Divorced Chance Buckman fights international oil rig fires. An injury brings his daughter and to his dismay, she weds Greg, a team member. Chance gets a desk job, so he and Madelyn remarry, but a Venezuelan oil rig fire reunites them.
Chance Buckman (John Wayne) is a seasoned firefighter who puts out oil field fires all over the world. Once his daughter Tish (Katharine Ross), comes back into his life, she falls for his assistant, Greg Parker (Jim Hutton), creating tension in Buckman’s personal and professional life.
Wayne was in his 60s in this film (and it shows) so it is a bit unbelievable that he is still working as a firefighter. The film definitely drags, and they struggle to fill the movie with a story. The story also lacks any real conflict. I struggled to write a basic synopsis for the film.
The first big oil well fire shows the work ethic of how you put out one of these huge fires, but it’s a bit convoluted and hard to understand each step. The fire scenes were also lacking any tension, I never feared that the fire would get out of control and harm Wayne or the other firefighters. So, if you want to watch a nail-biting oil explosion, I suggest checking out “There Will Be Blood.”
The cinematography, score, and color grading were all well done. The fires are beautifully shot and capture the danger of working a job like this, but as I stated before, these scenes actually do not contain any tension.
For some reason, Tish marries Greg after only knowing him for five days. She is unfamiliar with her father and husband’s work and becomes very interested in it, to the dismay of both of them. Buckman’s ex-wife, Madelyn (Vera Miles), also comes back into his life once their daughter gets married. Though they are in conflict as she cannot accept his choice in work and fears too greatly for his safety.
Overall, I found “Hellfighters” to be extremely forgettable, I don’t know how they even stretched this into a two-hour film. Nothing of real importance happens – you get to see a few fires being put out and the characters argue about each other’s safety, and that’s about it. Even if you’re a John Wayne fan, he fails to carry this film. The firefighting is interesting, but the character work does not hold up and the writing is extremely lacking.
Now available on Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment
