Only the Brave movie analysis

THE MANHOOD OF FIRE

Only the Brave movie has proven to be surprisingly good at the cinematic narration of our natural need for cooperation with others, for praise and respect. For historical matters, this basic human instinct has evolved as the reflection of the thousands of generations of our ancestors, who lived within tribes. A discouraging perspective to find oneself out of the group or, even worse, to be hounded for thousands of years was no less than the death penalty for any individual. ‘The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. ’ These GoT words have so much in common with the characters of a movie devoted to the forest firefighters in Arizona. 

Brendan McDonough, one of the two main characters of the story, has driven himself to the state of a full-fledged drug-addicted fellow and a social black sheep, a non-person. He wastes his life on a couch side by side with a so-called friend, no good for anything except the same pathetic existence. He is beaten up and kicked out of the bar, a modern analog to a merely discriminatory tribal fire. Brendan’s mother disavows her socially lost son as the last line in her exhausted and desperate struggle. The young man is deprived of the opportunity to take any part in raising his own still-unborn child. The darkest hour is just before the sunset, and Brendan himself finalizes his exclusion, finding himself in jail. The doom perspective is to end a life on the margins of society. 

The movie leaves the matter of taking a chance, particularly as the firefighter opens, as the only thing in common goes no further than the medical courses in an almost forgotten past. At the very moment, he is one step from being turned out of doors. Eric Marsh (Josh Brolin) brings a social castaway into his view and gives Brendan a chance to become a part of something much bigger than he is now, as an alternative to death. The story narrates the first acquaintance with the firefighters’ squad through the contrast prism between Brendan’s look and behavior on the one hand and the impressive image of the community within the training base. The squadron is portrayed in line with the image of the American army men. The hard rock sounds, twenty bare-chested men do their lifting workout and throw horseshoes, as well as express pure confidence and male strength. The movie wastes no time in portraying the firefighter squad as a group of men, consolidated with discipline in a mutual goal to save lives. The subordinate here is beyond a joke.

The pure wish or self-positive image is not enough here, and every new man is to be tested personally by employing the arguments and insightful feelings of Eric Marsh. As a matter of professional predictions dealing with wildland fires, the character of Josh Brolin extends this intuitive approach to the interviews with the apprentice. He gives Brendan both the opportunity to earn some money for the product packages as well as a chance to leave the drugs behind and become a part of society once again. Historically, those who succeed in social skills obtain the privilege of praise for safety and access to resources. The first actual incarnation of these time-honored trues in a movie is depicted in a scene first with the running shoes and then with a bottle of water. The very fact that Brendan has not given up and pulled through his sad state to the end of the running route, being a step from physical death, grants him the first spark of respect in the opinion of trained firefighters. 

‘TO BE, RATHER THAN TO SEEM’, an English analog of the Latin wisehood, voiced by Eric Marsh, is no less than the first core value of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, now accessible for Brendan McDonough. The training, fighting wildfires, and hovering the partner halfway is not an option. Only the Brave movie portrays its characters as men, purely devoted to their jobs and the brotherhood of fire. ‘YOU DON’T BRING IN THE FAMILY’ with the additional ‘You hear me?’ is the second crucial value of the squad, which was put in remembrance of humped-out Mac. These brave men may miss the family days for weeks, yet it’s no option for them to let someone harm their loved ones, even in a verbal form. The modern analogy to prehistoric values makes the firefighters the breadwinners, who live within the outer world and fight with the forces of nature, at a time when the wives and children manage the daily routine in Prescott, Arizona. One of the night scenes depicts the guys watching the burning forest as if they are a tribe around the campfire.

On the spur of the moment, Brendan steadily fulfills our deepest human need—to become a part of a group. This primal mechanism of dealing with the environment now greatly influences his behavior and habits. Breandan now follows the model of the behavior of the people who have become his environment, and he instills his own life with the system of values, social standards, and expectations. The once-addicted man is known as surrounded by men who do not use drugs and have no problems with the law, who devote themselves to the job and do their best to spend every free minute with their family. Our environment generally forms our behavior, and Brendan finds himself in the best possible world for him. Eric and Amanda support each other once they succeed in rejecting their addiction (drugs or alcohol).  Each of the two partners lives through the prism of an example of the beloved person. Amanda respects Eric’s devotion to his job, yet devastating to their relations. Eric admires his wife for her work with the farm and horses. Our family forms an invisible system of values, which we are motivated to follow.  

One of the best practices for getting into a state of some desired future and habits is to keep close to people who share the same values. Brendan finds a will to live through the chance to take part in the life of his daughter and to become a better version of the father he had. The goals are easy to achieve if we have living examples before our eyes, and Brendan finds the pattern in some of his colleagues. Care for your mate and family is the core value of this very group of people, which forces Brendan to adopt his new image in the future. His desires and motivations are praised by other guys, who now assist him, including the semi-comic scenes with a baby and a thermometer. The men, who have no fear of fighting the wildfires, are frustrated with the situation, and Brendan admits to experiencing the deepest fear in his life.

