Retro Movie Critic - Backdraft Hairdo

Last night, I stayed up until 3:30am watching a movie I really needed to see. Actually, I probably did not need to see it. I have seen it before and it was not that good the first time. But, there was a certain fascination with it since it is a firefighter movie which has a lot of good actors in it. It also has that quality to it where even though I have watched it from beginning to end it still feels like I have missed part of it, or at least some significant scenes.


The movie is Backdraft. I think its problem is its main character. Brian, played by William Baldwin, basically sucks. It is his hair. There are scenes where his hair is assuming Kevin Bacon quality, but he does not have Kevin Bacon coolness. I assume that it is why we have not seen Billy Baldwin in too much lately. Other people were not impressed by his hair either.

Kurt Russell plays Brian's older brother, Steven. I am okay with the name Steve, but having the name "Steven" drummed into my head over and over again is a little maddening.

The movie is really about Steven, nicknamed Bull. He is the only one we care about. There is this sibling rivalry thing going on and we see the heroic nature of Steven going on. It is not hard to take his side as he is trying to impress upon Brian what it takes to be a firefighter.

But Brian is the everyman. He represents all of us, the guys who try hard but just do not get it. And that is sad, because there are probably very few actual Stevens out there, but we have a whole host of Brians. We see him give up and go work for Deniro and that is the weakness that Steven expected out of him. I do not know for sure, but I would guess that being a firefighter is more about picking one's self up and working at it continually, because it is such a difficult job.

Donald Sutherland is sort of a surprise character in this. He is a great actor and his scenes are among the best in the movie. Robert Deniro is close behind him. JT Walsh was good too, but he is such a love to hate type character. Jennifer Jason Leigh was forgettable. She has had good roles, but she is so obviously not a blonde in this and the chemistry between her and Baldwin is like watching two kids squirt each other with squirt guns from 5 feet away from each other.

The only other painful part of it was Rebecca DeMornay who played Steven's separated wife. She represents the everywoman, the wife of the firefighter, who cannot deal with the fact that her husband is putting his life on the line all the time, so she kicks him out of the house. And, they have a little boy as well who has to deal with his Mother's weakness all the time. I realize that there are women out there who are really like this, but do we have to see it in one of the only firefighter movies that is out there? I want to see heroes and heroines.

Sometimes, I wonder about Ron Howard. It is almost like he has no personal style to his movies, other than making sure his brother is in all his movies. One day, we will say that something is very Howardian, which will be a slam because as far as I can tell, Ron Howard goes straight from the script. There is no deviation from anything. It is just a predictable movie with standard, normal characters. I guess it works for our society.

I really do feel bad ripping on Ron Howard. I liked Splash and Willow and a couple other ones, but even those ones have that Howardian feel to it, like we are getting exactly what we paid for, no more, no less...