Product Description

Bonus features: production notes talent bios film highlights and web link. A roughneck firefighter must fight to stay alive against the fires that surround him. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 09/02/2003 Starring: John Wayne Katharine Ross Run time: 122 minutes Rating: G

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2060 in DVD
• Brand: Universal
• Released on: 1999-01-05
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 122 minutes

Amazon.com
Fans of Armageddon might see one or two resemblances between that 1998 box office hit and Hellfighters, a 1968 action film by Andrew V. McLaglen, one of John Wayne's favorite directors in his late career. (Their joint ventures included Chisum, Cahill: United States Marshal, and McLintock!) Wayne plays an oil well firefighter in the mold of Red Adair, turning up anywhere in the world where a geyser of fire is shooting up from a once-profitable gusher. His right-hand man (Jim Hutton) has questionable judgment about safety matters and is a scoundrel with the ladies--and neither fact is lost on Wayne when Hutton's character marries his long-lost daughter (Katharine Ross, a mere year after The Graduate). The film is an early entry in the disaster-meets-soap-opera genre that flourished in the '70s with such titles as The Towering Infernoand The Poseidon Adventure. McClaglen gets a lot of crackle out of his action scenes (many of the firefighting sequences are still startling in their intensity) and turns twin love stories (Hutton and Ross, Wayne and Vera Miles) into frothy studies of adult manners, with equal hints of Howard Hawks and Sidney Sheldon. The widescreen image on DVD offers viewers a chance to see what was then a developing vogue for gratuitous breadth and scope in all its goofy, self-congratulatory glory. (Is it necessary to look at a golf course the way one might look at an African veldt? Hellfighters says yes!) The DVD also includes production notes and written bios on the stars, plus optional French and Spanish subtitles and an optional Spanish soundtrack. The cast and sundry thrills make this film highly enjoyable, and easily forgivable for indulging in such inanities as a subplot concerning--hold on--Venezuelan terrorists! The Duke lives! --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

John Wayne sheds light on a little-known business
It's fashionable these days (perhaps because of the vogue for "political correctness") to deride John Wayne and all his works, but the fact is that he was among the last actors to stick steadfastly to the notion that movies were, and should remain, family fare. And even though he admitted in so many words, "I play John Wayne in every picture regardless of the character," such a tendency isn't necessarily a handicap: what is important that an actor displaying it be certain that he chooses the right scripts. For Wayne, "The Hellfighters" was one such.

The film was loosely based on the experiences of Red Adair and his Wild Well Company (they served as technical advisors, and many viewers may remember that twenty years later Adair was still at work, helping to quench the Kuwait oil fires), and chronicles the adventures of Chance Buckman (Wayne) and his Houston-based outfit with a series of fires, gradually building in seriousness and difficulty, tied together by the dual romance of Chance with his long-estranged wife Madelyn Randolph (Miles) and their daughter Tish (Ross) with Chance's young protege Greg Parker (Hutton). (This aspect somewhat echoes those which occur in Wayne's "McLintock," and viewers may enjoy watching the two as a double feature.) Madelyn left Chance many years before when she found she couldn't bear his work, though they kept getting together for some time, and Chance's old friend, oilman Jack Lomax (Jay C. Flippen), flatly states that they've "never been out of love" with each other. When Chance is badly injured at a fire site, Greg tracks down his daughter and brings her to his side, fearing that he may not live. Five days later, Greg and Tish get married ("It was the cutest little Cajun church in Louisiana," Tish admits), and their union in turn brings Chance and Madelyn back together. Eventually Madelyn "convinced [Chance] that I should leave the store [she's the heiress to the Randolph Department Stores in San Francisco] and go and live in Houston with him," they get remarried, and when a guerrilla-plagued job in Venezuela tests both their union and the Parkers', Madelyn shows, in the end, that, as Chance says, "You'll do!"

