A Mexican peasant
boy rescues and raises a bull calf and is stirred into action when his beloved
pet is sold into a bullfighting program and trained to fight the country’s top
matador. Written anonymously by Dalton Trumbo while on the Hollywood Blacklist,
The Brave One is simplistic, often cloying
and overwrought and shot with an awful, faded Technicolor process though still
holds immense appeal and earned sentiment. The ending, with inter-cutting
between the bullfight and kid scurrying to procure a presidential pardon, is stirring.
*** ½ out of ****
