Lonely Are the Brave (1962)

Kirk Douglas is Jack Burns, an individualist, a man who insists on living the wild and free life of a cowboy even in the post-World War II West in which he finds himself herding sheep more often than cattle.

Upon learning that a best friend (Michael Kane as Paul Bondi) has been sentenced to two years in prison for helping illegal immigrants, Burns breaks into jail to help him break out.

He soon learns the friend isn’t willing to risk the longer sentence that would come with an escape conviction, so Burns breaks out alone.

From that point on, it’s him, his horse Whiskey and his rifle against a modern day posse that can use walkie-talkies, helicopters and airplanes to help track down its prey.

Review:

One of the better modern Westerns you’ll find. Douglas supposedly considered it his favorite film, and one can understand why.

Gena Rowlands is Jerry Bondi, wife of the friend Burns wants to help escape; Walter Matthau is the sheriff charged with bringing him in.

And Carroll O’Connor, in his pre-Archie Bunker days, is the driver of a truck full of portable toilets, a truck that plays a key role in the film’s poignant ending.

Directed by:
David Miller

Cast:
Kirk Douglas … Jack Burns
Gena Rowlands … Jerry Bondi
Walter Matthau … Sheriff Morey Johnson
Michael Kane … Paul Bondi
Carroll O’Connor … Truck driver, Hinton
William Shallert … Harry
George Kennedy … Deputy Sheriff Gutierrez
Karl Swenson … Rev. Hoskins
Martin Garralaga … Old Man

Runtime: 107 min.

Memorable lines:

Jerry Bondi: “Jack, I’m going to tell you something. The world you and Paul live in doesn’t exist. Maybe it never did. Out there is the real world. And it’s got real borders and real fences and real laws and real trouble. And either you go by the rules or you lose. You lose everything.”
Jack Burns: “You can always keep something.”

Jack Burns, taking to Jerry Bondi about her husband, Paul: “Maybe he had to have one more fling with her before the old man with the white hair moves in.”
Jerry: “Fling with who?”
Jack: “A girl Paul and I grew up with. Kind of a wild-eyed little mountain girl. Her name is Do What You Want to Do and the Hell with Everybody Else. Probably an Indian girl. They’ve all got names like that.”
Jerry: “Men are idiots.”

Preacher: “Ah, the temptations of the flesh. I fought ’em my whole life through.”
Inmate: “Then how come you’re in here, reverend.”
Preacher: “I said I fought ’em. I didn’t say I fought ’em off. Sometimes, I lost.”

Jack Burns to prison guard: “Take it easy. Temper like that, one of these days you’ll find yourself riding through town, belly to the sun, best suit on and no place to go but hell.”