The romances, however, are really the least part of the film. It is usually classified under action-adventure, and there's plenty of both: in the first two or three minutes an accidentally shattered light bulb sets an oil gusher on fire and sets the tone for the entire movie. Tish's eleventh fire, in Malaya, is "a poison gas well"--hydrogen sulphide, which can kill or blind--and the climactic Venezuelan sequence involves five fires (four of them set off by guerrillas with packs of dynamite), of which three must be capped simultaneously, a task that takes two tries and 29 minutes of running time. And, like all the best movies, there's also plenty of recognition of the fact that it's people that make a story. Wayne's Chance Buckman--torn between his love for Madelyn, his devotion to the work he does so well, and his concern for his daughter and son-in-law--is, despite his outlandish profession, not so different from many of the adults (fathers especially) who will view it. Ross as Tish is clearly, as she herself admits, both her father's and her mother's daughter: going to fires with Greg doesn't seem to bother her at all--it's when she's evacuated from the Venezuelan site, supposedly for her own safety, that she begins to stress out. Hutton's Greg Parker starts out as a classic male chauvinist (he uses fires to get girls, and in his introductory sequence goes so far as to check his watch to see whether he has time to make love and still catch his plane), but his attachment to Chance is soon shown to be real, and extends itself to Tish, with whom he seems to have a sound and solid marriage despite their very brief acquaintance. And Miles as Madelyn gives a taut performance that convincingly portrays her terrors for her daughter and the man she loves, her deep loyalty to them, and her uncertainty about her own ability to adjust. Two of Wayne's long-time friends and frequent members of his stock company, Bruce Cabot and Edward Faulkner, weigh in as his firefighting backup Joe and helicopter pilot George, and Flippen's Jack Lomax, himself a former wild-well man and apparently Chance's mentor ("[Chance] and I were--well, about like he and Greg are now"), adds a touch of stability to both Chance's life and the entire movie. Andrew V. McLaglen, the son of another of Wayne's frequent co-players, directs, and mention should be made of Leonard Rosenman's thrilling theme music, which plays under every fire and call-to-arms.

Some critics consider this to be one of Wayne's less notable films, but I think it better than many (though not my ultimate favorite among his works). It's probably best suited to families of boys, who will be hooked at once by the action and suspense of the fires. On the other hand, even the obligatory brawl (in Madame Lu's bar in Malaya) has the kind of seriocomic feel that will keep it from being too scary, though the fires themselves may be too intense for very young or sensitive kids. A good Saturday-night film overall, especially suited to a bitter cold winter's evening!

Who else but John Wayne could play Red Adair
Loosely based on the life and career of Red Adair, I find this movie a joy to watch not only because I am a big fan of John Wayne, but also because of the fascinating job of being an oil well firefighter. Yeah, there is some soap to it with the love stories between Wayne and Vera Miles as well as Katherine Ross and Jim Hutton, but its not ridiculous or over the top, and I think the stories portrait how such a dangerous profession can have an effect on the families of the men who do it. The friendship between Wayne and Hutton's characters come through, and the play between them will keep you chuckling, especially when their relationship as friends grows to Father-in-law/Son-in-law.

Daytime drama goes widescreen.
As a tribute to oil-field fire fighting legend Red Adair, this incredibly formula 70's action picture (think Airport) over loads with talent then takes an extra 30 minutes or so just so everyone has something to say.

Soapy story starts with hard-as-nails Chance Buckman (John Wayne), who fights fires with a vengeance-so far his profession has cost him his marriage and distanced him from his only child, Tish (Katherine Ross), a headstrong young filly. Toss in Buckman's protegee, Greg Parker (Jim Hutton), the young buck, himself a fearless firefighter by day, ferocious playboy by night.

Will Tish's re-entry to her father's world upturn the apple cart? Will she tame Greg and settle into a union the Cleaver's might envy? Will passing years cause Chance to take a softer look at the world? Will he return to the woman he left behind?

Or will their entire world be turned upside down in that next big fire up ahead?

Enjoy.