| Hellfighters | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Andrew V. McLaglen |
| Produced by | Robert Arthur |
| Written by | Clair Huffaker |
| Starring | John Wayne Katharine Ross Jim Hutton Vera Miles Jay C. Flippen |
| Music by | Leonard Rosenman |
| Cinematography | William H. Clothier |
| Editing by | Folmar Blangsted |
| Distributed by | Universal Studios |
| Release date(s) | November 27, 1968 |
| Running time | 121 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Hellfighters is a 1968 American film starring John Wayne, Katharine Ross, Bruce Cabot, Jim Hutton, Jay C. Flippen and Vera Miles. The movie, directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, is about a group of oil well firefighters, based loosely on the life of Red Adair. Adair, "Boots" Hansen, and "Coots" Matthews, served as technical advisors on the film.
Hellfighters was for the most part negatively received.
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Chance Buckman (John Wayne) is the head of a Houston–based oil-fire fighting outfit. With a team that includes Joe Horn (Bruce Cabot), Greg Parker (Jim Hutton), and George Harris (Edward Faulkner), Chance travels around the world putting out blazes at well heads from industrial accident, explosion or terrorist attack. Chance enjoys the thrills, but longs for ex-wife Madelyn (Vera Miles), who left him 20 years earlier, taking their daughter Tish (Katharine Ross) with her, because Madelyn could not bear to see her husband risk his life.
While extinguishing a burning wellhead, Chance suffers a near-fatal accident when he is nearly crushed by a bulldozer blade. Against his wishes, his daughter visits. He discovers that his assistant Greg has married his daughter five days after meeting her. Greg has a notorious reputation for using fires to pick up women. Generally, any woman he takes to a fire ends up in bed with him; in the case of Buckman's daughter, he apparently fell in love and they married instead. In spite of Greg's reputation, Buckman comes to trust his daughter's choice. He accepts Greg into the family.
Greg suspects that his new father-in-law is growing increasingly protective after the marriage, in an effort to protect his daughter from heartbreak should her new husband be harmed or killed. Tish wishes to see the fires that her husband and father fight, something that neither man has encouraged. Her father relents and allows her to accompany Greg into the field.
Chance, trying to re-unite with his ex-wife, resigns to take a safer job at Lomax's oil company as a way to win her back. Chance gives his company to his son-in-law as a "wedding present", although Greg's pride forces him to tell Buckman he "doesn't want any gifts" and that he will "pay double for it." Greg and Tish begin traveling the world to put out oil-well fires. Soon the older couple announce that they will re-marry, to the delight of Tish. Chance accepts an executive position from his old friend Jack Lomax (Jay C. Flippen) to serve on the board of directors for Lomax Oil. Madelyn is happy to see her husband in a safe job; but in time Chance begins to grow bored with the corporate environment and longs to be back in the field.
Greg encounters problems with an oil well fire in Venezuela, further compounded by guerrillas who are trying to undermine the operation. He asks Chance to return and help fight the fire. He does so without hesitation. Chance goes to Venezuela, unaware that Madelyn and Tish are going as well. Madelyn declares "This is it for me," in the sense that it will either make or break her ability to deal with the fires once and for all. The team puts out the fires with the help of the Venezuelan army while under attack by rebel aircraft that strafe the oilfield. Madelyn explodes in anger at what she perceives as the Venezuelans' inability to protect the team from unexpected airplane attacks, at which point Chance pulls her away during her tirade. She snaps, "I'll be damned if I understand your attitude!", to which he replies, "It's very simple -- you'll do!"
Hellfighters received mostly negative reviews, garnering a 13% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (one "Fresh" rating and seven "Rotten" ratings).[1] Dennis Schwartz of Ozus' World Movie Reviews summarized the film as "a dull adventure tale about macho men who fight oil fires".[2] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times described the movie as a "slow moving, talkative, badly plotted bore".[3]
On a more positive note, A. H. Weiler of The New York Times noted that John Wayne made "actionful, if not stirringly meaningful, child's play of exotic disasters" and remarked that "the unrestrained cast and director maintain a welcome sense of humor".[4]
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