Lonely Are the Brave (1962)

The opening sequence is a beautiful representation of the entire film: a cowboy is stretched out in the desert, hands behind his head, relaxed and rugged. The camera pans up and we see a jet leave its trail across the sky and, with that streak of white across the blue, we understand that the man is an anachronism.

Kirk Douglas is perfectly cast as Jack Burns who, as he says, doesn't "tune [his] life to the numbers on a calendar." He visits civilization to break his pal, who got caught helping illegal immigrants, out of jail. The only way to do this is to get himself tossed in and escape with his friend who, unfortunately, prefers to stay put and do his time. So, for the last half of the movie, Jack's a man alone and on the run with a laid-back sheriff (Walter Matthau) in pursuit.

Good film, though the pre-escape portion is the more beautiful and relatable -- the last half, at times, focusing too much on the pursuers.

B+