The Bravados (1958) or, Complications of Revenge!

11/22/2013

The Bravados (1958) or, Complications of Revenge!

♥♥♥♥

A spectacularly colorful poster alluding to illicit gang on woman action and macho revenge for Henry King's The Bravados

Gregory Peck (The Omen (1976)) is the avenging Jim Douglas, whose wife has been raped and killed. SPOILER He seeks out a gang of four men and kills three of them, before he finds out that they were not the ones responsible for his tragedy.

The Bravados is written by Philip Yordan (Brigham (1977)), adapting the same-titled 1957 novel by Frank O'Rourke (A Mule for the Marquesa (1964)), and directed by Henry King (Should a Wife Forgive? (1915)).

The film is a solid revenge-themed western drama that is a joy to dream oneself away in for its 98 minutes. Because the simple justice served turns out to be against the wrong men, The Bravados also becomes a tale of Christianity and morals. And that doesn't make it any worse.
Lee Van Cleef (For a Few Dollars More (1965)) can be seen in an early supporting role; and Joan Collins (Dynasty (1981-89)) is the woman with a very silly cowboy-hat.
Darkness is incorporated deftly into the beautiful images of Bravados, (cinematography by Leon Shamroy (Cleopatra (1963))), in line with its dark subject matter.

Peck has stated that the film was written as an attack on McCarthyism, which he was very much opposed to. The Communist 'witch-hunt' spearheaded by Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy had largely ended by '58, (McCarthy died in '57), but the topic was still red-hot.
Peck decided to become a cowboy himself while working on Bravados, and he bought a ranch near Santa Barbara stocked with 600 heads of prize cattle.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 2.2-4.4 mil. $ (North America only, different reports)
= Uncertain but likely a big hit (projected return of 5 times the cost)

[The Bravados was released 25 June (New York) and runs 98 minutes. Shooting took place around February 1958 in Mexico. If made on a realistic 1 mil. $ budget and projecting a 5 mil. $ final world gross, the film would rank as a big hit. It won a National Board of Review award. King returned with This Earth Is Mine (1959). Peck returned in The Big Country (1958). 6.3k+ IMDb users have given The Bravados a 7.00/10 average rating.]

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11/22/2013

The Bravados (1958) or, Complications of Revenge!

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