The Fire Next Time

This movie is a decent movie. It's message is a "save the earth" type of thing, and makes its point pretty well, I'd guess. Overall, I'd say the movie does not live up to what it could have been. I was an extra in this movie, and the things the directors described to those of us who were in it were just mindblowing. This film, as described to us by one of the directors, had the feel of something apocalyptic. Sort of like a "Road Warrior" type setting, but without the punk-haired bandits. Kind of a wasteland, bleak existance. But for some reason, that just didn't translate to the screen. I still feel it was a decent movie, though. Not great, but decent. But, I may have a biased opinion, seeing how we all heard a very vivid description of what it was going to be.

As I said, I was an extra in this movie. I was in the Morgan City, LA scenes. From what I remember, these scenes consisted of everything in part 1, up until they left after the storm. There were some things that were planned to be put in the movie that would have clarified alot of stuff, but for some unknown reason, they left them out. For example, the reason all the clothes were such drab colors was supposed to be something along the lines of chemicals being banned. Therefore, fabrics were no longer dyed the way we do it now. And there was something else I seem to remember about there no longer being soap, due to its manufacturing process causing some kind of pollution. Or something of that sort. There were a few little details that were left out, that in my opinion would have portrayed the world as an even harder place to live.

This movie was filmed in my area in more than just Morgan City, as the Filming Locations link has. It was also filmed in Berwick, LA and Stephensville, LA, as well as a scene shot offshore. I was in the scenes shot in Berwick, at the Civic Center. In the scene where Justin Whalin is watching TV in the shelter, he turns around in his chair and jumps up yelling "Paw!". I am seated on the floor directly in front of him when he does that. And he kicked me in the lower back on every take of that shot when he jumped out of the chair! LOL!

I have noticed this movie playing on the Action channel alot. If anyone is interested in seeing it, that would be a safe place to look.

When this was first televised as a two part mini-series I watched the first night and opted out for the 2nd. Now, after renting it from Portland's finest (and the country's finest, if truth be told) video store MOVIE MADNESS and watching the entire four hours I can safely say that buried inside the 240 minute mammoth of overcooked plotting and sweaty melodramatics is a fine 90 minute movie.

Craig T Nelson is a hell of a good actor and that's the trouble: he plays a completely unlikable character to irritatingly well effect. There is no one to root for: Nelson's character is a selfish pig from the get-go and he never gets much smarter or nicer. I realize that its not his fault--the script makes everyone a symbol and he has to stand for The Guilty Short-Sighted Consumer of All The World's Goodies....other actors are saddled with equally heavy burdens to carry.

Which leads me to another major drawback : the uneven tone of the script.We get semi-interesting first night scenes between the extremely underrated Charles Haid and Craig T. Nelson alongside some real second night howlers like the absurd scene with Lousie Fletcher-- who chirps to Bonnie Bedelia ( who I must say looks wonderful with her ample bosom on sweaty display) "In the morning you will be issued your regulation camouflage army fatigues; its our way of keeping our message of hope alive." I am not kidding, she actually says that--and she is supposed to be the representative of the Evil Pro-Earth whatever the hell you want to call them. Ludicrous. As is most of the rest of this thing. But there are some interesting notions. Not ALL worthless but you have to wade thru a lot of dumb stuff.

This was one of the better TV mini series that has been shown on TV this decade. I was mesmerized while watching it and still remember vividly how I thought this could really happen. Given recent weather, I don't believe I was far wrong. It is awesome how many things in this movie have already come to pass. If there is any way of viewing it by any means I would really like to hear about them. I'm also trying to find out if there was a book published on this title. I wish all TV was as entertaining and as lasting as this movie was.

Let's see...Droughts in the Midwest...check. Higher temps in the South..check. Multiple Category 3 or better storms, check. Unaffordable insurance rates...check. Although I know this stuff goes in cycles, this movie seems to have hit quite a few nails on the head, although I hope that it got a few wrong. Although the acting is somewhat stilted and could use help, it is a made-for-TV film from early in most of these actors' careers. If you have never lived in the sauna known as the South, they did get this part right. This seems to be very prophetic, especially since it was written in one of the lull periods in hurricanes. At the writing of this comment, we only had 3 names left for the year, which has not happened in a very long time. This is a nice way to spend a few hours.

A recent poster commented that "it's 2005 and nothing has come to pass like predicted in this film." That's hardly true anymore. The beginning shows a major hurricane decimating the city of New Orleans (my original home town, necessitating its evacuation. This, as we all know, has come to pass with the advent of Hurricane "Katrina." And the images we are seeing come out of the gulf coast on the news are far more horrific than anything in this movie.

Aside from this prophecy now come true and then some, the movie was otherwise a little too Orwellian for my tastes. I should also note that the recent hurricane activity is not necessary global warming. There's a cycle to these things. We saw hurricane activity of this magnitude in the 1940s, the 1960s (Camille), the 1990s (Andrew) and in this decade (Charley and Katrina).