‘Only the Brave’ puts you on front lines with Yarnell firefighters
When telling the story of real-life heroes, it’s easy to lapse into clichés.
What makes the terrific “Only the Brave” such a powerful movie is its abject rejection of them. The story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, the elite group of firefighters based in Prescott, easily could have been told abouta group of perfect, clean-cut heroes marching eagerly toward their destiny.
It wouldn’t have meant anything. That kind of depiction always rings hollow. Instead, director Joseph Kosinski, working from a script by Ken Nolan and Eric Warren Singer, offers a full portrait of sometimes-flawed men doing extraordinary things — an approach that makes
the film so moving, its effect so shattering.
Add in strong performances from Josh Brolin, Jennifer Connelly and Miles Teller, as well as cinematography
that takes the audience to the front lines of massive, unpredictable fires, and “Only the Brave” becomes not just a fitting tribute, but an outstanding movie.
Hotshots fight wildfires with fire — not with water, but with axes and chainsaws and controlled burns, cutting off the source of the fire’s fuel. It’s incredibly dangerous workthat requires an insane amount of courage backed by intensive training (or maybe vice versa).
Eric Marsh (Brolin) supervises a group of firefighters. (James Badge Dale and Taylor Kitsch are among the supporting players whose work stands out.) As the film begins — and for nearly half its running time — they aren’t hotshots. They comprise a lower-tier team working to gain the elite status, something no municipal squad has ever attained. But it’s clear through Marsh’s expertise and supervision (he’s called “Supe”) that he’s the man for the job.
In fact, at first it appears as if Marsh will indeed be portrayed as a clichéd tough guy, a leader-of-men type. He knows everything there is to know about fire and men. It’s to Kosinski’s credit — and Brolin’s — that we’ll come to see him more nuanced than that.
For one thing Marsh’s wife, Amanda (Connelly), while supportive of his career, refuses to simply remain in his shadow. She rescues horses and runs the ranch they share when he’s often gone; she’s an equal partner in the relationship, a role she’s willing to fight for.
Meanwhile, Brendan McDonough (Teller) is slouching around Prescott, getting high and getting a woman pregnant. In a last-ditch attempt to straighten out his life, he shows up looking for a spot on Marsh’s team. To the shock and dismay of everyone, Marsh gives him a chance. We’ll learn why, an evolution in that makes sense over time.
Marsh’s gamble on McDonough is especially risky, taking place when the team is finally close to getting certified. Marsh works with Duane Steinbrink (Jeff Bridges), the Prescott wildland division chief, to wrangle an evaluation.
While the film is not necessarily about what happens there, everything leads to the Yarnell Hill fire, a blaze seemingly so inconsequential when it began that Marsh tells his wife he’ll probably be home for dinner after he first gets the call. Fate, shifting winds and sometimesconfused decisions would change those plans. Kosinski does not flinch when it comes to depicting the tragedy — it’s never exploitative, but it is intense and heartbreaking. As word spreads Bridges, in one guttural sound, captures perfectly the sense of loss.
“Only the Brave” could have gone in any number of directions, many of them disappointing or shallow. Instead, Kosinski has told a messy, layered and ultimately heroic story in all its complexity. It’s not a documentary, by any means; the filmmakers have no particular responsibility to hew to the real story at every turn. Instead they seek a greater truth, trying to get at what makes someone with courage and strength and weakness and fear risk life and limb in the face of deadly danger — in other words, what makes a real hero.