The GRANITE MOUNTAIN HOTSHOTS of Prescott is portrayed as a close society beyond the fact that only a few have the skills and match the tough requirements. The movie does its best in reinventing the image of the American westerns and the midlands, far from politics and megapolises. Twenty men are a part of these natural wildlands with hundreds of acres of ‘fuel’ woods of Arizona. The story deepens into the inner team spirit and belonging at multiple levels. For another thing, we speak about the force of nature in its pure sense and the denial of the very thought to stand with the loss of even one college. On the upper level of the professional ladder, Eric conflicts with his authority, failing to compromise his principles and values. The squad competes with other groups to become a hotshot crew with the prerogative to take action as one sees fit. The lower invisible level barriers the newcomers, who have to go out of their way to become a part of the squad.          

ADDICTED, FAMILY MEN AND NATIONAL HEROES

One of the main, if not the most crucial, conflicts works out between the lines of Brendan’s attempt to ask Eric for assistance in his desired transfer to another firefighter squad. Despite the obvious unpleasant surface of this dialogue, portrayed with emotions and Eric’s anxiety, his sharp overreaction involves a deep social meaning. Marsh himself is deeply aware of the role that both the squad and his marriage to Amanda have played in getting him out of his addiction. In a wider sense, being a part of this environment even after achieving his primary goal (becoming a father to his daughter) is of vital importance for Brendan to maintain this personal success. The fact remains that it was no less than friendship and social environment to form this new identity of a family man for the once-addicted, dissocial guy. His mentor Eric both subconsciously and deliberately anticipates that the withdrawal from the squad may result in dramatic consequences. Eric experiences a painful understanding that the potential loss of Amanda, his job, or both will turn him into a dead man. In this manner, he projects his fears onto Brendan, who now takes Eric in a smaller sense than a mentor.

The emotional confrontation between Eric and his wife Amanda is portrayed using contradictions and set-offs, which serve well for raising the emotions, yet do not have much in common with the real world.  Eric demonstrates that his ‘either-or’ mantra, either an addicted dissocial or a respected man, is not going to work 100%. Amanda is devastated and frustrated with the thought that her husband has successfully switched one addiction (drugs or alcohol) to another (fighting the wildfires). Eric is still a constant member of the encouragement group. Marsh draws his line between the picturesque views of Arizona and a ‘fuel’—another ‘either-or’, either nature or burning acres of the land. Several crucial scenes of the movie bring another conflict to the surface—either JOB or FAMILY. Either DUTIES or WEEKENDS at home. Eric makes his dogmatic statement to Brendan with either being a part of the squad or death, without any intermediary scenario for a young man or himself. It remains the case that real life can and should not be taken as black-and-white, and the ‘Only the Brave’ movie points us toward natural symbiosis.

Eric may be equally successful in visiting the support group for addicted people and be held in respect by his men, a major, and the people of Prescott. Quarrel with his wife in the evening and make his way to fight a new wildfire the next morning. As the afterword closing credits of the movie reveal, Brendan did a first-rate job in beating his predilections and has become a faithful husband and father to his daughter. The members of the Hotshots squad have been out of their homes for days and weeks, yet the grand celebration reveals an undoubted commitment to their families and friends. Rugged firefighters are free to pedicure with a child, uncork the beer bottles with a chainsaw, and sing within a musical band. Mac (MacKenzie) has something in his heart to save the homes of people, yet he finds himself almost homeless after a failed affair with a tattooed girl, who cheated on him. He finds a new home near a friend, whom he has recently hated as an addicted stranger.  The firefighters create a defensive fire barrier to save the 2000-year-old juniper and are still held as heroes after being bitten by a rattlesnake. Eric faces the burning woods and lands and is frustrated to have a child, his beloved wife, while Amanda rules the farm. ‘To be rather than to seem’.        

A DISASTER MOVIE AND UNSUNG CRAFT

Do not do the work as work; perform it like a craft. As we have already stated, the members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots squad fully commit themselves to their job. Broadly speaking, ‘Only the Brave’ movie is more than a story of twenty men from the wildlands of Arizona. The story has become a symphonic ode to a profession that was recently unknown to the majority of people, who now find inspiration in this movie. The story is a powerful motivator to go beyond the movie and do the homework on firefighting with the wildfires.  It shifts the focus of the audience’s attention to the process, from dealing with the fires, preferentially employing air transport and tons of water, to the dozens of men, who are obsessed with doing their work in the most efficient way possible. The bare fact that the movie is based on real life, and indeed the story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, assigns the going-on with an additional human element and intensifies our involvement as viewers. The personal maps are to be added with the markings and routes around Prescott, Arizona, and the idea of reading the book of Brendan McDonough becomes relevant.  These heroes did not manage vlogs on YouTube; rather, they indeed used to make the world a better place. 

There is no fresh news in a way that the majority of disaster movies tell their story through the perspective of a few characters with some dramatic events as the background. For all that, the movie by Joseph Kosinski performs a more delicate and between-the-lines work with cinematic materia. Our heroes save lives and prevent catastrophic damage; they protect the national monuments. While the wildfires do not have much to say in the same disaster line as the alien invasion or climate change, the movie breaks the genre routine. The visual part of the scenes is too good to be true, and you instinctively yearn for an affirmation that ‘no tree was harmed’.  In all consciousness that the filming process posed no hazard to the lives of the crew and actors, and the panoramic shots were digitized in the post, this understanding, no matter what, affects our emotional background. The final Yarnell Hill fire comes to be one of the most impressive and eye-popping scenes in the disaster movies of the last decades.