Movie Review: 'Only the Brave'

Only The Brave is based on a harrowing true story. In 2013 the Granite Mountain Hotshots wildfire fighting team was sent to Yarnell Hill in Arizona to battle a wildfire. When the weather turned and the wind kicked up the flames in a new direction, 19 members of the Hot Shots team was caught behind the fire line. All 19 were killed despite their use of flame retardant covers which proved ineffective for this raging blaze.

Director Joseph Kosinski, a fine director of such solid efforts as Tron Legacy and Oblivion, brings the story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots to life beautifully and painfully in Only the Brave. Taking the tale from the perspective of a new member of the squad, and ultimately the only man on the crew to survive the Yarnell Hill Fire, he was away from his team working as a scout, the film boils down the experience to a very human and relatable level that packs an emotional wallop.

Though it departs from the true story a tad, Only the Brave follows Brandon McDonough, a jobless, seemingly hopeless addict, who cleans up and looks for work as a firefighter. He arrives at the headquarters of the Hotshots in his hometown of Prescott, Arizona, with little experience, aside from EMT training course and looks to be a laughingstock to the members of the Hotshots crew. However, Supervisor and Hotshots boss, Eric Marsh (Josh Brolin) recognizes something in McDonough and hires him on the spot.

In reality, McDonough was a three year hotshots vet when the Yarnell Hill fire occurred but the film character is meant as an amalgamation, as well as an audience surrogate. McDonough, who takes on the nickname Donut because his new friends don’t like his name, is made a rookie so the film can use him to explain terminology and give us more insights into what a Hotshot does. It’s a good choice, if one that defies the true story.

Through Donut, played by Miles Teller, we follow the Hotshots through a series of serious wildfires, including one that is right on the edge of their hometown, and we watch the unique and unexpected maneuvers the Hotshots use to battle a fire. When you think of a firefighter you assume water and hoses and a truck. A wildfire is very different and so is a Hotshot firefighter. Here the tools of the trade are an ax and a gas can.

A Hotshots job is to take the fuel away from a fire. Through the careful use of controlled burns and clearing brush, the Hotshots, create a barrier where the fire can go no further because there is nothing to burn. There is a science to being a Hotshot that involves temperature and watching the weather and anticipating where the fire will turn based on those calculations and Only the Brave takes us inside this science to give us insight into just how incredible and necessary this job is.

But Only the Brave never skimps on characters in favor of the firefighting action; Backdraft this is not. Only the Brave crafts a wonderful ensemble cast, a group of male actors who have a warmth and brotherhood that feels authentic and well worn. Actors like Taylor Kitsch, James Badge Dale, Geoff Stults and Scott Haze may not be at the front of the cast but they make indelible impressions that we connect to, sympathize with and worry for.

Miles Teller, Josh Brolin, Jennifer Connelly and Jeff Bridges form the core of the cast and are equally authentic and sympathetic. Brolin has never been better than this gruff but complicated man, a recovering addict in his own right but also a fatherly and authoritative figure. His marriage to Jennifer Connelly is romantic, sexy and real with the kinds of relatable problems of any marriage. Jeff Bridges plays his father figure and shows his age well as the perfect mentor and foil.

Then there is Miles Teller who, if he can stay off the gossip pages and avoid the pitfalls of fellow actors like everyone’s bad example Shia Le Beouf, could become one of our best actors. Teller is remarkably sympathetic as Donut and when we are stranded with him at the end as the perilous, real life finale is playing out, his anguish is our anguish, his tears are our tears. Teller nails this big moment and brings home the horror and pain of this devastating moment in remarkably human fashion.

Only the Brave does, at times, feel perfunctory and a little emotionally manipulative as these kind of real life stories can tend to be but this cast pushes past any problems you might have with these familiar story beats. In the end, this real tragedy packs as much emotional wallop today as it did in 2013. Given that we are in the midst of wildfires ravaging California as I write this, it’s timely but not exploitative that we have Only the Brave in theaters. The film is a perfect reminder of how incredibly difficult it is to fight wildfires and it’s a reminder we all need as California battles several other real life tragedies for headlines and help.