Backdraft (film)

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Backdraft

Directed by	Ron Howard
Written by	Gregory Widen
Starring	Kurt Russell William Baldwin Scott Glenn Jennifer Jason Leigh Rebecca DeMornay Donald Sutherland Robert De Niro
Music by	Hans Zimmer
Cinematography	Mikael Salomon
Distributed by	Universal Studios
Release date(s)	May 24, 1991
Running time	132 min (137 min. in Ontario, Canada)
Language	English

Backdraft is an American movie released in 1991, directed by Ron Howard and written by Gregory Widen. Kurt Russell, William Baldwin, Robert De Niro and Scott Glenn star. Donald Sutherland, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rebecca De Mornay, Jason Gedrick and J.T. Walsh are also featured. The story is about firefighters in Chicago on the trail of a serial arsonist.

The film received three Academy Award nominations (Sound Effects Editing, Visual Effects and Best Sound). It also received two nominations at the first annual MTV Movie Awards.

Featured in the film are original songs performed by The Drovers, a Chicago band that was heavily influenced by Irish traditional music. The titles of the tracks are "Unpromised Land," "Nothing for You" and "Granuille Reels." The Drovers appeared several years later in the motion picture Blink, which also was filmed in Chicago.

There is an exhibit at Universal Studios based on the film.

1 Plot
2 Trivia
3 Crew
4 Lack of Realism?
5 Influences
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The movie tells the story of a group of Chicago firefighters, two of whom are brothers. Stephen McCaffrey (Kurt Russell), the elder of the two brothers, is slowly being taken over by the fires that he fights. Beating the fire becomes an obsession with him. He is always at the heart of the fire - the most dangerous place to be.

Brian (William Baldwin) is a bit of a drifter who has become a firefighter after quitting the fire academy several years before, then embarking on a number of other failed careers before returning. He is looked down on by his elder brother who expects him to fail in his newly chosen career. As a child, Brian witnessed the death of their father (who was also a firefighter) first hand when an explosion killed him.

Donald Rimgale (Robert De Niro) is a fire investigator. (The real Donald Rimgale, a veteran Chicago fire investigator, served as one of the technical advisors on the film.) He is called in because a number of fires that have occurred have somewhat similar connections. Rimgale is dedicated to his job as an arson investigator. Convicted arsonist Ronald Bartel (Donald Sutherland) has been imprisoned for a number of years and can appear very normal on occasions but at the mention of fire his mind becomes obsessed with the idea of living fire, one that takes over not only buildings but also people's lives. His latest application for parole is turned down during the story. A fictional chemical substance, trychtichlorate, is used by the arsonist to set the fires.

Kurt Russell as firefighter McCaffrey.

The longest serving of all the firefighters, John "Axe" Adcox (Scott Glenn), served under the McCaffrey's father in the Chicago Fire Department and was like an uncle to the two boys when their father died. He takes great pride in his work and has a love of the department. Obviously brave, he is the firefighter who "takes the pipe" and attacks the fire head on, but is also concerned about Steven's blatant unorthodox methods, and disregard of safety procedures.

Martin Swayzak (J.T. Walsh) is an alderman on the City Council. He has obvious hopes of being elected to mayor, but has had to make a number of budget cuts to the fire department. Many of the rank and file firemen believe that the cuts that he has made are endangering the lives of the firefighters. Some of the firefighters are not slow in letting him know what they think of him and his cuts. It is revealed during an investigation that he was paid off by several businessmen and contractors to shut down the firehouses for purposes of rebuilding and/or rehabbing the firehouses into community centers, with the aformentioned businessmen receiving the contracts for the construction.

There are also two main female characters: Helen McCaffrey (Rebecca De Mornay) and Jennifer Vaitkus (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Helen is Stephen's estranged wife, Jennifer is Brian's ex-girlfriend and works in the office of Martin Swayzak. Her loyalties are torn between her job with the alderman (who is making financial cuts in the fire department) and Brian who is obviously concerned about the damage that the cuts are doing to the firefighters.

Near the end of the film, it is revealed that Adcox is behind the backdraft fires; he set the fires to kill associates of Swayzak because he is angered that Swayzak was making money off the deaths of firefighters.

In the climactic scene, Stephen is fatally injured trying to save a falling Adcox after confronting him about the deadly backdrafts during a multiple alarm fire at a chemical plant. Stephen dies in the ambulance on the way to the hospital with Brian at his side, his final request being that Brian not reveal that Adcox was behind the series of arson fires. It is implied in the final scene that Brian continues on with his firefighting career despite the losses of both his father and brother.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Trivia

Kurt Russell responds to an arson fire and uses the line, "You're so sly, but so am I." Dan Butler uses the same line in The Silence of the Lambs when investigating a Death's Head moth. Both films feature characters investigating crimes by interrogating captive criminals (in Backdraft, arsonist Donald Sutherland; in The Silence of the Lambs, cannibal Anthony Hopkins). The films were released months apart and both screenwriters attributed the line to coincidence. Both films feature Scott Glenn. It should be noted that The Silence of the Lambs is based on a 1988 novel.

