Only the Brave is basically about dudes hangin’ out with other dudes it’s perfectly content to relish the firemen troop as a blue collar, all-male convent. As you can imagine, they teach each other equally important life lessons along the way. Brendan is a drug addict who needs a way out of his shitty life, and Eric is the one to give him a shot. Their trajectories, in relationship to each other, drive the film’s emotional narrative. Eric is juxtaposed with Miles Teller’s Brendan. He’s stubborn but forgiving ego-driven but has a big heart. Their leader, Josh Brolin’s Eric, is an archetypal masculine hero. They spend days out in the wilderness like a modern pack of cowboys. The film, directed by Joseph Kosinski, presumably because Peter Berg was busy, follows a crew of firefighters that extinguish wildfires without the use of water. A biographical account of Arizona wildlife firefighters, based on the GQ article “No Exit” by Sean Flynn, it has all of the pieces to be a timely, subversive drama about man’s relationship with nature, but instead leans into a traditional and hollow narrative about valor. Only the Brave is not that film, but it should’ve been. ![]() Underneath the corporate veneer it promises, it touts a significant message you didn’t know you signed up for. ![]() Sometimes a movie comes around that surprises you.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |