3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Only the Brave

2017, Joseph Kosinski (Oblivion) -- Netflix

I thought I might as well fill in some Kosinski gaps, but not exactly sure why. Other than Oblivion (and probably Tron: Legacy but obviously not enough to generate rewatches), I cannot say his directorial stylings have captured me. Maybe now that he has broken from the mould created by his first two movies (visually impactful scifi), with things such as a Top Gun sequel, and this one, he can return to something I would more enjoy?

Anywayz, I am also not much of a biopic viewer, though I do have a good number in the "the hopper" (my downloads folder) unwatched and neglected. I also am not sure I knew this was a "based on a true story" movie, more thinking it was just going to be an exploration of something in the zeitgeist for the last decade or so -- wild fires and the men who fight them. But no, this is a sensitive, compassionate movie about the Granite Mountain Hotshots, who lost 19 members fighting the wildfire in Yarnell, Arizona in 2013. 

Hotshots are highly trained, front-line Wildland Firefighters. At least that is the term in America. They started as a "handcrew", basically a support team in fighting wildfires, preparing the land ahead of the fire to reduce potential danger. The movie is about their dream to become proper Hotshots, to tear the "trainee" sticker off their vehicle. They are led by Eric Marsh (Josh Brolin, Old Guy) and Jesse Steed (James Badge Dale, World War Z), and the movie depicts the add-on of a few new recruits, including addict Brendan McDonough (Miles Teller, The Gorge) who wants to clean up his act after his ex has his baby. Marsh takes a chance on him.

Much of the movie is about getting to know the guys, which in most movies can be tedious, but Kosinski gives us a no-nonsense setup. There's not a lot of gloss on these "good ol boys", Arizona being a land of cowboys and country music, but they all seem likeable enough, dispensing with the toxic masculinity for the most part. There was something solid about seeing their lives, without the movie taking turns into melodrama for the sake of excitement. 

But peppered into the movie are the fires they fight and the dangers presented. We keep on getting a wee bit of dramatic effect with visions of a bear made of fire rushing out of a massive landscape on fire. I expected it to be just that, a bit of CGI for the sake of metaphor, but it did end up connected to an experience Marsh had, something I imagine every wildfire firefighter experiences -- an animal fleeing the fire, its coat ablaze, into the darkness beyond. Marsh uses this memory to connect with and apologize to Brendan, that they are all fleeing something overwhelming in their lives, but the Hotshots turn around and step into it.

Again, going into the movie, not knowing the historical fact behind it, I was not expecting the deaths. But when the final act started, I saw the signs. It put a cold spot in my gut. I liked these guys, they were succeeding, they were overcoming odds, they all had so much to contribute. And in a flash, pun intended, the next thing we hear is "confirmed; 19". All the protective measures, all the training, all the experience could not protect them from the beast of a fire.

Brendan escapes death, having been put on reduced duty (assigned lookout at a critical point) due to his recovery from a snakebite. But the movie does not end with the deaths, as it also has to deal with him being a survivor when all his friends and mentors are dead, when all their families see him still alive. If the movie ended with so much death, it had to give us a bit of hope & life to close things out.

I was thinking, going into this movie, that I would close out my Kosinski collection, but honestly... not feeling  it. Sure, I enjoyed the movie, but not enough to deal with the dislike I have for the legacy of Top Gun. And nothing stands out for me in his directing that would compel me to watch it, nor the coming F1. Experiment over.

Note: Some really good supporting performances from Jeff Bridges (The Old Man) and Jennifer Connelly (Dark City).