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Directed By
Ron Howard
Written By:
Gregory Widen
Cast:
Kurt Russell, William Baldwin, Robert De Niro, Donald Sutherland, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Scott Glenn, Rebecca DeMornay, Jason Gedrick, J.T. Walsh, Clint Howard, David Crosby, Jack McGee, Kevin Casey, Anthony Mockus Sr., Juan Ramírez, Tony Mockus Sr., Mark Wheeler, Juan Ramírez, Cedric Young
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Backdraft (1991)
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Movie Review by Chris
July 15th, 2008
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As a child Brian McCafferty watched his firefighter father die. Years later he joins his brother, Steven in the force by becoming a rookie firefighter. There is a history of conflict between the two brothers that is heated up by working together. With this background, a series of suspicious fires are set, each made to kill a specific person. After becoming frightened at a fire, Brian pulls strings to get into an investigative office and finds that he is now not putting out the arsonist's fires, but trying to track him down.
Backdraft is the second movie I have seen from director Ron Howard. I had given Apollo 13 the same four and a half star rating as I have done for Backdraft. So there are times when Ron Howard can raise the bar more then neccesary when it comes to the drama outside of the basic plot, but Backdraft is one of the best firefighter films I have ever seen. Ladder 49 is one of the latest movies which has a similar touch to Backdraft, but doesnt do as good as Backdraft does. The fire and emergency situations which we seen in Backdraft are done with extreme detail and they look amazing to watch. The acting from Kurt Russel, Robert DeNiro and William Baldwin all work really great and the movie succeeds greatly.
In the beginning of the movie, we are introduced to Brian and Stephen as kids running around in the firehouse just messing around. Their father is a fireman and when a call comes through, the father grabs Brian and leaves Stephen behind. Brian has fun and all but when his father goes into the building and the building explodes, his fathers burning helmet which was thrown from the building is the only thing left. This sets up a lot of character detail when it comes to the older Brian. He comes home after four years and decides to rejoin the fire company. Our first backdraft is seen when a man goes to open the door and the house explodes, causing Brians brothers company to respond to the scene. After four years the brothers are finally reunited. Stephen is one of the more heroic and insane men of 17 and I really enjoyed his character. After he was forced to move out of his wife's and son's house, he moved onto their dad's boat. Kurt Russel handles the performance with great delegance and balance. There are times when he become conceeded and such, but that is just a major character trait.
At the same time his little brother Brian is trying to make a life for himself. He is poor and unemployed besides the firehouse. He has a sh*tty car and basically tries to restart his life by moving home. We see that he cares for his older brother and wants to make him a better person, but he also realizes the little flaws in his brother's character. William Baldwin does a really good job with the character and never takes the little brother role to far and handles it perfectly. When I first watched Apollo 13, I noticed Ron did a great job with the scenes in the spaceship and his detail was great. I now see again that he focuses on detail when it comes to all the fire scenes and the reality of the flames and explosions. We really get a great feel for the scenes and at times we get a breathtaking experience.
Backdraft is a really great film which mixes drama and breathtaking fire scenes into one great movie. The best firefighter movie I have ever seen.
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