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| The Brave One (Full-Screen Edition) | 
 enlarge | Director: Neil Jordan
Actors: Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews, Nicky Katt, Mary Steenburgen
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $28.98
Buy Used: $2.99
You Save: $25.99 (90%)
New (46) Used (46) from $2.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  153 reviews
Sales Rank: 5264
Format: Full Screen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 122
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: WARD036240D
UPC: 883929004607
EAN: 0883929004607
ASIN: B0010HOZVW
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: February 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: disc in excellent condition, cover has minor wear.
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Product Description
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 11/11/2008 Run time: 122 minutes Rating: R
Amazon.com
Neil Jordan's somber The Brave One is a lot of things. A reflective movie about a crime victim's sense of dislocation and isolation from her own life following a harrowing trauma, the film will strike a chord with a lot of people who have known violence. The Brave One is also a provocative drama about the nature of justice, a theme explored endlessly in American movies that typically find law enforcement wanting. In Jordan's film, however, the conflict between instinctive vigilantism and legal protocols is approached with more deliberateness and complexity than usual. Finally, despite its seriousness of purpose, The Brave One, to a certain extent, is drearily tethered to the old atrocity-and-revenge genre, bumping along to the familiar, Death Wish-like rhythms of an avenger seeking successive conflicts with bad guys he or she can blow away. Somewhat at cross-purposes, The Brave One stars Jodie Foster in a shattering performance as Erica Bain, a popular essayist on a public radio station in New York. In love and engaged to David (Naveen Andrews), a doctor, Erica and her fiance are brutally attacked one night by a gang of thugs. David is killed but Erica survives, only to find herself a stranger in her own skin, facing down her fears by shooting violent criminals. With the city riveted by her anonymous actions, Erica becomes an object of curiosity for a police detective (an excellent Terrence Howard) disillusioned by his own struggles to protect the innocent from truly evil men. Jordan's previous films (The Crying Game, Breakfast on Pluto) resonate with The Brave One's most interesting angle, i.e., that each of us possesses a hidden element in our identities that comes out in extreme circumstances, making us wonder who we really are. It's all excellent food for thought, but the film squanders much of its significance by thrusting Erica into numerous, outlandish situations in which her only alternative is to put a bullet in a bad guy. The result is a smart film tediously structured like a disposable B movie. --Tom Keogh
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| Customer Reviews: Read 148 more reviews...
 Vengeance is Mine...but Who am I? February 9, 2008
269 out of 283 found this review helpful
Trauma, severe trauma, can unleash aspects of the human personality that may appear as a stranger within. Such is the premise for this well-constructed film by Neil Jordan (screenplay by Roderick Taylor and Bruce Taylor), and while the neither concept of trauma-altered personality or revenge tales is new, THE BRAVE ONE alters the vengeance idea just enough to make it credible and to even draw the viewer into believing that what the character is doing is justified and right! And that is perhaps the most frightening aspect of this terrifying film.
Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) is a night radio talk show performer, a woman who walks the city of New York gathering sounds and observing the mysteries of the 'safest big city' and relates her observations poetically to a large radio audience. Erica is engaged to young physician David (Naveen Andrews) and the couple are very much in love. One night on an evening stroll with their dog they are attacked by thugs, beaten with pipes, and David is killed while Erica narrowly survives. Upon awakening from her coma she is devastated by her loss of David and becomes a strangely haunted woman, unable to sleep, unable to get immediate help from the police, and turns to purchasing a gun in an attempt to right the wrongs she has suffered. This new 'person' or 'stranger within' happens to witness a murder in a little store and to her amazement she responds by killing the murderer. A similar situation happens on the subway where two thugs threaten people, threaten Erica, and Erica again responds by killing the thugs. She feels driven to avenge the death of her David, but at the same time fears her own inner stranger. Erica returns to her radio show, under changing instructions form her boss Carol (Mary Steenburgen), and finds the changes in her psyche result in bracing her listeners about fear on the streets. In her audience is Detective Mercer (Terrence Howard) who has personal problems related to the fact that he has been unable to arrest a known killer. Mercer connects with Erica in various ways, she interviews him for her show, and the two bond. Erica trusts Mercer, wants to share what she is doing, yet hears his frustration about not being able to seek his own brand of revenge frustration against the oily killer he pursues, and decides to eliminate that trauma for Mercer. As the tension builds, the identity of Erica's assailants is discovered, and how she deals with these thugs (and with Mercer's interaction in the solution) forms the surprising ending for the film.
