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THE BRAVADOS is a touchy, brutal fraction of work that in many ways predates the cynical moods of later Westerns of the 60s and 70s. Gregory Peck stars a man hooked on revenge against the four men who raped and murdered his wife. The outlaws (Stephen Boyd, Albert Salmi, Henry Silva and Lee Van Cleef) are in jail in Rio Arriba waiting to be hung, and Peck is there to eye the deed. The prisoners dash, however, and Peck becomes an obssessed member of the posse sent to hunt them down. This is another fruitful collaboration between Peck and director Henry King, who also made THE GUNFIGHTER and TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH together. This is NOT the Gregory Peck we know and worship! He is testy, sulky, paunchy of exasperate and relentless in his pursuit of the villains. The brutality of the film may reach as a shock to viewers even now, but its harshness makes it a precursor to the Sergio Leone/CLint Eastwood films nearly a decade later. (The fact that Lee Van Cleef has a major supporting role makes the connection even stronger.) There is also a mean but logical twist in the yarn that makes THE BRAVADOS one of the most tantalizing of 1950s Westerns.
There’s going to be a hanging in Rio Arriba, and Jim Douglass (Gregory Peck) has ridden a hundred miles to contemplate it. You watch, the four men – Stephen Boyd, Albert Salmi, Henry Silva and Lee van Cleef – about to be hanged committed a substantial crime that changed Douglass’s life forever, and he’s there to leer justice carried out. When the condemned men hasten, Douglass makes it his personal mission to suppose justice to the dreadful guys.
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I admire revenge movies, and the premise of Henry King’s THE BRAVADOS holds vast promise. One avenging angel – Gregory Peck – versus four scurvy killers. The best revenge movies go to the crawl as soon as possible, and express character and motivation through the promenade. Unfortunately THE BRAVADOS takes forever to kick into gear. The movie spends a great half hour in Rio Arriba, an eternity in movie time, introducing characters and establishing motives. Some of the characters don’t really belong in the movie, either. It’s in Rio Arriba that we meet Josefa Velarde (Joan Collins), a aesthetic young Elizabeth Taylor type who met, loved and declined Douglass’s proposals a half-decade or so ago. Collins wasn’t a terrific actress, and some of her high emotion scenes in this one are painfully amateurish. Even a talented actress wouldn’t redeem the role, though. Every time Josefa appears the movie grinds to a conclude. THE BRAVADOS expose the rule that women and action movies don’t mix.
On the trailer Gregory Peck tells us that THE BRAVADOS is `a large legend with a immense impact.’ I’d call it a potentially tremendous fable that never gets on track. We learn a great surprise or two reach the slay, ones that should have taken our breath away. Instead they kind of limp over the line, somewhat naked in their improbability. Peck proves noble of doing justice to a revenge-ridden protagonist. It would have been intriguing, and probably would have resulted in a noteworthy better movie, if he could have spent more time exploring the gloomy side of his character.
The double sided dvd contains both pudgy conceal and widescreen versions of the movie. I watched the widescreen version, which was in very agreeable condition. Extras include a trailer for the movie and a couple of very brief – under a shrimp per – period newsreels.