Brave was Marillion's seventh studio album, their third with Steve Hogarth. It was that most unfashionable of products, a concept album from a prog-rock outfit in the early 90's.
The story was complete invention, starting from a real event; the police found a young woman wandering on a motorway bridge. She couldn't or wouldn't tell them anything. From this starting point, the group wove a story which covered abuse by her father as a child, moving on into drug abuse and a few other events leading to her being on the bridge, contemplating suicide.
The film is an interpretation of the story, with the co-operation of the band - although they feature only in passing on screen. This film is about as far from MTV video as it's possible to get!
The story is mostly told via the images and Marillion's music - there is little dialogue. As such, I feel the film is something of a curate's egg; some of it works really well, while others need more explanation. The scenes with the Hollow Man (the man in the mask) could do with something extra, since it's not really clear if this is simply a barrier the girl erects to protect her from people who hurt her, a cipher that means these people are interchangeable, or something else entirely.
Not a bad effort, but not brilliant, either. If you're unfamiliar with the original album, be prepared to be baffled the first couple of times through.
The story was complete invention, starting from a real event; the police found a young woman wandering on a motorway bridge. She couldn't or wouldn't tell them anything. From this starting point, the group wove a story which covered abuse by her father as a child, moving on into drug abuse and a few other events leading to her being on the bridge, contemplating suicide.
The film is an interpretation of the story, with the co-operation of the band - although they feature only in passing on screen. This film is about as far from MTV video as it's possible to get!
The story is mostly told via the images and Marillion's music - there is little dialogue. As such, I feel the film is something of a curate's egg; some of it works really well, while others need more explanation. The scenes with the Hollow Man (the man in the mask) could do with something extra, since it's not really clear if this is simply a barrier the girl erects to protect her from people who hurt her, a cipher that means these people are interchangeable, or something else entirely.
Not a bad effort, but not brilliant, either. If you're unfamiliar with the original album, be prepared to be baffled the first couple of times through.
