Flat-and-busted to the extreme, the saintly Raphael ultimately sells himself to the makers of a snuff film to raise $50,000 to save his family from poverty. “But I felt somehow driven to do it.”ĭepp leads an impressive cast (featuring the likes of his 21 Jump Street co-star, Frederic Forest, Luis Guzman, Max Perlich, and the one and only Marlon Brando) as the quiet, withdrawn Raphael, a Native-American living with his wife and two children in a squalid trailer park perched on the edge of a town dump. “I have absolutely no idea why I wanted to direct the film,” Depp said at The Cannes Film Festival in 1997.

Don’t let the film’s nearly non-existent release put you off though… The Brave is a striking and sadly underappreciated film. Adapted from Gregory McDonald’s novel by Johnny and his brother, DP Depp, The Brave was initially to be produced by Jodie Foster, and Oliver Stone was also attached to the project at one stage. The Brave was never released in the US, and only received an under-the-radar straight-to-video release in Australia. Though renowned for his fine taste and on-the-money discernment as an actor in the 90s, Johnny Depp came up snake-eyes when it came to his directorial debut.

Johnny depp the brave