A down-on-his-luck American Indian recently released from jail is offered the chance to "star" as the victim of a snuff film, the resulting pay of which could greatly help his poverty stricken family.
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Reviews
To me, this movie is perfection.
Sorry, this movie sucks
Excellent but underrated film
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Continuing my plan to watch every Johnny Depp movie in order, I come to his first, and to date, only directorial effort The Brave (1997)An unemployed alcoholic Native American Indian (Depp) lives on a trailer park with his wife and two children. Convinced that he has nothing to offer this world, he agrees to be tortured to death in a snuff movie in return for $50,000. He is given one week before he must make the movie. Some of Depp's work is too sad or strange to watch often, but every movie in his unique filmography (at least at this point) deserves to be seen at least once. I don't think this is an easy watch, the first line of dialogue is not spoken until ten minutes into the film. It's a slow mover, and truthfully it could have lost about 30 minutes and lost none of the impact. Depp is really good here. No surprise as he was always great. Thankfully Brando's screen time is limited and Luis Guzmàn pops up too.I can see why some people will not like it, and complain nothing happens. You will probably not enjoy it. But it will certainly stay with you!! Depp was so upset at negative reviews by American critics attending an otherwise successful screening at the Cannes Film Festival. He refused to release the film in the United States.
As an artist Johnny Depp has long been known for having occasionally quirky film projects, some have gotten good critical acclaim and some have even gained great public acclaim, the Pirates Of The Caribbean series have had enormous commercial success. But with The Brave he came up a cropper as the film comes across as terribly self indulgent.It was an interesting idea, a man so desperate and feeling so useless and alienated from society that the best thing he can do for himself is offer his body for sacrifice. Now there isn't an insurance company in the world who would finance something like what Depp has in mind. He needs some up front money.Which comes in the large form of Marlon Brando who in a 15 minute scene with Depp offers $50,000.00 in cash to be the victim in a snuff film. Now that's something that requires a lot of up front money.After which Depp starts to spread it around among friends and family and the best part of the film is his re-creation of a miniature Disneyland type park in the trailer park where his American Indian family reside. One of his relatives Luis Guzman suspects that Depp's new found largess comes from some criminal activity. Let's just say that Guzman forces many issues.The setting of the American Indian reservation was a good choice as the poverty in many of those reservations is a well documented fact. No place better than that could show desperation and lack of options. Depp has a minor criminal record. I've seen how that has locked people out from jobs who aren't Indians.Sad to say that Johnny Depp overplayed this film though. It goes down in his work legacy as a noble experiment that sadly misfired.
I was completely blown away by this movie.Johnny Depp is glorious as Raphael, what an outstanding movie. it left me heartbroken and shattered. Brilliant movie that needed several more viewings, once was not enough to absorb all that is there to be comprehended. There is a lot to absorb in this movie, Johnny co-wrote the script and also Directed it, if he decides to change from an actor and decides to continue as a Director there is not way he wouldn't succeed. I hadn't heard of this movie, I discovered it when I researched a list of movies he had made it. I am do pleased that I bought it knowing nothing about it. It certainly isn't a light and fluffy movie, but, well worth watching.
A down-on-his-luck American Indian (Johnny Depp) recently released from jail is offered the chance to "star" as the victim of a snuff film...I should first say that I watched the Korean important version, which has over 20 minutes cut from the full version. I am unclear how much difference this makes, but it does seem to create a minor continuity problem here or there. I would gladly watch it again in the full version just to see what I missed.This film captured the 1990s. The darkness, the nihilism. Surely not everyone approached the 90s this way, but industrial music was at its peak, and films like "Seven" and the works of Tim Burton were at the forefront of popular culture...Casting Johnny Depp as an Indian was debatable, of course, as he only vaguely looks the part. But he does bring a certain star power to the film that probably gets it noticed by more people this way. And if Marlon Brando could be Mexican in "Viva Zapata", why can Depp not be Indian here? (In fairness, his great-grandmother was Cherokee, so it is not completely a fabrication... just mostly.)