THE BRAVADOS
US, 1958, 98 minutes, Colour.
Gregory Peck, Stephen Boyd, Joan Collins, Albert Salmi, Henry Silva, George Voskovec, Barry Coe, Lee Van Cleef.
Directed by Henry King.
The Bravados is an entertaining revenge western. Gregory Peck is a strong hero. There is a solid supporting cast led by Stephen Boyd, Henry Silva amongst many other character actors. Joan Collins, early in her career, is the demure heroine. Shot on attractive locations, the film is a blend of action and exploration of themes of revenge. There is irony at the end as Gregory Peck pursues the alleged killers of his wife, only to discover that they were not. Direction is by Henry King, a director of many epic films over several decades from The Winning of Barbara Worth through a number of Gregory Peck vehicles including David and Bathsheba, Twelve O'Clock High, The Gunfighter.
1. An interesting and entertaining western? Action? Exploration of meaning?
2. Cinemascope photography, locations, the towns, the range of western landscapes? The focus on people in the West? Justice? The musical score?
3. The title, its tone?
4. The focus on Jim Douglas: his entry to the town, his concern about the hanging, his being an enigma, the encounter with the sheriff, his relationship with Josefa, going to the prison to look at the prisoners? His experience, justice and revenge? The Catholic atmosphere of the town? The church, the preacher, prayer? His strategies? The various prisoners and their escape? The cowboy and his pleading not to be killed, the prisoner and his being trapped on the tree, Douglas' relentless pursuit? The intervening of Josefa? Emma? The boarder and the child? Zachary and his death? Pursuing the Indian? His being knocked out? Talking with the Indian? The truth about Butler? His return? Prayer? The sermon about Christ? Forgiveness? The future - his being thanked by the villagers for freeing them? The irony of his mistakes? Josefa? A man of the West?
5. The portrait of the prisoners? Their reputation, in prison, the gallows, their reactions to the sheriff? To Douglas? Sims and the irony of their escape? Their brutality? The kidnapping of Emma? Their strategies to avoid pursuit? Their being killed by Douglas? In themselves, the audience judging them, the evidence ? as circumstantial? The prisoner pleading for his life, the rape of Emma, the prisoner caught in the tree, the shooting of Butler, the taking of his gold, Zachary and the cafe and his death, the Indian and his family and wife?
6. The irony of the presentation of Butler, audience sympathy, his being pursued by the group, his death and their stealing the gold? And the irony that he had Douglas' gold and was the villain?
7. The portrait of the town, the sheriff and his honesty, his being stabbed? Primo and prayer? The people and their edginess, the hotel, the posse, the violence? Their final gratitude?
8. Josefa as love interest, Catholic, the church, participation in the posse, meeting Jim's little girl and looking after her, a happy ending?
9. The staging of the action sequences, the shoot-outs, the towns, and the blend of vengeance and piety?
10. The priest, his sermons, themes of revenge and forgiveness?
11. The blend of the traditional conventions of the western with themes exploring justice ? and the wrong man?
