A down-on-his-luck American Indian recently released from jail is offered the chance to "star" as the victim of a snuff film, the resulting pay of which could greatly help his poverty stricken family. An unemployed alcoholic Native American Indian lives on a trailer park with his wife and two children. Convinced that he has nothing to offer this world, he agrees to be tortured to death by a gang of rednecks in return for $50,000.

Johnny Depp is one of the finest actors of Hollywood and I appreciate his attempt in directing. However, the final outcome of 'The Brave' is halfbaked. The film itself is quite boring with only a few notable sequences. The plot feels contrived, even though there's hardly anything going on most of the time. The cinematography is good in places. The dialogues are ineffective. Given the limited budget, the film does look slightly poor on the technical side but this is a very minor flaw. The music is pleasant to the ears but the use of it could have been toned down for more effect. The acting is very stagy. Marlon Brando fails to convince. Depp isn't bad but this is nowhere near any of his best works. There is good chemistry between him and Elpidia Carrillo. He has chosen a difficult story to direct but he does succeed in a few parts. He tries to use subtlety but ends up doing too much of it and as a result it's ineffective. Perhaps it would have been a wiser choice to direct something a little lighter and simpler.

I am surprised that I had heard nothing of this movie ... but then I read that the talented Mr Depp had refused to show it after the controversy surrounding it ... which is very disappointing. Maybe you should have been a little more BRAVE about that choice Johnny, because a lot of people have missed a masterpiece and I don't call it that lightly.The direction was superb ... as was the story. There was not a word spoken for so much of the beginning of the movie, but we already had a sense of the character emerging before us, and the desperation he was facing.I watched the impending doom of the finale with such a heavy heart. A husband and father who had remained incredibly distant to those close to him ... (probably due to the desperation of the circumstances, and his feeling that he could not be there for them without providing) become so intensely sensitive and present to them, only to face the ironic and inevitable choice he had made to protect them. The plight of these disadvantaged people was immensely painful, yet the joy they got from the simple things was so touching.The scenery, whilst not pretty by any means, only added to the depression and desperation. The soundtrack was perfect in all scenes, and the ending scene was just as it should have been ...Mr Depp ... your talent is boundless ... and you should not shy away from producing, directing and writing - simply because of some who obviously could not see the big picture of this simply understated movie!

I am a cinema maniac and have a DVD collection of nearly 1200 movies besides other 300 VHS, including all the Hollywood Academy Award Winners. My tastes go to Italian, English, French and American films of 1930,40, 50 and 60. But I see and buy films of today even being the distribution here around 90% of American films, the majority very bad, not to mention the real word. I missed THE BRAVE when it passed here in our cinemas and yesterday I noticed by chance that it was to be shown on TV. AS the director was Johnny Depp I decided to see it. I knew J. Depp as an actor only. I enjoyed the film very much. It has substance and so I decided to keep it. However Leonard Maltin's 2008 MOVIE GUIDE does not even mention it. Why ? Why did Johnny Depp not let his film to be released in the U.S. . Can someone please explain ?