Too little has been written and said about the quality of performances from both Foster and Howard in this tense thriller. These two actors deliver performances so sensitive in execution that memories of previous similar films evaporate. This is a tough film to watch for all the violence not only on the screen but from within the characterizations by the actors (with the capable direction of Neil Jordan), but it is for this viewer one of the strongest films of the year. Perhaps now that the DVD can be viewed within the safety of the home more people will pay attention to a film that deserves awards. Grady Harp, February 08
Vagaries of Revenge February 7, 2008
39 out of 48 found this review helpful
"The Brave One is an examination of what it might take for a real person to become a vigilante, an examination of what might drive a normal woman to become judge, jury, and executioner." Josh Taylor
Erica Bane played by Jodie Foster is one of those women you want to emulate. She is a free wheeling, honest, liberated woman who loves her job and her man. She works for an NPR like station in the 'safest large city in the world". Her voice is authentic and sexy, intelligent and draws you into her world. She loves her life until...Erica and her fiancee are walking their dog one evening in Central Park when they are both assaulted by a team of thugs. Erica is badly beaten, and her fiancee is beaten to death. One moment in time when your life is unalterably forever changed.
Erica takes three week to recover from her head injury and she goes home, alone to her empty apartment. It takes her days to weeks to obtain the courage to walk out the front door. This tragedy has left her changed, she lives in fear, but she finally determines she will no longer allow the fear to rule her life. Erica buys a gun. She is weak and fearful but she cannot sleep. So, Erica walks the streets at night. She witnesses a convenience store murder and in self defense kills the perpetrator. In this one instance Erica faced her fears and killed them with a gun. As time goes on, Erica faces her fears with her anger spurring her on. What is it that is pushing Erica on? In my mind it is facing her fears and surviving. The film is brilliant in its depiction of Erica facing these fears- her anxiety, her grief. The film gives Erica enough time to explore the confusion, frustration and sadness that envelopes her. This is an extraordinary performance by Jodie Foster, one of her best.
Into the picture comes a police detective played by Terrence Howard. This is one of the most believable performances I have seen. My eyes were opened to this man with his sexy, open, honest performance. He is the only member of the police department who actually listens to Erica. She is torn and tormented by what she is doing but she can't stop.
The grit and determination, the reality of a life living and facing your fears is open for a look within. What this terror, grief, and violence does your life is open for us to view. The clues left and discovered by the police detective is also open for us to view. An extraordinary film that does not gloss over nor trivialize the passion, fears and self loathing that becomes pervasive. I was truly mesmerized by these performances and the film.
Highly Recommended. prisrob 02-07-98
The Accused
Spark
Dark, Entertaining Foster Revenge Film January 11, 2008
35 out of 40 found this review helpful
The Brave One continues Jodie Foster's recent foray into the thriller genre. So far, she's produced some pretty good results. She shouldn't be embarassed by either Panic Room, Flightplan, or The Brave One. The writing, directing, and co-stars (Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews, etc...) are all excellent and Foster is Foster.
Foster plays Erica Bain, an engaged NPR-type radio show host. One night, she and her fiance are walking in Central Park, and are viciously robbed and attacked. Her fiance is killed, and Erica is basically robbed of her happy existence by being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Deciding that revenge is the only way for her to cope with her loss, she proceeds to buy a gun and go on the prowl for her attackers, while developing a friendship with a cop (played by Howard) working on the cases she creates with her vigilantism.
The Brave One shows how a traumatic event can leave psychological scars that are much worse than those of the physical variety. The movie is well-acted, and even if the ending seems unlikely, it seems fair given what has taken place.
