Lonely are the Brave

Jack burns (Kirk Douglas) contrives to get himself tossed into the same jail as old friend Paul Bondi (Michael Kane) from where he plans to bust out with his buddy. Bondi opts to stay, however - his ways have changed, and there is his wife (Gena Rowlands) and a son to consider - but Douglas breaks out and is chased by Sheriff Johnson (Walter Matthau). Matthau delivers a beguiling performance as the laconic sheriff, who develops an intuitive sympathy for the man he pursues.

Based on Edward Abbey's elegiac novel The Brave Cowboy and written by legendary blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, Burns' flight for freedom on his old horse, pursued by jeeps and a helicopter, is an eloquent metaphor for the passing of the old West and it's virtues.