Backdraft (1991)

 

Backdraft is the story of two brothers in Chicago who go into the family business, firefighting. Kurt Russell plays the older brother, Stephen McCaffrey, who’s quite the impetuous hero at times. However, his recklessness has cost him his marriage to Rebecca De Mornay’s Helen and the respect and trust of his fellow firefighters. He’s also an alcoholic who’s living in his father’s old boat, now in dry dock. William Baldwin plays Brian, the younger brother who’s fresh from the fire academy and assigned to work in the same firehouse as his brother. Brian has had several unsuccessful careers, and Stephen doesn’t think his brother is ready to be a firefighter. Of course, given that when he was a boy, Brian witnessed his father die in a fire, you’d be right to question his abilities to be a firefighter. This certainly begs the question of whether or not you would become a firefighter if you had watched your firefighter father die in a fire, but the film doesn’t allow for such questions to be examined too deeply. Naturally, Stephen (who has acquired the nickname “Bull”) and Brian clash a lot, and sure enough, Brian leaves the firehouse to join arson investigator Donald Rimgale (Robert DeNiro). They have a series of mysterious deaths to figure out in terms of both method (how were they killed) and motive (why were they killed). You’d think that would be enough to fuel a plot, but Brian also wants to reconnect to an old flame of his, Jennifer (Jennifer Jason Leigh), who’s an assistant to an alderman who wants to be mayor and may have a connection to the series of arson deaths. You’re supposed to accept that even though Stephen and Brian fight, they truly love each other even if you don’t get a lot of evidence to support that idea in the film itself. Russell is reliably good; he’s always been rather underrated as an actor, to be honest, if well-liked as a movie star. Baldwin isn’t much of an actor, to be fair, and his facial expressions seem rather limited. He often looks like he has smelled something unpleasant although he’s supposed to be amused or happy. (His character also has a rather expensive, stylish wardrobe, rather unexpected for someone who’s been unsuccessful at so many jobs.) The cast includes a lot of great character actors, such as Scott Glenn as “Axe,” a firefighter who worked alongside the boys’ father and now with them; Donald Sutherland as an arsonist up for parole who provides Baldwin’s Brian with some guidance on the arson cases; and Jason Gedrick as Tim, Brian’s fellow firefighter candidate who serves as a cliched sacrifice. This being a film directed by Ron Howard, Backdraft also has a brief appearance by his brother Clint Howard as a morgue attendant. Clint does sometimes get fun cameos like this one. This being a Ron Howard film, there’s also egregious use of several movie cliches: slow motion, manipulative music, and cutesy montages, for example, none of which truly furthers the narrative much. I mean, why do we have to watch firefighters trying to catch a bunch of loose chickens? Backdraft features some spectacular scenes of fires, and those sequences are the best aspect of the film overall. It also features some remarkable stunt work. Once the film has ended, it’s not the arsons or the other aspects of the plot that linger; it’s the visual effects. The film was nominated for Best Visual Effects and two other awards for its sound, but interestingly, it lost all three of them to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. I wouldn’t disagree with the Academy voters on any of the three, frankly. 

Oscar Nominations: Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Visual Effects, and Best Sound