Product Description

Jim Douglas (Gregory Peck) rides into town the night before the hanging of four outlaws. He's been on their trail, believing they raped and killed his wife. But hours before the execution, the four escape, taking a beautiful young woman hostage. Now it

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32690 in DVD
• Brand: Twentieth Century Fox
• Released on: 2005-05-24
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 98 minutes

Amazon.com
During his Twentieth Century Fox contract years, Gregory Peck looked to veteran director Henry King as something of a father figure and gave two of his best performances--in Twelve O'Clock High (1949) and The Gunfighter (1950)--for him. The Bravados (1958) isn't in that league, but it's a surprisingly tough film from the flabby CinemaScope years when the studio, director, and star all seemed to be floundering.

Peck plays Jim Douglass, a dark, haunted man who rides into a Southwest border town on the eve of a hanging. The bad men set for the drop (Stephen Boyd, Albert Salmi, Lee Van Cleef, Henry Silva) are the same ones he's been pursuing for the rape and murder of his wife. Douglass isn't happy about leaving it to the law to carry out his vengeance--and so there's a certain bleak satisfaction when the quartet busts out of jail, and he becomes the best hope for hunting them down.

Perversity wasn't King's long suit, so Philip Yordan's screenplay about a hero turning more sinister than the outlaws he's chasing never acquires the demonic power or ironic flair that an Anthony Mann, Fritz Lang, or Robert Aldrich might have lent it. Yet the very foursquareness of King's style and approach--and Peck's earnest efforts to fight through his accustomed stolidity to hit the necessary notes of desperation and finally shame--make for a fascination all their own. Joan Collins hovers handsomely on the periphery as an old friend ready to redeem Douglass, and Joe (Curly Joe-to-be) De Rita makes an uncredited appearance as the hangman. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews

Grim, compelling Western with excellent perfomances
THE BRAVADOS is a moody, brutal piece of work that in many ways predates the cynical moods of later Westerns of the 60s and 70s. Gregory Peck stars a man bent 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 witness the deed. The prisoners escape, 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 love! He is moody, sullen, full of anger and relentless in his pursuit of the villains. The brutality of the film may come 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 tale that makes THE BRAVADOS one of the most entertaining of 1950s Westerns.

A big story with a big impact
There's going to be a hanging in Rio Arriba, and Jim Douglass (Gregory Peck) has ridden a hundred miles to see it. You see, the four men - Stephen Boyd, Albert Salmi, Henry Silva and Lee van Cleef - about to be hanged committed a great crime that changed Douglass's life forever, and he's there to see justice carried out. When the condemned men escape, Douglass makes it his personal mission to deliver justice to the bad guys.
I love revenge movies, and the premise of Henry King's THE BRAVADOS holds great promise. One avenging angel - Gregory Peck - versus four scurvy killers. The best revenge movies go to the chase as soon as possible, and reveal character and motivation through the chase. Unfortunately THE BRAVADOS takes forever to kick into gear. The movie spends a good 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 beautiful 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 halt. THE BRAVADOS prove the rule that women and action movies don't mix.
On the trailer Gregory Peck tells us that THE BRAVADOS is `a big story with a big impact.' I'd call it a potentially big story that never gets on track. We learn a big surprise or two near the end, ones that should have taken our breath away. Instead they kind of limp over the line, somewhat naked in their improbability. Peck proves capable of doing justice to a revenge-ridden protagonist. It would have been fascinating, and probably would have resulted in a much better movie, if he could have spent more time exploring the dark side of his character.
The double sided dvd contains both full screen and widescreen versions of the movie. I watched the widescreen version, which was in very good condition. Extras include a trailer for the movie and a couple of very brief - under a minute per - period newsreels.

Great film if intact
An excellent film with an unusual and dramatic canyon background, which requires widescreen. Yet again, we have a great film listed without any data on aspect ratio. I don't know whether Amazon is becoming negligent or the studios are remaining devious, but there seems to be a recent epidemic of this and I would defer purchase until the disc details are made public.