Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
‘Only the Brave’ pays tribute to firefighters
‘Only the Brave’s’ Jeff Bridges and Josh Brolin pay tribute to fallen firefighters
New movie starring Josh Brolin honors true story of those lost to wildfires in 2013.
A s wildfires devastate parts of California and the West, “Only the Brave” serves as a timely reminder of the courage of those who protect others and of the sacrifices their families make.
Now in theaters, the movie stars Josh Brolin and Jeff Bridges. The two, who previously worked together on Joel and Ethan Coen’s 2010 remake of “True Grit,” have a familiar ease with each other as they discuss the new film.
“Only the Brave” tells the true story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a group of firefighters specially trained in wildfire suppression.
During the Yarnell fire in 2013, the Prescott, Arizona-based crew lost 19 of its 20 members, including Chris MacKenzie and Billy Warneke of Hemet, when winds suddenly whipped up and changed direction. “Only the Brave” does not simply recount the tragedy — it paints a picture of the lives of the men who are willing to face such dangers.
“For these guys, it’s a different mentality. They are walking toward the fire while the rest of us run away from it,” says Brolin, who plays Eric Marsh, known as Supe (as in superintendent), the outfit’s boss.
Bridges plays Prescott Wildland Fire Chief Duane Steinbrink, who oversaw Marsh and his crew.
“These guys are so phenomenally brave,” observes the Oscar-winning actor, “but if you strip them down, they aren’t supermen. Some of them started as [screw-ups] but are into self-improving. They have imperfections like the rest of us and personal stories.”
Steinbrink was not part of the team fighting the Yarnell fire, and Brolin and Bridges say the chief was wary at first that a movie was being made about the tragedy.
“I knew it was a sensitive subject, because we’d have to deal with the family and friends of those who died,” Brolin says. “Particularly when it was first proposed. It was only the three-year anniversary when we were shooting it.”
Bridges and Brolin have played real-life people before and know that as an actor you can’t completely transform into the person you’re playing.
“When I met Eric’s parents, the first thing his mother said to me was, ‘Eric was a lot taller than you.’ So it’s tough,” Brolin says.
The actor says he told Marsh’s parents, “No matter what I do it will never be right, but I will represent him in the best way I can. I won’t be lazy about this. I’ll give it 110 percent, and I hope at the end of the day you feel that I’ve represented your son well.”
Eventually, Steinbrink came around to support the film, and he connected with Bridges over music.
“With Jeff, it’s always about music,” Brolin says with a laugh.
Bridges has been a longtime musician and songwriter, even winning his Oscar in “Crazy Heart” playing a country singer. Steinbrink has a cowboy band called the Rusty Pistols, and Bridges performs a song as Steinbrink in the film.
As is customary in action films like this, “Only the Brave” had a two-week boot camp — this one in the mountains outside Santa Fe, New Mexico — so the actors could train for their roles. Brolin says that was important because Steinbrink and former Granite Mountain Hotshots were involved in the training.
“It made us actors step forward to get it right,” he says.
Brolin already had some experience with firefighting. Nearly 30 years ago when he was shooting the Western series “The Young Riders” in Arizona, he struck up a friendship with Danny Martin, a wildland firefighter, and he started hanging out with him as a volunteer fireman.
“I liked the community,” Brolin says. “It wasn’t necessarily the firefighting or that I wanted to be in a really dangerous place. I came from a surf community that was very tight, and when I didn’t have that anymore, I missed it.”
Martin has remained a friend and knew Marsh, attending his funeral.
“So this movie is maybe my most personal,” Brolin says.
“Only the Brave” also stars Miles Teller, James Badge Dale and Taylor Kitsch as members of the Granite Mountain crew. Oscarwinner Jennifer Connelly plays Marsh’s wife, Amanda, while Andie MacDowell portrays Steinbrink’s wife, Marvel.
As they talk, Bridges and Brolin take the conversation into such topics as the late author Peter Matthiessen (“The Snow Leopard”) or emergent behavior. That is, when a number of entities form more complex behaviors in a collective, like flocks of birds or schools of fish that suddenly begin darting or diving.
Bridges sees a firefighting team acting in a similar manner, where “something is determined by what the person next to you is doing.” “An electrical connection,” Brolin adds. One thing the actors have in common is that their fathers were Hollywood stars — James Brolin and Lloyd Bridges — and their careers have also been marked by their collaborations with the Coen brothers.
Despite seven Oscar nominations, Bridges, 67, will forever be known as the laid-back “Dude” in 1998’s “The Big Lebowski.” Af-
ter some two decades in the business, Brolin’s role in the 2007 Oscar-winning “No Country for Old Men” proved a boost for his career.
When asked about the Coens, both actors light up.
“They are the masters,” Bridges says.
“It’s so unpretentious working with them,” adds Brolin, who was in last year’s “Hail, Caesar!”
The pair then launch into a discussion about the kinds of directors they like, a topic, considering how many films both have been in, about which they have plenty to say.
Bridges has had three films released in as many months: “The Only Living Boy in New York,” “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” and now “Only the Brave.”
Brolin has four more already in the can after “Only the Brave”: the indie “The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Deadpool 2” and “Soldado,” the sequel to “Sicario.”
“I don’t normally walk around looking like this,” the T-shirt-wearing Brolin says, indicating his bulkedup physique.
He’s hoping to film a TV series he’s created early next year.
Like all Californians, the actors have had to worry about wildfires. Bridges says his wife had to evacuate their Santa Barbara ranch by herself three times because of blazes when he was off making movies and also lost a Malibu house to fire.
“We just lost 400 acres on our Montana ranch to fires,” he says. “I was just up there giving my daughter away at her wedding, and there was smoke in the air. You know the world is getting crispier and crisper. Thank God, we have guys like the hotshots.”
“We’re going to need more of these people,” Brolin adds.
“Hopefully, the movie can be inspirational to everybody to engage the problem rather than throwing up their hands,” Bridges says.
“Hopefully, the movie can be inspirational to everybody to engage the problem rather than throwing up their hands.” — Jeff Bridges