Ron Howard's first choice for Brian McCaffrey was Brad Pitt. William Baldwin was his second choice but preferred by the studio because he was more experienced and they felt that he was a bigger name that would attract more of an audience. When Baldwin was offered the lead in Backdraft he had to back out of a smaller part in another film. The film was Ridley Scott's Thelma & Louise and the part of JD went to Brad Pitt. This story is from the DVD commentary for Thelma & Louise.

While shooting Backdraft, Ron Howard visited the Chicago Police Academy, and was moved by a memorial displaying the police badges of all the officers who died in the line of duty. Howard asked if the Chicago Fire Department had a similar display. When informed that it did not, Howard offered to purchase reproductions of the badges of fallen Chicago firefighters to be put on display at the Fire Academy. The badges now on display were purchased by Howard from C.H. Hansen Co. at $45.00 a piece.

The Chicago Fire Department was very accomodating to the production crew. They even supplied the apparatus used in the movie. "Engine 17" was an old scrapped firetruck destined to be auctioned off. Their only request was that apparatus, company, ambulance and any other numbers (e.g Engine 17, Ambulance 62, Truck 46 etc) be fictional, and not current numbers in use. Howard dressed the trucks up to look new and current. After filming finished, Howard donated the equipment back to the CFD. Although not fit for active duty, most of the vehicles are still used today at the Fire Academy. Truck 46 ended up being scrapped as it was too badly damaged after the roll-over scene.

Many of the extras in the film are actual Chicago firefighters. A casting call was put out in a Department memo prior to the start of shooting. In addition, many suburban firemen participated in the funeral procession.

Robert De Niro's character, Don Rimgale, is a real arson investigator with the Chicago Fire Dept's Office of Fire Investigation. Don Rimgale also appears in the movie.

The two arson victim names are Cosgrove and Seagrave. Cosgrove is after the real life Chicago Fireman/Author William Cosgrove who served as Robert De Niro's technical advisor for the movie. Seagrave is the name of a fire apparatus (fire and ladder truck) manufacturer. The firehouse where Engine 17 and Truck 46 were quartered is the real, in-service firehouse of the Chicago Fire dept's Engine 65 and Truck 52.

The numbers of the fire companies are all "dead" numbers in the Chicago Fire Dept. Engine 17, Truck 46, Engine 24, Truck 6 (now back in service as of March of 2004), & Engine 33, (referred to, not actually seen in the movie), are all out of service. The Chicago Fire Dept. has 24 battalions, battalion 25 was created for the movie.

The production company totally refurbished 6 pieces of fire apparatus, and upon completion of filming, donated 5 of them to the Chicago Fire Dept., who used 4 of them as front line equipment for several years, and one as a spare. The only one that was not donated to the city was the truck that was flipped over, which was totaled for that shot.

Kurt Russell, Scott Glenn, and William Baldwin did a lot of their own stunts, and the Stunt Coordinator Walter Scott was so impressed by their performances, that he credited them as stunt performers in the credits.

Much of the soundtrack was later used for the Japanese cooking show, Ryori no tetsujin (1993), AKA Iron Chef.

Following tradition, Ron Howard cast his brother Clint Howard in this movie. Clint plays Ricco the pathologist.

At the party on the boat, Jennifer Jason Leigh seems to refer to one of the guests as Larry DeWaay. He was a producer of the movie.

The photos of firefighters seen on the walls of the investigators office are of the Los Angeles Country fire fighters who were on scene during the filming of the fire scenes as a precautionary measure.

After reading the film's script, Jennifer Jason Leigh reportedly told director Ron Howard that she wished she was the fire because it has the best part.

To draw audiences into the intensity of real fire, a cameraman was outfitted in fire-proof suit and wandered through the flames with a hand-held camera.

[edit] Crew

Directed by: Ron Howard
Written by: Gregory Widen
Produced by: Richard Barton Lewis, Pen Densham, John Watson
Executive Producers: Brian Grazer, Raffaella DeLaurentiis
Cinematography: Mikael Salomon
Production Designer: Albert Brenner
Editors: Daniel Hanley & Michael Hill
Music: Hans Zimmer and Bruce Hornsby
Costume Design: Jodie Lynn Tillen
Casting: Jane Jenkins & Janet Hirshenson
Stunt Coordinator: Walter Scott
Assistant Directors: Aldric La'Auli Porter, Ian Foster Woolf and Jeff Okabayashi

[edit] Lack of Realism?

Backdraft has been criticized for its lack of realism regarding firefighting techniques. Among other things, self-contained breathing apparatuses are rarely used in this film, the huge lack of smoke (which is present in any fire), a large amount of furniture is destroyed by the firefighters for no apparent reason, inexperienced firefighters are sent into burning halls all alone, and the film repeatedly attributes mystic, animalic consciousness to fire itself.

The 2004 movie Ladder 49 is reported to present the subject of firefighting more realistically.

[edit] Influences

DVD cover

The Japanese cooking TV show, Iron Chef, used Backdraft's music (composed by Hans Zimmer). The film is the basis of an attraction at Universal Studios Theme Parks where visitors can learn how the pyrotechnic effects were created and experience some of them first hand.