Backdraft (1991) ✦ Member of the Month: Full-Length Watchalong Reaction
Added 2024-09-26 16:30:03 +0000 UTCHi everyone! This movie was the September Member of the Month Winner's pick - thank you to Prophet2272 for picking it! I'll be tossing this in the "to be edited" queue, but not sure when it will get done. I'm sort of going with a different approach now and not necessarily having reactions edited in the order that I watched them in. [Direct link here.]
Please enjoy watching this with me and I'm looking forward to your comments!
Cheers,
✦ KL
Comments
I completely forgot that Scott Glenn was Stick in "Daredevil." The only movie I was able to think of with him in it was one you'll probably never be asked to watch for the channel, but just in case, I'll keep it to myself. I saw that someone else pointed out that he was in "Silence of the Lambs," which was another one I didn't remember. It's bothering me now that I couldn't think of more movies he was in. I know there are a bunch more out there.
BubblyRainbows
2024-09-28 14:47:02 +0000 UTCGotta go with TP facing out. It just unspools easier.
Bryan Dempsey
2024-09-27 19:02:53 +0000 UTCThe Soka jumpscare moment was funny. 🤣 Oh wow, that's so cool you got to see some of the filming! Love that. I don't think most people think about it, but it's a question similar to the ol' "Which way do you put the toilet paper on the holder?" 😄
kaiielle
2024-09-27 17:05:48 +0000 UTCPaparazzi is the worst. I felt so bad for little Brian. I don't like fully hate the idea of Kurt playing both, it was just so confusing for me initially. But agree with your perspective. Yes, the mask off stuff really bothered me too. It made me feel similar to the feeling I get when I see skiers, snowboarders, and cyclists that don't wear helmets. Apollo 13 is definitely on The List ™️. No offense at all to your dad, I'm just generally speaking of course, but I find it a little funny when people get so insecure about finding out their partner has attraction to people that they have so much distance from (celebs/musicians/etc). Physical attraction is so normal and expected and just because you love someone doesn't mean you can't still find others appealing to look at them. I've always loved having conversations with partners, discovering who their actor/musician crushes are and sharing mine. Sometimes I agree with them and sometimes I don't, and vice versa. Always appreciate guys who are able to *get* me when I fawn over certain men out there, instead of seeing it as a threat or feeling like they'd need to look exactly like them for me to be with them.
kaiielle
2024-09-27 17:04:42 +0000 UTCNo one loves every movie they see. And if everyone agreed on everything the world would be pretty frickin’ boring. You do a great job highlighting the positives in every review KL. I certainly enjoyed my rewatch alongside your reaction. I got a kick out of your reaction to Soka nudging you. And yeah, the most memorable character, from his eyes, to his lines is Donald Sutherland. For sure. I was in Chicago the summer of 1990. We were visiting my mom’s aunt and her new husband drove my brother and I down to watch some of the scenes be filmed. It was all filmed on location in Chicago, I believe. That alone brings me back to the movie. I was 15 and my brother was 7 so he was transfixed by all the people in firefighter uniforms. Lastly, I’ve never thought about it before but yeah, I don’t face the shower head when I’m showering until it’s necessary to rinse off my face.
Bryan Dempsey
2024-09-27 04:13:00 +0000 UTCAnd she's seen Scott Glenn as Stick in Daredevil.
Thadman
2024-09-26 23:58:49 +0000 UTCI always forget to use that word: melodramatic. Perfect description.
kaiielle
2024-09-26 23:04:10 +0000 UTCDespite a very spectacular cast...Kurt Russell, Rober DeNiro, Scott Glenn, Donald Sutherland, Jennifer Jason Leigh...I always found this one a little too melodramatic for my taste. When Ron Howard is on--Apollo 13, Frost/Nixon, A Beautiful Mind, Parenthood, Solo: A Star Wars Story (yeah...that's right)--he's fucking on; but, at least for me, this one never quite did it. But for those who enjoy--kick ass, please enjoy. Sha-ZAM!
