Fire

"Fire!" came out at the peak of the disaster craze, when studio heads were actually green lighting movies like "Food of the Gods" and "Empire of the Ants". You would think they could get a little more creative with the title. This one centered on a forest fire and a group of children stranded in the middle of it all. Donna Mills is ultra 70's and very polyester. Pretty predictable stuff. This was a TV movie that came out the same time as the equally predictable TV movie "Flood!".

"Fire!" is an okay disaster flick that was above average in quality for '70s TV flicks. The movie is dead serious but the preview is not.

See how Warner Home Video sold this title by clicking on the trailers icon. It's funny!

This is a great example of a 70's disaster movie! Starts off with all the story lines...Vera Miles and Ernest like each other, but never got married...Donna Mills is a school teacher out in the woods with her class...Erik Estrada is a disgruntled prisoner (falsely accused!)...Alex Cord and his wife are both doctors, but just can't see eye-to-eye about their marriage. Then the fire starts in the woods!! And all the actors come together in various threads (at the lodge, on the road, etc.) to battle the blaze and display their heroism. It's pretty entertaining, and also considering this is PRE CGI affects!! The best part for any Airwolf fans out there (the 80's helicopter action series) is to see Ernest B. (Airwolf's Dom Santini) and Alex Cord (Archangel in Airwolf) together in this!

This film was one of the very last disaster movies not to be ridiculed by the critics. The main reason for this must have been the realistic and very good fire sequences. While later disaster movies had credibility problems, this one was actually pretty realistic. Well worth a look.

In my process of reassessing of all pictures watched in the past, Irwin Allen's Fire! Was one harder to find out, I've been looking it for a long time without success, out of blue I saw it on second hand dealer and right way I've purchase an original US's edition copy with any kind of subtitles available, I've took it anyway, I had watched it exactly in early 1980, on TV together to my older brother.

Even being an Irwin Allen's fan due the four classic series on the sixties, it's an excruciating and hard experience watch this film let us annoyed by such lousy picture, preposterous screenplay and others oddities at the behest of Irwin Allen who at this point already lost sense of ridiculous, when he still insist in make disaster movie whereof the story goes insanity due so contrived offer.

In small town that only business comprises timber extraction lead by the old owner Sam Brisbane (Ernest Borgnine) using almost all labor work from there, also aided by some prisoners coming from correction facility Larry Durant (Neville Brand) and Frank (Erik Strada) aiming for commute the sentence, Larry perceives the only way to get away from there is through a fire, then he settles a plan to do it without raises suspicion, then he let a burning cigarette underneath of the dry woods, it triggers a wildfire of enormous proportions, worst meanwhile a student group escorted by a teacher a child lost from the group and when the teacher realizes the fire approaching the only way is get out there and later tries saves the child.

A Helicopter bringing the water battle the blaze, however as expected ends up crash on the forest, helped by Frank that is fleeing, the fire reaches at lumber mill, Mrs. Martha Wagner (Vera Miles) the owner of the lodge which received the injured workers in the middle of forest also in jeopardy by fire nearby and they must rescue them at once, anyway a total mess, the master of disaster movies did again, in time I'd bought the DVD for nostalgia only knowing previously the stodgy content of 97 minutes of agony and suffering hoping the time goes faster, over such appalling outcome, have mercy!!

Thanks for reading.

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First Watch: 1980 /How many: 2 /Source: TV-DVD /Rating: 5.25.