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Backdraft

6.0

14,888

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Sequel:

Backdraft II

Original title

Backdraft

Year

1991

Running time

136 min.

Country

United States

Director

Ron Howard

Screenwriter

Gregory Widen

Cast

Music

Hans Zimmer

Cinematography

Mikael Salomon

Producer

Universal Pictures

Genre

Mystery. Action. Drama | Serial Killers. Disaster Film. Firefighters

Synopsis

Brian McCaffrey's father's a fireman and he was there, as a child, when his father died. When he grew he tried to be a fireman but quit and left town and for a few years tried other jobs. He would eventually return and try to be fireman again. However, he finds himself working under his brother Stephen whom he doesn't exactly have a good relationship with. When Brian gets his picture in the paper and is lauded as a hero when in fact it was a mistake, a politician offers him a job working under the department's arson investigator, Donald Rimgale. It seems that Ringale is working some unusual fires wherein someone is killed. Brian initially refuses but when he has too many confrontations with Stephen, he takes the job. And he gets a lesson on what it means to be a fireman.

Awards: 1991: 3 Nominations for Oscar: Best Sound, Sound Effects, Visual Effects

1991: Nominated for BAFTA: Best Visual Effects

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Critics' reviews

"Never before in the movies I seen fire portrayed by such convincing, encompassing special effects. Unfortunately, they are at the service of an unworthy plot (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"

Roger Ebert: Chicago Sun-Times
"'Backdraft' is a spectacle worth observing; it may also generate a little more respect for firemen, everyday heroes who don`t need the movies to polish their image."

Gene Siskel: Chicago Reader
"Visually, pic often is exhilarating, but it's shapeless and dragged down by corny, melodramatic characters and situations."

Variety Staff: Variety
"Fire, as this movie makes clear, is nothing if not photogenic, and Howard has done a beautiful job of conjuring both its danger and its deceptive, primal beauty."

Owen Gleiberman: Entertainment Weekly
"Backdraft is sure to do for fire what The Poseidon Adventure did for water."

Rita Kempley: The Washington Post
"The spectacular fire sequences, which must have been hellish to film, are powerfully enveloping on screen"

Janet Maslin: The New York Times

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User history

Backdraft

1991

Ron Howard

6.0

(14,888)