Lonely are the Brave

Lonely Are the Brave (1962) is a black-and-white western from director David Miller, and you can watch online on iFILM. Kirk Douglas is Jack Burns, a cowboy still living by the code of the Old West while highways and telephone wires hum all around him.

When he learns an old friend has been thrown in jail, Jack gets himself arrested on purpose, planning to bust the two of them out from the inside. It goes sideways, and soon a lone rider and his mare are climbing into the mountains while jeeps, radios and a helicopter close in from below. Gena Rowlands appears alongside Douglas, with Walter Matthau as a weary sheriff and a young George Kennedy in support.

Dalton Trumbo adapted Edward Abbey's novel The Brave Cowboy, turning a manhunt into an elegy for a freedom that's vanishing. Douglas often named this his own favorite role. It's a slow, sad portrait of a man born too late. Stream Lonely Are the Brave (1962) online on iFILM.