Backdraft
More than any score that came before it, I think it was Hans Zimmer’s score for “Backdraft” that launched him into the rest of his career. Yes, he had already used synths, and his African and Asian musical influences, before Ron Howard’s 1991 thriller, but when Howard challenged Zimmer on his uncertainty that the style he brought to Ridley Scott’s “Black Rain” would work on a film about that most heroic of professions, Zimmer rose to the occasion. In his swells and themes, we hear the seeds of “Crimson Tide,” “The Dark Knight” (and a lot of his work for Nolan), and even “The Lion King.” Listening to it during my latest watch of the film confirmed this for me.
In a way, this was a stepping stone for Howard, as well. Prior to this he was best known for comedies that made people feel good- along with wholesome genre films like “Cocoon” and “Willow.” Gregory Widen’s screenplay is not a complex one, but it did give Howard the chance to tell a story with darker undertones than he really had before, and over the years he returned to that with “Ransom,” his Dan Brown adaptations, and “The Missing”; one could even make the argument it prepped him for the likes of “A Beautiful Mind,” “Frost/Nixon” and “Rush,” as well. Here, his ultimate aim is to create a celebratory film about firefighting, but as people start to die by more calculated fires, an unsettling picture starts to come into focus that makes us consider some disturbing truths that corrupt the soul about politics and bureaucracy. This is where a great cast is important.
Ron Howard has always been an actors director. This isn’t to say the work he gets from them is always good, but based on the sheer volume of talent he has worked with, it’s obvious that actors trust him behind the camera. Here, we get Kurt Russell and William Baldwin as Steven and Brian McCaffrey, brothers whose firefighter father died in a fire when they were kids; Brian witnessed it in the film’s opening scene. Steven ran headlong into following in his father’s footsteps, but Brian has done a lot to get away from the profession. He finally returns, though, and tensions flare up between the brothers. Eventually, Brian cannot take it anymore, and he starts working for an arson investigator (Robert DeNiro, against type as a good character rather than a morally complex one) who is being pressured by a local politician (J.T. Walsh) to figure out why local businessmen keep getting killed in fires. Rounding out the cast we get Scott Glenn as a weathered friend of the McCaffrey’s father, and a surrogate father to Steven and Brian; Rebecca De Mornay as Steven’s ex-wife; Jennifer Jason Leigh as Brian’s ex, and Walsh’s assistant; and- in one of his most unsettling performances- Donald Sutherland as an arsonist whom DeNiro’s character wants to make sure stays behind bars, but also has terrific insight into fire.
“Backdraft” is a film that people return to for a lot of reasons, but ultimately, what makes it beloved by the people who love it- including me- is how it sets a plausible reality, gives its actors room to add shades of nuance, as well as creates some of the most realistic scenes of fires we’ve ever seen on film. There’s a vivid power to the film that is felt every time we see the firefighters enter the fray. This is a movie intended to honor firefighters, and the impossible work they do, and from its first frames to its last ones, that is accomplished. This is a sincere film, as well as an exciting one. It’s always held a place in my heart, to be sure.
