Only the Brave

Directed By: Joseph KosinskiWritten By: Ken Nolwan and Eric Warren Singer (based on the GQ article by Sean Flynn)Starring: Josh Brolin, Miles Teller, Jeff Bridges, Taylor Kitsch, Jennifer Connelly

There are two undeniable

truths which Joseph Kosinski’s biographical drama Only the Brave captures: one being just how terrifying and devastating wildfires are, the other, following rather logically, being the immense courage required from those who must front those fires. Those two notions may seem painfully self-evident, but cinema, with its unique capacity for visceral evocation and worldbuilding, can illustrate those ideas with a fullness which eludes so many other artforms. What Kosinski’s film lacks in finer textures of character, it makes up for in that respect.

Only the Brave tells the true story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, an elite twenty-man crew based in Arizona, dedicated to battling wildfires via teamwork and ruthless work-ethic. It traces their growth as a team; their back-slapping, bro-mancing banter; their rigorous training and dedication; their sporadic passages of introspection; all culminating in an ill-fated fight against the Yarnell Hill Fire in June of 2013.

The hotshots are a kind of special forces equivalent for their field, delving into the heart of the threat and literally fighting fire with fire: constructing a line of burnt off flora that a blaze can’t cross— an unenviable task founded upon courage, met by the men in question with an almost crazed enthusiasm and barefaced pride.

In bringing the Granite Mountain Hotshots to the screen, and celebrating their bravery, Ken Nolan and Eric Warren Singer’s screenplay can’t help but refer to archetypes. Josh Brolin plays the leader, Eric “Supe” Marsh, the brilliant, no-nonsense, married-to-his-job-type, hellbent on whipping his team into the first municipal crew to achieve hotshot status; inevitably, he does. Under his wing Supe takes in Brendan “Donut” McDonough (Miles Teller), a dead-beat stoner with a heart of gold, searching for redemption following the birth of his first child. Taylor Kitsch plays the group’s head jock, Chris MacKenzie, initial bully to outsider Brendan, but one quick to let go of his scepticism when he takes the time to properly know him. Jeff Bridges plays Duane, a grizzled veteran of the job who serves as something of an uncle figure to Supe. Jennifer Connelly is straddled with the obligatory, worried-wife-stuck-at-home role, finding herself consigned to largely waiting anxiously by the phone as her husband (Supe), embarks upon the film’s real narrative—an unfortunate role which has befallen the talented likes of Kate Hudson in Deepwater Horizon, Laura Linney in Sully, and Keira Knightely in Everest in recent times.

To Kosinski’s credit, we spend more time with Only the Brave’s characters than we have might have expected from this type of movie: the biographical action drama which has become a signature of Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg also in recent times.

Where Peter Berg’s hit-the-ground-running freneticism can occasionally undermine his narrative’s humanity however, Kosinski permits his subjects more breathing space, allowing his film time to slowly chip away at Brolin’s stolid veneer, allowing Brendan’s irrepressible goodness to materialise, allowing Chris and Brendan’s arising friendship to achieve authenticity, allowing the underlining theme of parenthood to take root. Brolin and Connelly’s relationship is granted a healthy amount of screen time too, before the latter slips into her reduced role—although Kosinski and co do little more to render the affection between the two than have them kiss and say I love you on a loop.

What humanity Only the Brave bears is imbued upon the film chiefly by its able cast, Josh Brolin and Miles Teller leading the charge with their stubborn, hard-as-nails fatherliness, and vulnerable, shaggy dog sympathy respectively. Such performances can only elevate the characterisation so far however, grounding the narrative without mustering the soul-punching affect the film’s real-life subjects deserve when tragedy eventually strikes, nor the affect Kosinski so clearly craves.

But the truths which don’t elude Only the Brave’s grasp are more fundamental and sweeping, the film ultimately serving as a sincere, touching ode to the Granite Mountain Hotshots’ collective bravery, rather than an ode of a more intimate kind.

As an action drama, designed to bring us into the literal line of fire and lend perspective to the bravura of these men, Only the Brave charges forth with a no-fuss, steely-eyed pragmatism befitting of its characters.

It’s in building intensity, and bringing the terrifying threats faced by the crew to life, in which Kosinski is most at home, offering a visceral, immersive experience which whips this whirlwind world into sharp focus. Similarly, Nolan and Singer’s screenplay is most at home when it too is focussed on the firefighting, fastidiously detailing the tasks and minutia of the hotshot practise. It’s a quality demonstrative of the film’s noble intentions: Only the Brave isn’t interested in cheap tugs of the heartstrings, but rather in offering a snapshot of what these men did, how they did it, and what they selflessly risked along the way– an often captivating snapshot, but one acquired at the expense of fully rendered characters.

Tasteful, thoughtfully crafted, and undeniably powerful in passages, Only the Brave serves as an honorable tribute to its real-life subjects, even if it doesn’t fully realise their humanity.    

Rating:

3/4