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Lonely Are the Brave

1962 film by Kirk Douglas, David Miller

Lonely Are the Brave is a 1962 film about a fiercely independent cowboy who arranges to have himself locked up in jail in order to then escape with an old friend who has been sentenced to the penitentiary.

Have you ever noticed how many fences there're getting to be? And the signs they got on them: no hunting, no hiking, no admission, no trespassing, private property, closed area, start moving, go away, get lost, drop dead! Do you know what I mean?
Directed by David Miller. Written by Dalton Trumbo, based on the novel The Brave Cowboy by Edward Abbey.
Life can never cage a man like this!

Jack Burns

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  • Time we took off, too.
    • Opening line, to his horse as he watches jet contrails in the sky.
  • This fellow wants action, I'm glad to accommodate him, do it with one arm behind my back. Any of you boys interfere, I'll use both arms.
  • Take it easy. Temper like that and one of these days you'll find yourself riding through town with your belly to the sun, your best suit on and no place to go but hell.
    • Spoken to Guiterrez

Jerry Bondi

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  • I was expecting you, Jack. Isn't that odd? I heard a horse and I knew it was your horse.
  • Believe you me, if it didn't take men to make babies I wouldn't have anything to do with any of you!

Sheriff Morey Johnson

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  • You'd think we're chasing a ghost... an invisible horse and an invisible cowboy. Harry, throw me that canteen. I haven't got enough spit left to wet a stick of gum.

Dialogue

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I don't need a card to figure out who I am. I already know.
 
You act like a man who thinks he's going to break out of jail.
Jack Burns: A westerner likes open country. That means he's got to hate fences. And the more fences there are, the more he hates them.
Jerry Bondi: I've never heard such nonsense in my life.
Jack Burns: It's true though. Have you ever noticed how many fences there're getting to be? And the signs they got on them: no hunting, no hiking, no admission, no trespassing, private property, closed area, start moving, go away, get lost, drop dead! Do you know what I mean?
Jack Burns: I didn't want a house. I didn't want all those pots and pans. I didn't want anything but you. It's God's own blessing I didn't get you.
Jerry Bondi: Why?
Jack Burns: 'Cause I'm a loner clear down deep to my guts. Know what a loner is? He's a born cripple. He's a cripple because the only person he can live with is himself. It's his life, the way he wants to live. It's all for him. A guy like that, he'd kill a woman like you. Because he couldn't love you, not the way you are loved.
Jerry Bondi: Jack, I'm going to tell you something. The world that 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, real laws and real trouble. And you either go by the rules or you lose. You lose everything.
Jack Burns: You can always keep something.
Jerry Bondi: Jack, what are you going to do?
Jack Burns: Well, about every six months, I figure I owe myself a good drunk. It rinses your insides out, sweetens you breath and tones up your skin.
Desk sergeant: You mean to say you got no identification at all?
Jack Burns: That's right.
Desk sergeant: No draft card, no social security, no discharge? No insurance, no driver's license, no nothing?
Jack Burns: No nothing.
Desk sergeant: Look, cowboy, you can't go around with no identification. It's against the law. How are people going to know who you are?
Jack Burns: I don't need a card to figure out who I am. I already know.
Paul Bondi: Be careful, Jack. Don't make any trouble.
Jack Burns: Trouble's what I came here to fix up.
Paul Bondi: What happened to your face?
Jack Burns: Oh, a bunch of guys I ran into down at the saloon gave it a new look. I guess they didn't like the old one.
Paul Bondi: Are you sure you didn't get kicked in the head?
Jack Burns: What do you mean?
Paul Bondi: You act like a man who thinks he's going to break out of jail.
Rev. Hoskins: Ah, the temptations of the flesh. I fought 'em my whole life through.
Prisoner: Then how come you're in here, Reverend?
Rev. Hoskins: Well, I said I fought 'em, I didn't say I fought 'em off. Sometimes I lost. But believe me, it takes a lot more to tempt a preacher than it does you stumblebums in here. When I lost, I lost big!
Prisoner: Are you a real preacher, Reverend?
Rev. Hoskins: Well now, let's look at it this way. I always had the urge to preach. And if you got the urge, you're halfway home.
Prisoner: What kept you from getting all the way?
Rev. Hoskins: My temptation was women.
Jerry Bondi: Maybe you'd be better off if they caught you.
Jack Burns: Maybe, but I'd like to put it off for as long as possible.

Quotes about Lonely Are the Brave

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  • It happens to be a point of view I love. This is what attracted me to the story — the difficulty of being an individual today. Life gets more and more complex and convoluted. Young people are not happy with what's going on — and they're right. The character in Lonely Are the Brave had that quality. He didn't want to belong to this day and age. It's difficult to buck the system. That's the tragedy of it.
    • Kirk Douglas, who had used his clout to get the movie made, and considers it his best film, as quoted in The Films of Kirk Douglas (1972) by Tony Thomas, p. 184

Cast

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