THE BRAVE
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Reposted review from January 17th, 2001
Johnny Depp's directorial debut hardly caused much of
a rift when shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and briefly at a film
festival in Taos, New Mexico. It was cooly received at best. Ostensibly a
snuff melodrama, "The Brave" is far more than that, and this elegantly
snail-paced drama may not win any new Depp fans but those that appreciate this
kind of Jim Jarmusch-style (or Antonioni stylistics) may want to check it out.
Depp not only directs but also stars as Raphael, an
American Indian living in a depressing, garbage dump area with his wife and two
kids. He is an unemployed drunk, having missed out on most of his kids'
childhood . Trying to set himself straight, he decides to work at a job that
pays $50,000 plus a cash
advance . The catch is he will be murdered for the money, though how
is not exactly clear. For a snuff film production? We are never sure and the
film never makes it clear (the word snuff is never actually uttered). And why
would Raphael go through with such a plan to support his family? How brave a man
is he really?
"The Brave" works on a more fundamental level - it
makes us see how Raphael changes his disorderly ways with his family once he
gets his advance. He buys a crudely arranged playground, a big-screen TV and
new clothes for his kids and his wife, who are at first dismayed by his sudden
wealth. We are not sure of Raphael's intentions - will he actually go through
with this literally dead-end job? Will he consider the consequences? And what
about his pseudo partner, a local thug (Luis Guzman, of all people) who wants to
share in Raphael's wealth?
"The Brave" merely rests on Depp's shoulders and as
fascinating and watchable an actor as he is, I felt the character was far too
thinly drawn. What possessed Raphael to take such an opportunity ? Depp never brings us any real
insight or depth to the character - we just see that his mind is at work and we
observe the changes he starts to make, but to what end? Did he ever consider
that his life is worth more than 50 G's?
"The Brave" has some strange characters such as the
father-son junkmen (Frederic Forrest, Max Perlich) who are trying to drill a
hole through the ground to get oil; Clarence Williams III as the concerned
priest; Marlon Brando in a short cameo as a wheelchaired boss who
explains the meaning of death to Raphael, and a throwaway cameo by Iggy Pop who attends
Raphael's big fiesta for the poverty-stricken community. Finally, there are
scenes in a bar populated by geeks and freaks that seemed to have stepped off
the set of Lynch's "Wild at Heart."
Beautifully photographed and generally decently
acted, "The Brave" is nothing if not a fluffy time-waster. Its haunting ending,
however, will leave you thinking for days as to the nature of Raphael's purpose
in getting himself killed. Perhaps he is not as brave as he thought he was.
