The Bravados

Summary

“Go to sleep. You’ll never hear the shot that kills ya.”

The Western film genre has not been given the amount of attention the genre deserves in recent years. For fans of the genre, all that can be done is look back and try to discover films in the genre from yesteryear. It’s a shame that this genre is given such short thrift. Thankfully Twilight Time has proven itself to be one of the best distributors of Western films. They are picky about which Westerns get a release and have put out great films like The Man from Laramie and Hombre amongst others. I was glad to see that they were releasing another Western that I had not seen. I became even more excited when I saw that it starred the great Gregory Peck. 

A man named Jim Douglass (Gregory Peck) is stopped outside of a town called Rio Reba. The sheriff of the town doesn’t want anybody entering the town until a hanging has occurred. Jim relinquishes his gun and rifle. He has ridden his horse one hundred miles to view the hanging. Jim meets Sheriff Sanchez, the banker, and other citizens. The city is on edge from the recent violence that had taken place at the bank. The townspeople assume that Jim is the hangman and are dismayed to learn he is just a spectator. Jim sees a woman he had known a half decade earlier in New Orleans named Josefa Velarde (a young Joan Collins.) Jim’s wife had been raped and killed by four outlaws: Bill Zachary (Stephen Boyd,) Lujan (Henry Silva,) Alfonso Parral (Lee Van Cleef,) and Ed Taylor (Albert Salmi.) Jim inspects them all in the jail and confirms that they are the ones which did the deed. Jim has lost his faith since his wife’s death but he agrees to walk Josefa to church. Convicted by Josefa’s mentioning that he should talk to God, Jim enters the church with her. While everyone in town attends church, the outlaws escape after attacking the sheriff and his deputy. They kidnap a local woman named Emma (Kathleen Galant) and they head towards Mexico. Jim joins a small gang to track them down and bring them to justice.

The Bravados is an excellent film. While the film is a Western, it is unique in its approach with an ending that holds moral and philosophical weight. Not often do I watch a film that leaves me pondering a moral quandary without feeling as if the film was preaching to me. The Bravados allows the viewers to ponder justice and revenge in direct contrast to one another in a way which few films have attempted, much less achieved. I was very impressed by the film and it is not one I will soon forget.

The film is helped along by the great Gregory Peck. As anybody who has grown up watching To Kill a Mockingbird can attest, he was a national treasure. He brings a lot of nuance to the role. After watching the film I can’t imagine the role being played by anybody else. The film also has some amazing supporting actors including memorable performances by a young Lee Van Cleef and Henry Silva. Joan Collins is okay in the film, but she was never really my cup of tea.

The writing for the film is very strong with a screenplay by prolific screenwriter Philip Yordan based on a book by Frank O’Rourke. The film was capably directed by Henry King, one of the best gun-for-hire directors from Twentieth Century Fox. The movie was shot in CinemaScope and looks glorious. Cinematographer Leon Shamroy excelled in this film. I love their decision to shoot day for night throughout much of the film in essence making the film one of the bluest Westerns ever made. The music by Lester Newman is also very well composed.

Overall, The Bravados is an intelligent and uncommonly conscientious Western that raises excellent moral questions. I highly recommend checking it out.

Video

Twilight Time have provided an absolutely gorgeous transfer of the film. Twentieth Century Fox supplied the MPEG-4 AVC encoded transfer of the film in 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The film was shot in CinemaScope and it looks beautiful in high definition. As mentioned above, a decent amount of the film was shot in day for night, making the film unnaturally blue for long periods. This makes the film even more visually interesting than many Westerns from the period. This film visually reminds me of the great release that Twilight Time did of The Man from Laramie a couple years ago. This gets my highest marks,

Audio

Twilight Time has provided a surprisingly robust DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround track. Obviously, some purists will hesitate to enjoy the film in anything but Mono, but I personally enjoyed how much the surround track elevated the music of Lester Newman and helped to accentuate the few shootouts in the film. Fans should be very pleased to see that Twilight Time have provided three different tracks for the purists out there.

Supplements:

Original Theatrical Trailer

Three Movietone Pieces

Isolated Music Track

Overall Scores:

Video – 5/5

Audio – 5/5

Supplements – 2/5

Overall – 4.5/5

The Bravados is a powerful film. It is rare that a Western would double as a compelling morality tale. With Gregory Peck in the lead role, I had expected a good film, but The Bravados proved itself to be a great film. The film has an excellent cast, great day-for-night cinematography, and a well composed score. The transfer is flawless and the surround track is wonderful. Highly recommended.

This review originally appeared on Blu-ray Authority in 2018.