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DVD review: Only the Brave (trailer)

It is a sensitive, but never sensational, portrayal of bravery and self-sacrifice every firefighter, and their families, live through.

DVD: Only the Brave

Reviewed by: Samantha Keogh

Review made possible by: Empire Entertainment

An intense movie based on the true story of a group of elite firefighters, the Granite Mountain Hotshots, who fought the Yarnell Hill Fire in Arizona in 2013.

Twenty men went in, one came out.

The survival of Brendan McDough (21) was due to the fact that he was not with his team when the fire overtook them.

At the time, Brendan was serving as a lookout on higher ground when the fire threatened to engulf his vantage point.

Hiking back to his team on foot, Brendan was saved by Brian Frisby, superintendent of the Blue Ridge Hotshots, who was monitoring communications between the Granite Mountain team and their lookout, and taken to safety.

Despite efforts by the Blue Ridge Hotshots to save Brendan’s colleague, the ferocity and heat of the fire drove the team back and engulfed the Granite Mountain firefighters, all of whom died.

The movie is dedicated to their memory and is both a moving retelling of their fight to be accredited as Hotshots and the harrowing task they faced every time the beast reared her head.

It is a sensitive, but never sensational, portrayal of bravery and self-sacrifice every firefighter, and their families, live through and shows the demands and stress the job places on these men and the stress it puts on them and their families.

It is a universal story of firefighters the world over and brings home the harrowing reality that every time a loved one walks out the door to fight a fire may be the last time their family sees them.

While the truth is brutal, the story shows their world from the perspective of both the Hotshots men and their families making it at the same time more gut-wrenching but also a more engaging watch.

The only criticism of this movie is that many of the actors either are far too old or look too old, to be playing firefighters who died in their early 20s.

The two actors who stand out the most for the age discrepancy are Thad Luckinbill (43) playing Scott Norris (28) and Geoff Stults (40) playing the 27-year-old Travis Turbyfill.

While some actors can get away with playing characters far younger than themselves, these two did not pull off the illusion of youth.

That aside, this is still one of the best movies to go into my DVD player this year.

So grab a copy, and a box of super thick tissues, and settle in for the night.

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