Hellfighters (DVD, 1999)

How do you put out an oil well fire? The 1968 film "Hellfighters" shows us step by step how it was done at that time:

1. Clear away all super heated metal debris.
2. Pack a 55-gallon drum with nitro glycerin, attach to a long boom and position it in the fire shaft.
3. Get a safe distance away and detonate the nitro. The temporary void of oxygen will extinguish the blaze.
4. Install a control valve on the pipe coming out of the ground.
5. Close the valve to stop oil flow. Event over.

Not something most people would want to try at home. In fact so specialized is this line of work that one name became synonymous with the profession: Red Adair. He is the inspiration for the fictitious Chance Buckman (John Wayne in one of his few non-western roles) whose close knit Buckman Company employs, among others, Gregg Parker (Jim Hutton) who has just become his son in law.

Leave it to Hollywood to dilute a story about a unique occupation. "Hellfighters" walks a line between Discovery Channel and "Dallas" with family dynamics taking a good portion of the screen time. Chance's ex-wife Madeline (Vera Miles) left him because she couldn't stand the anxiety of marriage to a man in such a dangerous career. Daughter Tish (Katharine Ross) has a different approach: accompanying her husband Gregg to the fires. (I liken this to going inside a fast food restaurant as opposed to using the drive thru--seeing what's happening with your order softens the wait). Wayne, playing the classic highly protective father, of course disapproves. However, when Madeline actually visits Chance on the scene of their worst fire, it is this modus operandi that brings them back together for good.

A couple of things irritate me about "Hellfighters". The opening credits with red lettering outlined in white are difficult to read on a TV. And, although the first and last events are shown from start to finish, the fires in between are all cut short. You see the crew getting ready to attack, and then the movie jump cuts to the plane trip home or a scene back at the office.

This movie is fairly dated. Use of asbestos, which has become a concern in recent years, to insulate the nitro could be scattered on explosion. And if the film were made today, you can bet Tish would be following in her father's footsteps as a firefighter herself. At least she realized that, at an oil well fire, tight fittin' jeans are safer (and sexier) than a skirt.

The DVD does preserve the original 1:2.35 widescreen proportion. I would like to see a modern era version, but like a lot of older movies, they are enjoyable when viewed in the proper frame of mind for the time in which they were made.

No, this is not another western, but a movie based upon the real life oil well fighter Red Adair. The fire sequences are well shot, especially the night shots. In the bonus materials, notes about how the special effects team had to work to get the right combination and mix of fuels to duplicate the towers of flame seen in the film are explained. Quite the film for 1968.

Hellfighters sets the stage for the modern day Armageddon(1998)(Bruce Willis) in numerous ways. Both Wayne and Willis have to deal with the dangerous situations at hand, and the fact that they both have daughters thrust right in the middle of everything. Armageddon parallels Hellfighters in as much that both daughters are both involved with men that are employed for Wayne and Willis much to their respective dismay. This sets up some conflicts that both have to come to deal with. For Wayne, it is his retirement and new son-in-law taking over the business; for Willis, it is knowing that he will leave behind his daughter in the hands of one of his employees.

Hellfighters presents some beautiful imagery of oil well fires, and the technology used to extinguish them. 'As the Duke said, "I've made a lot of action movies, but never one as exciting as Hellfighters."'

The DVD widescreen format is the one to get.

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The Snowstorm.

JOHN WAYNE HAS ALWAYS BEEN BEST KNOWN FOR HIS WESTERNS. I MYSELF AM NOT A WESTERN FAN! I'VE NEVER REALLY BEEN INTO THE CLASSIC WESTERN THING. BUT I LOVE THIS FILM. hE IS A SUPERB ACTOR, SO BELEIVABLE AS AN OIL WELL FIREFIGHTER. HE MAKES THIS PROFESSION SEEM SO DANGEROUS AND EXCITING. I LOVE THE EASY COMMARADERIE BETWEEN HIM AND JIM HUTTONS CHARACTER. IN DEED THE ENTIRE CAST WORK SO WELL TOGETHER IT SEEMS AS THEY ARE ONE BIG FAMILY. I CAN SEE BITS OF MY DAD IN THE WAY HE HAS A GOOD TIME WITH THE GUYS HE WORKS WITH, AND ALSO IN HOW PROTECTIVE HE IS OF TISH. MY COLLEGE ROOMMATE INTRODUCED ME TO THIS FILM OVER 12 YEARS AGO. AND IT REMAINS A FAVORITE OF MINE!! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS FILM. THE SPECIAL EFFECTS (FIRES) ARE AMAZING TO SEE. AND THE SCENE WHERE TISH AND GREG GO DANCING STILL MAKES ME LAUGH. (WOW HOW THE NIGHT LIFE HAS CHANGED!!)
5 STARS!!

This film is taken from the work of Red Adair, who was famous for a time for his exploits at putting out oil well fires. Featuring the standard Wayne cast of 1968 (see the Green Beret's) this film tracks time putting out oil-well fires, with some made-up personal love-interest drama to round out the two hours. It is formulaic and predictable, but the cast pulls it off, espescially Wayne. It's interesting to watch him do something in a contemporary time frame, where he doesn't ride a horse or shoot a gun. There is a great shot of him getting out of a station wagon with a 1960's hat on that will remind a lot of us of our dads.
I always wind up watching the whole film through, rather than just the 30 minutes of it I intend to. And, it makes me wish I owned a Lockheed Jet Star!

I am a great fan of John Wayne and have a lot of his movies, mostly westerns, in my DVD collection. But he performed in other movie roles that were non-western. Hellfighters was one of those movies where he plays the role of a man who owns a company that specializes in putting out oil rig fires around the world. I had never seen the movie until one night I caught part of it on AMC and decided I wanted it. It's a great movie that I think you will enjoy.