Backdraft

BACKDRAFT (15)

D: Ron Howard

Universal/Trilogy/Imagine (Richard B. Lewis, Pen Densham & John Watson)

USA 🇺🇸 1991

136 mins

Action/Adventure/Thriller

W: Gregory Widen

DP: Mikael Solomon

Ed: Mike Hill & Dan Hanley

Mus: Hans Zimmer

PD: Albert Brenner

Kurt Russell (Stephen McCaffrey), William Baldwin (Brian McCaffrey), Robert DeNiro (Donald Rimgale), Donald Sutherland (Ronald Bartel), Jennifer Jason Leigh (Jennifer Vaitkus), Scott Glenn (John Adcox), Rebecca DeMornay (Helen McCaffrey), Jason Gedrick (Tim Krizminski), J. T. Walsh (Martin Swayzak)

This pyrotechnical thriller sees two firefighting brothers uncover corruption amongst senior staff members in their fire department as they go about their heroic duties.

As an action/adventure movie, this is a decent watch, with an interesting subplot about a 'fire demon' which is never really explored to its full potential. Instead, we're treated to a rather cliche-ridden thriller with a plot lifted from any detective movie of the 1950's with blue and white replaced with yellow and red.

The special effects are impressive, creating some of the most realistic screen fires put to film at the time of production, but the movie itself as a whole isn't too hot.

6/10

Did You Know:

Kurt Russell, Kevin Casey, Scott Glenn, and William Baldwin did a lot of their own stunts, and Stunt Coordinator Walter Scott was so impressed by their performances, that he credited them as stunt performers in the credits.