Red Skies of Montana

This action adventure film is still another great opportunity for Richard Widmark to display his great acting talent.

In this very good film, he leads men into fighting forest fires in the Montana-Idaho areas.

When tragedy strikes, a disoriented Widmark can't remember what has transpired. The film provides a wonderful supporting performance by Jeffrey Hunter, a fellow fire-fighter, who lost his father in the blaze. A suspicious Hunter feels that Widmark ran out on his men.

The film shows what these men have to go through in fighting such dangerous fires.

Heroism is the order of the day and Widmark and company respond valiantly.

This film is very loosely based upon an actual event known among smokejumpers -- and the entire state of Montana -- as the Mann Gulch tragedy, in which 12 out of 15 smokejumpers were burned to death. Norman Maclean, author of "A River Runs Through It" and a resident of Missoula, Montana, home to the first smokejumpers and now the principal school for them, spent the last 13 years of his life research the event, in incredible detail, and writing an utterly fascinating book, "Young Men and Fire", which I heartily recommend.

Obviously, since the book was not published until after Maclean's death in 1990, it was not the basis for the movie, but the event was.

I first saw it in a fund-raising presentation in the Wilma, an old Art Deco theater in Missoula, coincidently sitting beside a student from the Smokejumper Center. His attention was rapt. The funds, BTW, were used to recover and restore the actual DC-3 that carried the Mann Gulch smokejumpers.

There is an account of the presentations made at the 2004 National Smokejumpers Association reunion by the spotter (gives the "go" signal, on board the aircraft), the dispatcher, and one of the survivors from the Mann Gulch tragedy, found on the University of Montana Web site, at www2.umt.edu/comm/f04/airplanes.shtml. It's short but intense, and will give you an appreciation of what happened. Then the book . . .

In electing to give this a 9, I've taken into account the technology available and the style of movie making and acting of the times. I would say the acting would rank significantly lower by today's standards. But it is well worth watching.

The movie essentially focuses on the documentary side :how the fire fighters worked in the fifties,how they often risked their lives (still do today)and how(sometimes) they were unjustly accused of cowardice .their relatives are not forgotten :Widmark's wife and Hunter's mom are present and are even together when they are waiting for their men to come back after a dangerous mission.

The plot concerns a fire fighter who suffers from amnesia:he does not remember what happened during a mission in which all his men were killed:a man among them was the father of a young fire fighter who cannot forgive him because he thinks he abandoned his men to save his life.Without any flashback,we do understand the whole thing during the final mission ,much to the credit of the film.

I would say that Red Skies of Montana is a good show, but it's better than good, it is a classic and well worth the time to watch it if you can find it. It rarely shows on T.V. anymore and I can't seem to find any rental or purchasable copy anywhere. When you watch it remember it was made back before computer enhancement so when you see it getting hot it may be faked but it's faked with fire not some digitalized fakerooney of a fire, some of the antique equipment is worth watching too if you are a Wildland Firefighter there are some that no longer exist and look like they should be brought back for use today. Especially the trailmaker thingy that scuffs the dirt and tosses it aside to help smother the fire along the line of travel, cool machine. ***** (that's as close as I can get to 5 stars).

Red Skies of Montana is one of a series of outstanding adventure films in which Richard Widmark starred during the 1950's. It portrays the dangerous lives of smoke jumpers, who fight fires in the great northwest by parachuting into the flames. Richard Widmark is a team leader, under suspicion after he is the sole survivor from a group of smoke jumpers killed in a massive fire. He can remember nothing of event, yet must resume life amidst the doubts of his comrades. The film adeptly the blends personal lives of the men and women involved, excellent firefighting action, and the suspense created by Richard Widmark's flashbacks of his near fatal event. Jeffrey Hunter plays the vengeful son of one of Widmark's slain team; and Richard Boone adds dimension as the stern, professional commander of the unit. This film is utterly believable. The fire scenes are awesome. Red Skies of Montana portrays a lifestyle that needs no "over the top" fiction or outlandish action to make it thrilling. I think this is a timeless film, and a truly entertaining one. And if you do enjoy it, I recommend "Destination Gobi"; another outstanding Widmark adventure.