Ron Howard's "Backdraft" is a true blockbuster in the 90's mold. Star-studded and full of spectacle, it did good business in 1991 while garnering mildly positive reviews. It was apparently remembered fondly enough to warrant a straight-to-video sequel earlier this year which, to it's credit, at least brought back William Baldwin & Donald Sutherland.
As for the original movie, the story is set in Chicago and it focuses on a pair of firefighting brothers (Kurt Russell & William Baldwin). The older brother is a seasoned vet while the younger brother is a rookie who has previously tried and failed at other professions. The two butt heads repeatedly as they work towards bringing an arsonist to justice.
There's plenty of action here but also a strong mystery angle as well. This provides a welcome change of pace when it kicks in about an hour into the movie. Generally, the script is pretty overwrought most of the time with the story often veering into melodrama and action movie clichés. However, the plot is fairly satisfying in the end, with a twist that's better executed than most.
Arguably the movie's biggest asset is its nicely assembled cast. Aside from Russell & Baldwin as the aforementioned brothers, a critical role belongs to Robert De Niro as an arson investigator. He unsurprisingly delivered the movie's best performance, despite the role being fairly limited. Donald Sutherland also makes a memorable appearance as an incarcerated pyromaniac. Other notable supporting players include Scott Glenn, Rebecca De Mornay, Jennifer Jason Leigh & the always dependable character actor J.T. Walsh. As for Russell & Baldwin, I wouldn't call this one of my favourite Kurt Russell roles but William Baldwin was surprisingly capable, considering that his career never really developed like his older brother Alec's.
The other strong point of the movie is the visual effects and stunt work. It must have been an insurance nightmare to achieve these kinds of visuals in the days before widespread CGI. There's no substitute for the real thing when dealing with fire, so the results speak for themselves. The movie justifiably landed a few Oscar nominations for both its visual effects and sound, which demonstrates the expertise that went into the technical aspects of the production. Overall, Ron Howard's direction is quite capable with a mix of dramatic scenes and multiple action setpieces. I will say, though, that the bookending songs by Bruce Hornsby & the Range haven't aged too well in my opinion. They're no "The Way It Is", that's for sure.
In the end, "Backdraft" is a bit overblown at 2 hours and 17 minutes. The producers were probably aiming for something a bit more intimate than "The Towering Inferno" but they ended up falling into some of the same traps anyway. So, I wouldn't count this among Howard's best but it's still worth watching, particularly given relatively small number of worthwhile firefighter movies.