The Brave One is a very enjoyable film about a not-so-enjoyable subject - severe trauma and its aftermath. It comes highly recommended.
The Brave One: A most appropriate title for this film. April 15, 2008
20 out of 25 found this review helpful
A powerful and Oscar worthy performance by Jodie Foster is unfortunately overlooked because far too many associated this film with Charles Bronson's classic Death Wish.
While there are definitely similar themes in both films and strong performance are given by both leads, this film is far more cerebral with its approach than Bronson's film. We feel Foster's pain more via her bravura performance and especially since as a radio DJ she has the unique opportunity to air her thoughts on the subject at hand, vigilantism, and hear how others think of her actions (without realizing they are actually speaking to the vigilante herself). This puts a powerful psychological spin on the story often lacking in other similarly themed films.
I also found the title intriguing as it may be asking a question more than defining a character here. Foster's Erica Bane, clever choice in last name which means burden or cause of ruin, is conflicted over whether her actions are praise-worthy or even brave as both topics come up on her radio talk show. Her reaction is bewilderment to think others think she is brave when she believes she is acting out of fear, and disgust for those that think she is "doing the city a favor" somehow or for finding her behavior easy.
She does her actions as a compulsion to rectify a wrong, to vent, and, yes, get revenge. She does not believe she is "helping" the city and is angry at that perception and with herself for this obsession that is now invading every part of her being. These criminals who hurt her have taken more than her finance, they have taken her peace of mind and a chunk of her life and she is angry that many don't understand this. She feels very misunderstood by most except for a detective, excellently portrayed by Terrance Howard, who is on to her, but very sympathetic as he is something of a tortured soul himself.
The film explores just who is brave here. Is it Bane for facing her anger, for finding a manner in which to vent, for seeking resolution, for simply surviving her harrowing encounter, or is it the power that a gun gives one. It's easy to be brave with a gun in your hand is an underlying message in this story as it was in a famous novel I just finished teaching my students this week. Atticus Finch said in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird to his son Jem who watched an old woman die facing a battle most could not or would not face themselves and said, "I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand." Courage isn't measured by how many bullets one has, but by how one faces a struggle in which one can't win.
Foster's Bane seem to feel great anger at herself for the control that she has allowed some criminals to have over her life and for the power she was finding in a gun. Isn't this why some carry a gun? For power? For control? For their notion on what justice is or ought to be?
Who is the brave one?
Sadly, it isn't the writer or director who choose to take an emotionally charged and intelligently developed story and go down a trite, contrived, and completely unrealistic resolution to a story as provocative as this one started out as and could have and should have ended as such. Those who like their stories to end with a neat bow will be pleased, but others who prefer realism and honesty in films will resent the cheap cowardly ending this film contains and that is my only reason for this film getting four stars instead of five and perhaps why it got snubbed at the Oscars even though Foster's performance and Terrance Howard as the detective keeping tabs on her are completely flawless even with the silly ending they are forced to act out with a straight face.
 Not really February 3, 2008
17 out of 36 found this review helpful
Neil Jordan has directed some interesting movies before, like the Crying Game and Breakfast on Pluto. Now he has produced a flop with a great cast.
I wish the remarkable Ms.Foster would start making better movies again. She wastes her talent on failures. She should either try to do top notch thrillers again, like Silence of the Lambs, or good 'serious' films (can't remember a suitable title to fit in here as an example).
This one here is a hermaphrodite. It is a thriller that pretends to be 'deep'. It is a more intelligent and literate version of Death Wish. Obviously it is not quite as simplistic, as Foster is a more literate person than the great Charles Bronson's screen characters ever were.
I do not want to question the victim psychology here; I don't know enough about it, and this part of the movie is not what is so wrong with it, I think.
What is wrong is the script, which forces Foster and Howard into a series of unbelievable and unrealistic dialogues. My main stones of contention are 1. the 'interview' that JF's radio character does with TH's cop: it is completely wrong and out of character for both. Then 2., the final scene is just nonsense. Maybe a kudo to popularism? And even the poor dog has to be put into it, he wouldn't know any better. Animals are always good for the sentimental value.
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