Only the Brave Review

"Only the Brave" was released back on October 20, the weekend where there were five new wide releases, including "Geostorm," "Boo 2! A Madea Halloween," "The Snowman" and "Same Kind of Different as Me" in addition to "Only the Brave." Of those five, I elected to see "Geostorm," not because I thought it would be good, but I was curious as to how bad it was. Obviously the movie I should've seen was "Only the Brave." And I knew that going into the weekend. I don't know why it took me nearly three weeks to see it. But oh well. Life happens and life moves forward. So here I am with a slightly late review, but this is still in theaters right now and it didn't make much at the box office compared to what it deserved, so if you're like me and you didn't see it opening weekend, then there is still a chance for you to head over to the theaters. If you like disaster movies, then this is definitely one to see. And by disaster movies in this instance, I'm meaning real life disaster movies such as "Deepwater Horizon" or "Everest." The type of disaster movies that tell the story of a horrific event by diving into the lives of the people who experienced that event. Not the fictional "Geostorm" crap made solely to show off some fancy special effects, Michael Bay style.

I don't really know how much I want to say about this event in this review. This is a movie about the Granite Mountain Hotshots from Prescott, Arizona and their journey fighting fires a few years back, somewhere in the time frame of 2008 to 2013. I went in knowing exactly what happened to them because I got curious when the movie started being advertised heavily. Knowing the end from the beginning didn't ruin my experience. In fact, I'd say it enhanced it. But in case you have no idea what these men and their families went through, I will be mum about the details this movie is leading up to. I'll just say that this is a movie that dives into the everyday lives of firefighters, specifically a team that is working their hardest to become Hotshots, which, if I have my firefighter terminology from the movie correct, are the group of firefighters fighting at the base of the wildfires who work on controlling the wildfires so that they don't burn major structures or go into the small towns. Sometimes that's easier said than done because nature is an unforgiving beast that is no respecter of persons when its on is mad rampage as we've learned rather well in 2017 with all the hurricanes, earthquakes and wildfires that have devastated our world.

The biggest thing that I really loved about this movie is that it gave me a deep appreciation of the firefighters working tirelessly around the globe. These are the group of people that are too often the unsung heroes of our country. I mean, how often to you thank the firefighters for saving countless lives every year or even think of the firefighters? I know I often take them for granted, and I'm sure I'm not the only person on earth who has done so. But they really are national heroes worthy of a ton of praise. This movie does a great job of reminding you of that. It does so by diving deep into the everyday lives of this specific group, showing all the sacrifices they have to make to protect the country. I'm sure it's really hard for the families of the firefighters during fire season due to how often they are gone. There's a lot of personal struggles on both sides in deciding if this is really worth it. How do the wives of these men feel when they are gone so often? They want their husbands around and it's hard living life with them always on the war path against these fires. And what about the kids who never get to see their dads? It's a tough life and a rough balancing act. But then you see them successfully stopping a fire from doing major damage and see that it's all worth it.

Specifically we dive into the lives of two of the crew members, Josh Brolin as the chief of the group and Miles Teller as a brand new recruit. Brolin's been the guy whose done this for many years and he pulls off this role really well. You see him dressed in uniform, leading his crew of people and it just seems like he's been doing this for years and knows exactly what he's doing. The movie also spends a lot of time with him and his wife, played by Jennifer Connelly. This is where we get the family perspective as Connelly has to deal with her husband being gone all the time, especially once they get the promotion as Hotshots. She honestly does a great job of supporting him, fully realizing all the good that he's doing in the world. But oftentimes her human side comes out and you can feel the pain of her not getting to see her husband as much as she wants as she feels his life is 90 percent devoted to fighting the fires and only 10 percent devoted to her. The two of them have amazing on-screen chemistry with each other, which is what makes this relationship and the struggles work. They'll fight for a bit and you feel the tension, but then they'll make up and apologize to each other, which then gives you all the happy feel goods and you really hope they live happily ever after.

On the flip side, we have Miles Teller who is completely unqualified to join this group. He's a druggie and a complete mess. He's not in proper physical shape and you wonder how and why Josh Brolin lets him on the team. Miles Teller joins because he learns that his girlfriend, or ex-girlfriend, is pregnant and when she has their child, he has an honest desire to change his life around so that he can support them. Thus he practically begs Josh Brolin to let him on the team, because this is the training he did when he had is life at least somewhat in order. Turns out Brolin lets him on because he sees a lot of himself in Miles Teller and knows this job can save his life if he really commits to it. But the others on the team really hate this decision as they feel Miles Teller is going to hold them back and prevent them from making it as Hotshots. Miles Teller does a great job of playing a punk in his movies, thus he pulls off this druggie kid really well, making you side with the others on the team. But he's also genuinely a really good actor and makes you care more and more for him as the story goes on. Out of all the characters in this movie, Miles Teller is the one that has the best character arc. Him and Brolin play off each other really well in order to make that arc work.

There's also a few other story arcs woven into this movie as this has a rather large cast of notable names. Thus I feel that where this movie really succeeds is in becoming a beautiful character piece, focusing on the lives of these firefighters. Some of these movies based on real natural disasters spend a lot of time focusing on the disaster itself. And in many cases that works really well. This movie spends most of its time on the characters as the fire sequences themselves don't take up a whole lot of time despite this movie being 134 minutes long. While that's a big risk in spending so much time on the characters and not much time on the disaster, by successfully pulling that off, it makes the disaster hit even harder when it comes because you fall in love with all of these characters and you want all of them to survive. Thus the praise here has to be in the acting. Despite great reviews all around (91 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, 93 percent on Flixter, 8.1 on IMDb), due to Oscar politics, this movie isn't even on the Oscar radar, which is unfortunate. But I honestly think Josh Brolin, Jennifer Connelly and Miles Teller give Oscar-worthy performances. I don't know who I'd personally put in, but the three of them are certainly worthy candidates.

Overall, if you haven't yet seen this movie, I would make it an effort to find a theater and go fix that. If you're not a theater-going person, then this would make an excellent movie night when it comes out on DVD. It's a long movie that spends most of its time developing these characters, but I think that angle worked out really well as we dive deep into the normal, everyday lives of these firefighters, getting an honest look at what it's like living in this profession. It's hard work with a lot of sacrifices needing to be made, but these are people who make a real difference in our lives and are deserving of more praise than they get. I really appreciate this movie for giving me that perspective and making me personally want to make sure to give more credit and appreciation for all of the firefighters around the country. There's solid directing and writing in this film with some fantastic cinematography and genuinely terrifying fire sequences that do a great job of making fire scary, which it is, but really propelling the movie forward are the phenomenal performances from Josh Brolin, Miles Teller and Jennifer Connelly that make this movie work as they make you really care for them and hope for the best, despite knowing what's coming. I will give "Only the Brave" a 9/10.