Ladder 49 «««½
PG-13, 105m. 2004
Cast & Credits: Joaquin Phoenix (Jack Morrison), John Travolta (Captain Mike Kennedy), Jacinda Barrett (Linda Morrison), Robert Patrick (Lenny Richter), Morris Chestnut (Tommy Drake), Billy Burke (Dennis Gauquin), Balthazar Getty (Ray Gauquin). Screenplay by Lewis Colick. Directed by Jay Russell.
Years ago when I worked as a reporter for a local suburban newspaper, one of the beats I had to cover was interview someone who worked for the city and write up a small feature profile about them. The first profile I wrote was about a veteran firefighter named Ken Finkenbinder, who, at the time I did the interview in August 1994, was a B shift commanding lieutenant for the fire department in Balch Springs, Texas.
Given the wealth of knowledge I had about movies, I asked Finkenbinder if firefighting is anything the way Hollywood presented it in 1991’s Backdraft and the 1974 all-star studded disaster epic, The Towering Inferno.
He told me it was nothing like it was in those movies.
“When you go into a burning building, you rarely ever actually see the fire. Most of the time, you just see smoke,” Finkenbinder said. “You have to lay low and feel your way around.”
I wonder what he would think of Ladder 49, the latest film about a rookie fireman’s (Joaquin Phoenix) harrowing, sometimes joyful, sometimes tragic experiences with an engine company in Baltimore, Maryland.
I soon realized Ladder 49 sets itself apart from Backdraft and The Towering Inferno. What struck me in particular was how it takes the job of firefighting and rescue seriously.
The fires aren’t treated like special effects eye candy the way they were shown in Ron Howard’s Backdraft where the infernos it seemed, had a life of their own, like it was a living breathing animal. We don’t see commanding officers rush into raging conflagrations one moment and then in another minute, rush out with an infant in one arm as the inspirational music builds up. Nor is it a gruesome exercise like The Towering Inferno where some of the characters either fell to their deaths hundreds of stories or became human torches.
I won’t deny that Ladder 49 often suffers from predictable situations. Not so much that I’ve seen it all before as the fact I wasn’t at all surprised by what was coming next as critically wounded firefighter Jack Morrison (Pheonix) looks back on his life as he awaits rescue lying amongst piles of broken concrete and twisted metal as a fire rages some ten floors above him.
It’s only logical to assume or maybe it’s just common knowledge that any person coming on board for the first time is going to have to deal with practical jokes from his co-workers.
The first day Morrison reports for duty, he is fooled by his commanding officer (John Travolta) into thinking he is confessing his sins to a real priest.
We get the usual ingredients like seeing the men meet at a local tavern for drinks and the occasional baptism, wedding, and funeral for the fallen. And those brief emotionally tender moments between Morrison and his concerned wife (Jacinda Barrett). She can’t get the nightmarish vision out of her head seeing “the red car” drive up to the front of their house to be given the dreadful news from her husband’s commanding officer and chaplain. There is Morrison’s worried young son who doesn’t want his father getting hurt. And how Travolta’s fire chief comes from a family of firefighters.
If all this sounds less than surprising, then maybe it’s because a lot of what we do see in Ladder 49 is probably what goes on in real life. This isn’t a movie where the star is the fire itself.
That’s where The Towering Inferno and to some extent Backdraft went wrong with their adventure tales. We had to be reminded in “Inferno’s” opening moments that it was dedicated to all firefighters across the nation before settling into being a big budget disaster movie where the real star was in seeing Steve McQueen’s battalion chief perform all the valiant heroics. After sitting through what seemed to largely be a murder mystery involving arson and corrupt city politics, Backdraft ended with the note as to how many firefighters are on active duty today.
What makes Ladder 49 unique is the stars here are the firefighters. The film is about people who love what they do despite the dangers that come with the job. This is the kind of movie that doesn’t feel compelled to remind us what we are watching on the big screen is a movie about an engine company. The film takes on a completely different meaning given its release three years of September 11 where more than 300 firefighters lost their lives at the World Trade Center. The feeling I get for these men is admiration.
Being a firefighter is exactly as Travolta’s character says near the end when trying to summarize Morrison’s life. The profession is not about dying in the line of duty. It’s a celebration of a person’s life and the contribution that he made. Near the end, you do feel like cheering in between all the tears.