Steve Mercier
2024-09-26 22:24:22 +0000 UTCThis movie would definitely be more emotional if I had an attachment like that. You're not a baby at all.
kaiielle
2024-09-26 21:58:33 +0000 UTCThanks for honest reaction ❤️❤️I loved the movie couldn’t stop crying. I guess I’m a baby. I lived in New York on 9/11 My Grandpa was a Firefighter 😇😇😇
Perry Campbell
2024-09-26 21:54:27 +0000 UTCPredicted The Fisher King, received Backdraft. Not even mad lol This is the film that kickstarted my love and respect for firefighters. Fuckin' paparazzi, I swear. They have no chill, doesn't matter if it's celebrities or someone that literally just watched a loved one die. Whatever it takes to get the picture for the story. I do love how Kurt Russell played both father and son. I don't know of many movies that have done that. And it works amazingly on a storytelling aspect too, because that makes the strain between brothers that much harder when one is the exact image and personality of their father. There's two big issues I have with the film. First is that you are supposed to have your mask and equipment on at ALL times, from the moment you gear up to go inside until you come back outside. Your vision is already going to be impaired from the smoke. You have to have your visor on so ashes and smoke don't get in your eyes, burn your face, etc. Your mask also acts as your oxygen so having that off in a smoke-filled building is a bad idea. You can't fight fires if you can't breathe. The second issue is they added that extra deep growl to the huge fires like they were some kind of monster out to get Brian. Maybe that was to make it feel like a monster to get inside the mind of brothers who are dealing with tragic loss in wildly different ways? I'm not sure. It just bugs me when films do that. It is cool though that Jack McGee, who plays Schmidt (the driver/engineer), went on to play in other firefighter roles, most notably Rescue Me and voiced one in a firefighter Wii game. He in fact actually did serve as a firefighter in New York while he was starting out in his acting career. Up to this point, Ron Howard had just made shorts, dramas, and comedies. Splash, Cocoon, Willow, and Parenthood were his most well-known films, and even Willow was a bit of a slow-burn and became a cult classic much later. And then came Backdraft. While critics seemed to pan this movie, audiences were a bit more receptive, same response as Far and Away. Four years later, he would make Apollo 13, which, in my opinion, truly made him a directorial star and he finally shed the Opie Taylor side of him that older generations tended to see him as. Funny story, dad absolutely HATES Kurt Russell and it's pure insecurity. Mom grew up with the Disney Kurt Russell movies so by the time Backdraft came out, he was a superstar in her eyes. She made the passing comment, "No one better to burn up with than Kurt Russell!" Dad took that as a personal insult and refuses to like anything he's in, with the exception of Dreamer.
Nathan Jasper, the Artist Formerly Known as Primary
2024-09-26 20:22:31 +0000 UTCI've just watched your intro and outro and it seems like you felt the same way about the movie as I did. I definitely have some Donald Sutherland recommendations but I'll make sure you want them before I reveal that he's in anything. I'm guessing the #1 recommendation I have is one you already know he's in, because it's probably most people's #1 Donald Sutherland recommendation, but, better safe than sorry. (There's also a handful of popular movies I'm sure you'll get recommended starring his equally-famous son, Kiefer Sutherland.) The other thing you've seen Scott Glenn in was The Silence of the Lambs, where he played Clarice's FBI boss Jack Crawford.
Tyler Foster
2024-09-26 17:20:47 +0000 UTCYeah, probably won't watch the 2019 one. But very interesting to know there is one. 😂
kaiielle
2024-09-26 17:04:08 +0000 UTCThis one wasn't on my list of 1991 guesses because I can't say I'm much of a fan of it, but I'll be interested to watch the edited version to see what you thought. I think it's technically safe to leave this tagged as "stand-alone films," but Universal did actually crank out a direct-to-video sequel to this a mere 28 years later, in 2019. I normally don't talk about actors given I know you prefer not to even know who's in a movie before you see it. However, as it's 99% certain nobody will ever ask you to watch this, because, well, it's a cheap direct-to-video sequel made 28 years later, both Donald Sutherland and lead actor William Baldwin had both segued into an era where they were happy to do a quick job for the paycheck, and both turned up for it in glorified cameos. (There's a whole industry of these types of movies, starting with the last-gasp era of physical home video where studios could cash in on familiar titles on DVD for a quick buck and continuing through to the present, where they're generally made with the awareness that they've been pre-sold to Netflix -- to pluck out an example using your LBX, there's the 18-years-later Jingle All the Way 2, starring Larry the Cable Guy.)
Tyler Foster
2024-09-26 16:56:06 +0000 UTC
