Only the Brave Review

Only the Brave is a 2017 drama film based on an article from GQ Magazine, titled 'No Exit,' which was written by Sean Flynn. It tells the story of the Granite Mountain Firefighters, a group of firefighters who fought the Yarnell Hill Fire in 2013, and died trying to stop the spread of it. It stars Jeff Bridges, Jennifer Connelly, and Josh Brolin and Miles Teller as the two main characters.

Brendan McDonaugh (Teller) is a meth addict who, on discovering his girlfriend is 5 months pregnant with his baby, decides to join a group of support firefighters who want to be promoted to 'hotshots,' people who are allowed to make important decisions. Eric "Supe" Marsh (Brolin) agrees to take him on, the condition being that he remains clean and proves he's up to the job.

I'm usually wary of these semi-biographical "true story" films, because I think they often turn out to be a little hackneyed and manipulative. Still, each time one comes out, I go into it with an open mind, because I have been surprised by them before. The Social Network is an exceptionally good film, and proof that they can still be made with a lot of style and substance. So I felt lukewarm going into Only The Brave, and I thought it was just going to be an okay film - not terrible, but not brilliant.

In some ways, the film is pretty unremarkable. There's not a lot going on here in terms of originality. You know someone is going to die, you know there's going to be a big dramatic event at the end, and you know the firefighting squad will achieve their goal, despite the cost of doing so. I know these events are technically true, but here they're organised in a very tried-and-true way.

But it does work. As Only the Brave progresses, you really do start to care about these characters, Brendan McDonaugh (brilliantly played by Miles Teller) in particular. In the firefighter sections of the film, you do get a sense that they're monolithic and dangerous to be around, and the film has a surprising amount of depth.

Only the Brave isn't just about a group of people fighting fires. It's about their personal lives, their loved ones, their hopes and dreams, and the fact that you really get to know who these people were just makes the ending that much more harrowing. I never cried, but there were a lot of tears and more than a few sombre faces on the way out of the screening, which is proof that this film did exactly what it set out to do.

Only the Brave isn't groundbreaking by any means, but Joseph Kosinski knew exactly what kind of film he was directing, and you can tell. He's taken a very well-written script and turned it into something engaging, and most importantly of all, emotionally involving. If these disaster-drama films are up your street, this one is a must-see.

Score: A-