Hellfighters
by Andrew V. McLaglen
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Jay C. Flippen, Jim Hutton, John Wayne, Katharine Ross, Vera MilesDirector: Andrew V. McLaglen
Brand: Universal Studios
Cinematographer: William H. Clothier
Editor: Folmar Blangsted
Producer: Robert Arthur
Writer: Clair Huffaker
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: French (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 121 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-01-05
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of Hellfighters
Movie Review: Contending with Deadly Oil-Well Fires and Contending with Human Nature
Summary: 5 Stars
The realities of fighting oil-well fires were brought to public consciousness during the First Gulf War, when Saddam Hussein's forces torched 700 Kuwaiti oil wells. Instead of taking many years to extinguish, it took only a fraction of that time to do so. This movie, however, hearkens back to the 1960's, when the extinguishing of oil-well fires was done with relatively primitive equipment. It shows how oil-well fires were put out then. You may learn a thing or two!
Buckman (John Wayne) heads a company whose slogan is: "Around the World. Around the Clock". In the movie, they fight fires in oil wells in such places as Louisiana, Calgary, and Malaysia.
No John Wayne movie would be complete without a fistfight, and this one does not disappoint. Wayne clobbers an Australian firefighter who, having come to help extinguish the Malaysian fire, has no problem drinking to excess the evening before the start of the tricky firefighting operation.
One subplot of this film is the relationship of Buckman (Wayne) with his estranged wife and daughter. There is an ongoing conflict between Buckman, who wants to keep his relatives out of danger, and his wife and daughter, who want to go to the fires.
The Buckman team gets the assignment of their lives. They are sent to Venezuela to fight an oil-well fire that had been set by enemy guerrillas. Soon after they arrive, and despite assurances and protections from Venezuelan military and political officials, they face a renewed attack by the enemy guerrillas that leaves their hut peppered with bullet holes, and more oil wells set on fire. In fact, they now face the never-before-encountered challenge of extinguishing and capping five closely-spaced oil fires. How to put one out without it getting re-ignited from its still-burning neighbor?
As they do their dangerous and arduous work, they face an additional guerrilla attack from the ground and an even more unexpected one from the air. Will they preserve their lives, and succeed in putting out the fires, or will the guerrillas score an impressive propaganda victory?
Summary of Hellfighters
HELLFIGHTERS - DVD MovieFans 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
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