A BRAVE FRONT
Josh Brolin’s latest is a heroic tale of courage amid terror
There are a few “really?” moments in the based-on-a-truestory movie Only the Brave. But I can vouch for at least one of them; helicopter water-bombers do in fact sometimes fill up at swimming pools. I saw it on YouTube.
Much of the movie dodges between heroic exploits and bureaucratic barriers. The always dependable Josh Brolin plays Eric Marsh, leader of a group of wilderness firefighters based in Prescott, Ariz. They’re a Type 2 handcrew, which basically
means they do a lot of grunt work and get very little respect, especially from the hotshot crews — that’s an official designation, by the way — who are on the front lines when wildfires break out.
So on the bureaucracy side we have Brolin’s crusade to have his talented team certified as hotshots.
On the action front we get to see the team on the job, which involves much spittin’ and mild cussin’ and male bondin’ — like a war movie but with more cowboy hats, and none of them worn ironically.
The New Guy — there’s always one, in fact or fiction — is Brendan “Donut” McDonough. He’s played by Miles Teller; if you like him, he’s also appearing this month in Thank You for Your Service as an Iraq war veteran. Donut is an addict with a record, but he’s desperate for steady work since learning he fathered a child.
Eric hires him, and now both must navigate the treacherous work-life balance of a forest firefighter. For Eric, this means a wife (Jennifer Connelly), back on their horse ranch who wants to start a family with him. He’s against the idea, but since he’s literally always putting out fires, they don’t have much time to discuss the matter.
There are a host of other men on the crew, but the only one who stood out for me was James Badge Dale as Jesse Steed, Eric’s sturdy second in command. Semi-spoiler alert: a tragedy will take at least one life, leaving you with a dull, I-hardly-knew-ya regret for the character(s) in question.
If you want the full story, you can read Sean Flynn’s 2013 GQ article No Exit, on which Ken Nolan and Eric Warren Singer based their screenplay.
But it’s probably better to go into this one cold.
Director Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy, Oblivion) may focus too closely on a handful of characters (including Jeff Bridges as Eric’s mentor) at the expense of the team, and Eric may spend one too many scenes talking back to the fire like a crazy person.
But on the whole, the film balances its moments of relative calm, domestic upset and raw terror.
Best of all, it explains the techniques of brush-clearing, controlled burns and “air attack” without turning it into a lesson.
There’s also a nice scene in which Eric tells Donut to enjoy the wilderness view while he can. After even a short time fighting fires, he says, you won’t see a verdant landscape of flora anymore; it’ll just look like fuel.
After nearly two and a quarter hours of Only the Brave, viewers may feel the same way.