Fresh
Backdraft has some of the raw filmmaking excitement that has been missing from Howard's recent work.
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
Backdraft
Silently behind a door, it waits. One breath of oxygen and it explodes in a deadly rage. In that instant it can create a hero...or cover a secret.
1991 · 2h 17m · R
Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Directed by
Ron Howard
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Backdraft
Overview
Two feuding siblings carrying on a heroic family tradition as Chicago firefighters. But when a puzzling series of arson attacks is reported, they are forced to set aside their differences to solve the mystery surrounding these crimes.
Director and cast
- Ron Howard Director
- Kurt Russell as Dennis McCaffrey
- William Baldwin as Brian McCaffrey
- Robert De Niro as Donald Rimgale
- Donald Sutherland as Ronald Bartel
- Jennifer Jason Leigh as Jennifer Vaitkus
- Scott Glenn as John 'Axe' Adcox
- Rebecca De Mornay as Helen McCaffrey
- Jason Gedrick as Tim Kirzminski
- J.T. Walsh Cast
- Anthony Mockus Sr. Cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
72%
Tomatometer
Rotten
Visually, pic often is exhilarating, but it's shapeless and dragged down by corny, melodramatic characters and situations.
Variety Staff, Variety
Rotten
Visually speaking, the film does pretty well with fire-as-spectacle, less well with everything else (Howard tends to trot out fuzzy-toned Spielbergian backlighting on any pretext).
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Fresh
The spectacular fire sequences, which must have been hellish to film, are powerfully enveloping on screen, thanks especially to the eerie effect of the title.
Janet Maslin, New York Times
Rotten
Backdraft is sure to do for fire what The Poseidon Adventure did for water.
Rita Kempley, Washington Post
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