These strong convictions which pushed Gregory Peck to film in the western Les Bravados

In 1958, Henry King to whom it was owed The Beloved Brigand (1939) And The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), is at the helm of the western The Bravados. Broadcast Sunday May 5, 2024 at 9:05 p.m. on Arte, the film tells the story of Jim Douglass (Gregory Peck), a grieving man who chases four thugs. And for good reason, he is absolutely convinced that they are the murderers of his wife. During his hunt, he crosses paths with Josefa Velarde (Joan Collins), his former love. Despite the fugitives’ cries of innocence, the man persists. A way of criticizing, according to the actor, McCarthyism to which he was greatly opposed during his life.

Why did Gregory Peck agree to play in Les Bravados?

Arte, which broadcasts the film, describes this role as “engaged”in the career of the one who shone in films like Duel in the sun (1946), Moby-Dick (1956), or even Silence and shadows (1962).
“Fifth and penultimate collaboration between the filmmaker and Gregory Peck, this Cinemascope western, crossed by sublime nocturnal rides in bluish tones, breaks with the Manichean vision of productions of the time by injecting an undeniable psychological complexity into its characters, heroes as an outlawwe can read. “Gregory Peck took on this ambiguous role to denounce McCarthyism and the ravages of expeditious justice”. To believe The New Obsin an article published on April 12, 2016, the 1960s marked a turning point in the actor’s political convictions. “From a multi-purpose star, he became one of the great voices of the American left. McCarthy’s hatred had made him known: the Vietnam War – where one of his sons fought – gave him the opportunity to tip the scales”.

These commitments of Gregory Peck on screen

Gregory Peck will carry his convictions into his art. In The Bravadosbut not only. “He produced a revolt film, The Nine of Catonsville, adaptation of the play by a ‘Christian anarchist’, Daniel Berrigan”, write our colleagues. The story covered the trial of a group that protested the Vietnam War by burning documents. This commitment will lead it to be considered on the political scene. “He was asked to run for governor of California (he refused), then ambassador to Ireland (he declined). He was for a time on the list of friends of President Johnson and on the list of enemies of Nixon. “balance thus achieved, Gregory Peck did not enter politics, preferring to remain married to cinema”, our colleagues have fun. It remains that on the filming of Bravados, if the actor flourished thanks to the subject, contact with his co-star was not the easiest. In an interview given to Vogue in 2022, actress Joan Collins revealed that on the set “he was much older [qu’elle] and there was no chemistry” between them.