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Overrated

Absolutely Fantastic

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

This 1991 film is almost unwatchable. It's not very exciting. the story is Two firefighters of Engine 17 of the Chicago Fire Department are brothers. Lt. Stephen "Bull" McCaffrey, the elder, is experienced, while Brian has labored under his brother's shadow all his life. Brian returns to firefighting after a number of other careers falter, though Stephen has doubts that Brian is fit to be a firefighter.This could of been a very exciting film. Instead we get a family soap set against "A Firehouse Setting"! Billy Baldwin was terrible. His acting is laughable! The action however is not enough to compensate for cliche dialog.

The McCaffreys are a firefighting family; in 1971 Captain Dennis McCaffrey died in a fire that was witnessed by Brian, his younger son. Twenty years later Brain has joined the Chicago Fire Department; his older brother Lt Stephen "Bull" McCaffrey is unsure that Brian has what it takes so arranges for them to work together so he can keep an eye on his younger brother. Against this background a city alderman has been making cutbacks in the Fire Department which the firemen believe are putting lives in danger. There is also an unusual arsonist at work in the city; he is setting fires that kill the first person to open the door to them but are then blown out by the blast before the firemen arrive. Captain Donald "Shadow" Rimgale is investigating these fires and after one too many disagreements with his brother Brian joins his team. As they learn more about the fires and the victims it becomes apparent that the culprit could be a little too close to home.The first thing to say about this film is that the numerous fire scenes look fantastic… even if they do lack the thick smoke one would expect in such fires; obviously it wouldn't make such a good film if one couldn't see anything! The story is a good mix of firefighting action and a mystery about who is starting the fires and why. The cast is full of well know faces who do an impressive job; most notably William Baldwin and Kurt Russell as Brian and Stephen McCaffrey and Robert DeNero as Captain Rimgale. There are of course a few clichés along the way, most notably the fighting brothers who are reconciled in the face of danger at the end, but these don't really detract from ones enjoyment. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to anybody wanting a good action film; especially if you'd like to see protagonists who are something other than cops, spies or members of the military.

It is nice to see an action movie that is about civil service and not about the police isn't it? Kind of refreshing. Cop, cop, cop, cop, cop, cop, cop, firemen.I might be bias, my brother-in-law is a firefighter...but I never really liked him, and I loved this movie long before I met him.There are a lot of people here criticizing it because "the fire is the real star." All I have to say is that they are right, just like the action is the real star in a lot of movies. I mean, wasn't the car the real star in "Bullet?" The car is sort of the star in "Supernatural" too, isn't it...and besides, how many movies have you seen that star fire and well, it's so cool in a pyromania action adventure sort of way.They also say it is full of clichés and, well, they are right on that count too. BUT, well, a lot of other action movies are wall-to-wall clichés and have cops and guns and are loved. This is the same thing only with fire, and should be loved for the same reasons.At least clichés with fire is far more original than clichés with guns in the action movie trope.The acting isn't as melodramatic as people say. There are one or two scenes where, yeah, everyone has to admit that they are over-the-top, but on the whole we still see a lot of naturalistic acting.What you have here is just a fun movie...but it is a fun movie written by Gregory Widen and he really is a great screen writer with some truly original and fun ideas. You see his name attached as a writer and you know you're in for a fun time. It's just a shame the people that wrote the sequels to his films ruined his career.

***SPOILERS*** Barn burner of a movie that generated an astounding 172 million dollars in ticket sales at home ,the USA, and abroad "Backdraft" is by far the most successful, beating "The Towering Inferno" record by over 100 million dollars in earnings, fire fighting film in motion picture history. The movie centers around two firemen brother Stephen & Brain McCaffrey,Kurt Russell & William Baldwin who work out of Chicago's Chinatown elite 17th Hook & Ladder Engine Company who are at odds with each other. It's Stephen who feels that his kid brother Brian isn't up to task of being a top grade firefighter and tries to persuade him to quit the job and do something far less dangerous. I was the death of his father fire Captain Dennis McCaffery, also played by Kurt Russell, that Brain witnessed back in 1971 when he was 12 that not only left deep emotional scares on him but got him to want to be a fire fighter himself like his dad even if it ended up killing him. A number of suspicious fires or back-drafts break out in Chicago where the victims are high placed contributers and contributers to Chicago's Alderman Martin Swayzak,J,T Walsh, champaign for city mayor. It's fire & arson Inspector Donald "Shadow" Rimgale,Robert De Niro, who smells a rat in all this and is sure the fires were deliberately started to kill only those, the city contractors, that they targeted and no one else. With Brian getting a job as Rimgale assistant the two uncover a plot to kill off those who together with Alderman Swayzak are scheming to close down a number of fire stations and give them over to top real estate interests in Chicago. This would not only cause the remaining fire stations to get overworked but also end up costing the lives of firefighter as well as the people that their risking their lives to rescue!Running up against a number of stone walls both Fire Inspector Rimgale & his partner Stephen McCaffery get assisted by master arsonist who's serving a life sentence for a slew of arson related murders, which included Captain Dennis McCaffery, Ronald "Firebug" Bartel, Donald Sutherland. It's Bartel who's an old hand at these kinds of things, arson fires, who uncovers just how those mysterious back drafts were started and what chemicals were used to both start them and cause the fires to burn themselves out, after killing those it intended to roast, before causing any more deaths or damage! And worst of all as things soon turn out it's non other then the late Captain Dennis McCaffrey's son fire Lt. Stephen McCaffery who's unknowingly supplying the mysterious arsonist with the deadly chemical compounds to do it.**SPOILERS** "Baby Light my Fire" final with both Lt. Stephen McCaffery and kid brother Brian getting caught up in a major chemical fire that not only goes completely out of control but ends up with Stephen having it out with the person who's involved in the deadly series of arson fires that targeted prominent Chicago businessmen. Explosive ending much like the ending in the 1949 film "White Heat" as the entire chemical plant goes up in flames with only Brian surviving and together with Inspector Rimgale keeping the truth, of who was the arsonist, from the public. It was a truth far too hard and painful to take and by keeping it from seeing the light of day it ended up finishing what the mysterious and now deceased arsonist started. Preventing Alderman Swayzak from not only becoming Chicao's next mayor but putting him behind bars, for extortion and receiving illegal payoffs, as well!P.S Kurt Russell and T,J Walsh were so good together in the film that they were reunited six years later in the kidnap desert thriller "Breakdown".