SYNOPSICS
The Brave One (1956) is a English,Spanish movie. Irving Rapper has directed this movie. Michel Ray,Rodolfo Hoyos Jr.,Elsa Cárdenas,Carlos Navarro are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1956. The Brave One (1956) is considered one of the best Drama,Family movie in India and around the world.
The Brave One is a bull named Gitano (or Gypsy). A Mexican boy Michael Ray "adopts" Gitano after saving the animal's life during a storm. The friendship between bull and boy is threatened when Gitano's legal owners claim the animal and ship it off to the bullring. Moved by the boy's plight, the President of Mexico signs a "pardon" for Gitano - but not soon enough to prevent the bull's appearance at the Plaze de Mexico at Mexico City, where he faces top matador Fermin Rivera. Based on a true incident, the film earned a "best story" Academy Award for one Robert Rich - who, much to the embarrassment of the Academy (and the delight of civil libertarians) turned out to be blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo.
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The Brave One (1956) Reviews
A delight in sight and sound...
"The Brave One" is about a peasant boy who runs away to Mexico City to save his brave bull, Gitano... Irving Rapper directed the beautiful simple story of Leonardo and his attachment to his pet bull with understanding... "The Brave One" has an authentic look in the bullring, on ranches and in Mexican streets... "The Brave One" has humor: When Gitano, becoming a remarkable bull with a fine physical construction, proves his spirit to Carlos Navarro's red car... "The Brave One" has strange attachment: The charge of the noble bull against a ferocious jaguar to protect Leonardo's life... "The Brave One" has determination: In front of the Monument of Mexican President Benito Juarez, the persisting and exhausted boy got a great idea to go and meet the President, the only authority that could save his bull... "The Brave One" has bravery: Gitano offered to the public a magnificent spectacle of skill, grace and courage... "The Brave One" has suspense: When the 'moment of truth' is at hand, the little Leonardo, all anguished, couldn't see Gitano in front of his 'Hour of Truth.' "The Brave One" has a terrific climax: Clamorous screams from the public are heard stronger and stronger... Handkerchiefs are moving in the air with a petition to the president of the bullring... The film covers many highlights as the weaning and branding of the bulls and how they are tested in the open fields; la Fiesta Brava filling resplendently in the gold and pink brocades of Mexico, mixing with the elegance of swirling capes; the father of Leonardo (Rodolfo Hoyos) trying to make Leonardo understand that the pet bull is born to die in the ringthe reason of his life... With a tremendous score and an outstanding color photography of exceptional beauty, Jack Cardiff realized the most beautiful and expressive scenery of the Mexican landscapes... His movie had the flavor of the bullfight game and its devotees and hangers-on... As a little boy, I loved everything about this passionate film superbly directed and acted... Such emotion as I remember seeing it for the first time with my dear parents and brothers a long time ago in Beirut, Lebanon...
Inspiring story of a boy and a bull
This has been one of my ten favorite films of all time. I showed a copy of it to the children of friends in Guadalajara. None of the children had ever seen or heard of it. They all loved it, and cheered with joy. The children asked if they could invite all their friends in for another showing of "The Brave One," so, soon, the entire room was full. Standing room only. Adults and kids alike saw the faith, hope and inspiration in this outstanding movie. Some teachers show the film in classes studying other cultures, and it always goes over very big, as it should. No remake can ever come close to this version..
The Shield of Love
The Brave One was beautifully crafted in 1957 by blacklisted author Robert Rich and immediately established itself as a superb classic. The tale is of a small Mexican boy and his enduring love for his courageous pet bull. Set in Mexico, a boy discovers a cow has been killed after delivering and orphaning a male offspring. Naming the calf Gitano, The boy become it's friend and caretaker. Realizing the boy's loneliness, the parents encourage the bond, but fail to emphasis the eventual fate of the animal. Throughout the Calf's life the boy's love inexorably growing unaware of his parent's financial responsibility to the bull's true owner. By the time the animal has grown to market size and becomes a cash commodity, the boy's parents are torn between their son's love and their duty to the Patrone. Using subterfuge, the parents separate the two. Returning from a fool's errand, the boy discovers his best friend and lifetime companion has been sold for the purpose of bull fighting and its eventual destruction. Despite the frantic warnings of his parents that it's too late to save the animal, the small boy adroitly played by Michel Rey, sets off to save his courageous friend from certain death. The boy visits everyone from the Patrone to the Governnor of Mexico in a vain attempt to alter the fate of his pet. The film culminates with the boy's magnificent bravery before an arena filled with spectators. True love for any animal has never had a more poignant test of love and courage. For any viewer with a human heart, this tear-wrenching film will leave you joyfully weeping. ****
The film I loved when I was a kid.