God only knows if I’ll ever return to working as a reporter for a newspaper again. Should that day ever come and I get assigned to interview a local firefighter, I may not be surprised, provided that person saw Ladder 49, if maybe just this one time, he or she says Hollywood finally got the story right.
©11/3/04
PG-13, 105m. 2004
Cast & Credits: Joaquin Phoenix (Jack Morrison), John Travolta (Captain Mike Kennedy), Jacinda Barrett (Linda Morrison), Robert Patrick (Lenny Richter), Morris Chestnut (Tommy Drake), Billy Burke (Dennis Gauquin), Balthazar Getty (Ray Gauquin). Screenplay by Lewis Colick. Directed by Jay Russell.
Given the wealth of knowledge I had about movies, I asked Finkenbinder if firefighting is anything the way Hollywood presented it in 1991’s Backdraft and the 1974 all-star studded disaster epic, The Towering Inferno.
He told me it was nothing like it was in those movies.
“When you go into a burning building, you rarely ever actually see the fire. Most of the time, you just see smoke,” Finkenbinder said. “You have to lay low and feel your way around.”
I wonder what he would think of Ladder 49, the latest film about a rookie fireman’s (Joaquin Phoenix) harrowing, sometimes joyful, sometimes tragic experiences with an engine company in Baltimore, Maryland.
I soon realized Ladder 49 sets itself apart from Backdraft and The Towering Inferno. What struck me in particular was how it takes the job of firefighting and rescue seriously.
The fires aren’t treated like special effects eye candy the way they were shown in Ron Howard’s Backdraft where the infernos it seemed, had a life of their own, like it was a living breathing animal. We don’t see commanding officers rush into raging conflagrations one moment and then in another minute, rush out with an infant in one arm as the inspirational music builds up. Nor is it a gruesome exercise like The Towering Inferno where some of the characters either fell to their deaths hundreds of stories or became human torches.
I won’t deny that Ladder 49 often suffers from predictable situations. Not so much that I’ve seen it all before as the fact I wasn’t at all surprised by what was coming next as critically wounded firefighter Jack Morrison (Pheonix) looks back on his life as he awaits rescue lying amongst piles of broken concrete and twisted metal as a fire rages some ten floors above him.
It’s only logical to assume or maybe it’s just common knowledge that any person coming on board for the first time is going to have to deal with practical jokes from his co-workers.
The first day Morrison reports for duty, he is fooled by his commanding officer (John Travolta) into thinking he is confessing his sins to a real priest.
We get the usual ingredients like seeing the men meet at a local tavern for drinks and the occasional baptism, wedding, and funeral for the fallen. And those brief emotionally tender moments between Morrison and his concerned wife (Jacinda Barrett). She can’t get the nightmarish vision out of her head seeing “the red car” drive up to the front of their house to be given the dreadful news from her husband’s commanding officer and chaplain. There is Morrison’s worried young son who doesn’t want his father getting hurt. And how Travolta’s fire chief comes from a family of firefighters.
If all this sounds less than surprising, then maybe it’s because a lot of what we do see in Ladder 49 is probably what goes on in real life. This isn’t a movie where the star is the fire itself.
That’s where The Towering Inferno and to some extent Backdraft went wrong with their adventure tales. We had to be reminded in “Inferno’s” opening moments that it was dedicated to all firefighters across the nation before settling into being a big budget disaster movie where the real star was in seeing Steve McQueen’s battalion chief perform all the valiant heroics. After sitting through what seemed to largely be a murder mystery involving arson and corrupt city politics, Backdraft ended with the note as to how many firefighters are on active duty today.
What makes Ladder 49 unique is the stars here are the firefighters. The film is about people who love what they do despite the dangers that come with the job. This is the kind of movie that doesn’t feel compelled to remind us what we are watching on the big screen is a movie about an engine company. The film takes on a completely different meaning given its release three years of September 11 where more than 300 firefighters lost their lives at the World Trade Center. The feeling I get for these men is admiration.
Being a firefighter is exactly as Travolta’s character says near the end when trying to summarize Morrison’s life. The profession is not about dying in the line of duty. It’s a celebration of a person’s life and the contribution that he made. Near the end, you do feel like cheering in between all the tears.
God only knows if I’ll ever return to working as a reporter for a newspaper again. Should that day ever come and I get assigned to interview a local firefighter, I may not be surprised, provided that person saw Ladder 49, if maybe just this one time, he or she says Hollywood finally got the story right.
©11/3/04
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