It is currently only available as an import... many of which, apparently, have a 25 minute section missing in the middle. Honestly, if I hadn't noticed that the film was only 91 minutes long instead of the promised 118 and gone to investigate some IMDb threads I would never have noticed scenes were missing. The movie still seems to flow well... even though it does seem too short.) Nice try by Depp (who also directed) but the movie doesn't quite have the power of the novel it was adapted from.

What a great concept...and what a mediocre movie showcasing it. Johnny Depp plays a man who agrees to be tortured and murdered for a $50,000 settlement to his family. I suppose I should've been aware of it sooner, but about halfway through I knew the movie would show little, if any, of the actual torture/murder (and I was right). Unfortunately, "The Brave" suffers from an overlong running time and a plodding pace, as well as unnecessary bursts of comic relief from a caricatured supporting cast. Other characterizations are erratic and underdeveloped. The best scenes belong to Marlon Brando (as the wheelchair-bound man who "hires" Depp) and Clearance Williams III (who shares a very powerful confessional scene with Depp), both of whom are given precious little screen time. "The Brave" is a sometimes-compelling morality play with a brooding mood, yet unbalanced and seldom rising above average.

5/10