# Brave, The (1997)

### reviewed by
Jerry Saravia

    THE BRAVE
    Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
    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. Basically, it was cooly received. 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 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 unemployed and a 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 is 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 of Raphael who explains the meaning of death, 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.

For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at http://moviething.com/buffs/faust/

E-mail me with any questions, comments or general complaints at Faust667@aol.com or at jerry@movieluver.com

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