Review – Backdraft

I guess if you need to have a movie about one of our society’s many sub-cultures of manly men, it might just as well be firemen trying to save lives. Cops and soldiers killing people right and left have their charms, but sometimes they get a little old. And apparently firemen are capable of just as much male bonding and macho posturing as their armed counterparts. For the most part this is an entertaining viewing experience, but at times it seems to be a little too ambitious for its own good. By the time the drama plays out, the audience has been treated to a love-hate brother plot (featuring Kurt Russell and William Baldwin), a murder mystery (with Baldwin and Robert DeNiro as arson investigators), political intrigue, and a host of other subplots. There’s even a taste of Silence of the Lambs courtesy Donald Sutherland as DeNiro’s old arsonist nemesis. Any one story might have worked alone, but they don’t always work together. Fortunately the rough spots in the story are smoothed over at least in part by the spectacular pyrotechnics. Mildly amusing