The Brave One

A Mexican peasant boy rescues and raises a bull calf and is stirred into action when his beloved pet is sold into a bullfighting program and trained to fight the country’s top matador. Written anonymously by Dalton Trumbo while on the Hollywood Blacklist, The Brave One is simplistic, often cloying and overwrought and shot with an awful, faded Technicolor process though still holds immense appeal and earned sentiment. The ending, with inter-cutting between the bullfight and kid scurrying to procure a presidential pardon, is stirring. *** ½ out of ****