The film exploits Chicago's terrain of ethnic neighborhoods, political turf, and glorious modern architecture, but it has trouble when it comes in close to the personal level.
Comment
02/05/08
Backdraft (1991)
68 %
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 37
Fresh: 25
Rotten:12
Average Rating: 5.9/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 18 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Synopsis: Two feuding brothers carry on a heroic family tradition in the Chicago Fire Department. Before the smoke clears, love affairs are rekindled and lives are shattered as the brothers fight to resolve their differences and solve a puzzling... [More]
Starring: Kurt Russell, William Baldwin, Scott Glenn, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Director: Ron Howard
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Reviews for Backdraft
Backdraft has some of the raw filmmaking excitement that has been missing from Howard's recent work.
02/05/08
Top Critic Visually, pic often is exhilarating, but it's shapeless and dragged down by corny, melodramatic characters and situations.
02/05/08
Top Critic It's spectacular, yes, but that's not all. Not only do the firefighting scenes evoke a feeling of gritty authenticity, but the fire itself really does seem to be alive.
02/05/08
Visually speaking, the film does pretty well with fire-as-spectacle, less well with everything else (Howard tends to trot out fuzzy-toned Spielbergian backlighting on any pretext).
02/05/08
Top Critic
An extremely old-fashioned tale about heroic firefighters (rival siblings...) with some good special effects, this is a typical Ron Howard picture in its middlebrow sensibility and sentimentality.
02/24/07
The fire sequences are stunning, and the build-up to them, complete with blaring sirens and bellowed conversations, has an aggressive immediacy.
01/26/06
Mocked by some, for reasons I can't fathom, I find it to be Howard's strongest film. Excellent cast.
08/16/03
Howard's burning ode to firefighters and the professional and personal lives they hope to conquer with devotion and defiance. A drama that convincingly spreads itself like a roaring blaze.
06/07/03
Latest News for Backdraft
May 08, 2006:
Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, and Cast Discuss "Poseidon" Adventure
Josh Lucas knows that actors have it easier than other people. But the making of "Poseidon" was an incredibly difficult undertaking, he said. "I never compare... More...
June 06, 2005:
Dreyfuss, Russell & Rossum Climb Aboard the "Poseidon"
Richard Dreyfuss ("Jaws"), Kurt Russell ("Backdraft"), and Emmy Rossum ("The Phantom of the Opera") are the first high-profile cast members to... More...
May 25, 2005:
Trailer Bulletin: "Sky High"
Yahoo! Movies brings us our very first look at "Sky High," which is Disney's cross between family comedy and superhero adventure flick. Kurt Russell... More...
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