I first saw THE BRAVE ONE in 1957 during its second run at the Johnston Theatre in Rhode Island when I was fifteen years old. It was for me a captivating story about a Mexican boy who has a pet bull, Gitano. He falls so in love with it that the bull-farm owner grants it to him as a personal pet. We have had many boy-loves-dog films. Why not a boy-loves-bull movie? Everything goes blissfully well for the pre-adolescent taurophile until the owner's death, when the farm changes hands, and there is no record of of the special privilege. The bull is sent off to a Mexico City bull ring and our young hero, Leonardo, pursues his beloved in an attempt to save it from possible death. He even has the good fortune to have an audience with the president of Mexico, who grants the pet a special favor. Too late, unfortunately, for the beast is released into the ring. But this "brave one" resists his picadores and torero Fermin Rivera so strenuously that the spectators demand an "indulto" or reprieve from death, and he is granted one in the exciting final scene. Bull and boy exit the ring together in bliss. This is actually great family entertainment. The film has a lot going for it: a simple but captivating story, luscious CinemaScope Technicolor photography by brilliant British cinematographer Jack Cardiff, a wonderful and winning musical score by Victor Young (I once went all over creation looking for an LP copy of the sound track. I still have it and it is a collector's item.) The young hero Leonardo was played by gifted British child actor Michel Ray, who was so effective in other films as well like THE DIVIDED HEART, FLOOD TIDE, THE TIN STAR, and even in a stint as Peter O'Toole's young Arab lover in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. I have his autographed photo. Does anyone know what became of Michel Ray as an adult? I would like to know. This film, when I was an adolescent, was one of my guilty pleasures, and I pursued it all over creation as Leonardo pursued Gitano. I do not have quite the same feelings for it now, but I certainly remember it with tender fondness.
The Brave Gitano
An excellent picture The Brave One has come down in history as an example of the incredible stupidity and hypocrisy of the blacklist. With Dalton Trumbo's struggle now a subject of a major motion picture a new and hopefully more enlightened audience can appreciate this wonderful film. I'll leave it to the professional communist hunters to sniff out any left wing Marxist propaganda in The Brave One. All I saw is a touching film from RKO set in Mexico with no major or even minor American stars in it about a young boy who wants to save his beloved pet, a bull named Gitano who is raised as a fighting bull which means he gets one appearance only in the arena to die at the hands of a matador. Young Michel Ray is the boy Miguel and his father is Mexican film star Rodolfo Hoyos who did a few film appearances north of the Mexican border. Young Ray is so determined to save his bull from slaughter he goes to none other than the President of Mexico to gain pardon for his bull. After that it's a tense race against time played against the background of Gitano giving his best against one of Mexico's best matadors. The bullfight scenes are outstanding and outstandingly photographed. But a lot of this film is carried on the performance of Michel Ray who comes over so much like a real kid not just another kid actor. One of the best performances by a juvenile ever in the history of motion pictures and sad he did not receive any recognition for same. I found it ironical that it was RKO on its last legs as a studio that produced this film. Just a couple of years earlier it was owned by Howard Hughes who got tired of it and gave it up to die a lingering death. Had Hughes still been in charge no way would The Brave One been done at his studio even with a pseudonym for a blacklisted writer. That's how most people know The Brave One today when a later embarrassed Academy gave an Oscar to "Robert Rich" for Best Original Screenplay. It was Dalton Trumbo one of the infamous Hollywood 10 who wrote it, but it was after the award was given that that fact was discovered. That kind of hypocrisy exposed could have also had a large part in giving the blacklist an ignominious death. Maybe as much as Trumbo being hired openly to write the screenplay for Spartacus. Shame on the studio bosses who while they supported getting these subversives out of Hollywood they also did not want to lose their talents either. With Trumbo's own life now a motion picture maybe his work will get more critical review and The Brave One should be a standout there.