Backdraft - 10 stars out of 10

Backdraft - 10 stars out of 10

This is much more than another action film about firefighters - it is a deep drama with complex character relationships, strong moral dilemmas, and raw emotion.  Though this story revolves around the arsenist plot, it becomes obvious that it is merely a subplot when it fails to reveal itself until the midpoint of the movie.  Instead, the focus of "Backdraft" lies with Kurt Russell and William Baldwin's characters, their emotional conflicts with each other, and the social effects of firefighting on their lives.  The lack of arsonist conflict bothered me during the movie but after seeing the movie as a whole, I am glad that the movie spent so much time developing the two main characters.  The pyrotechnics are incredible throughout the movie, particularly during the final fire sequence; however, instead of being the primary draw (as in so many disaster movies), they enhance conflicts of the main characters.  The soundtrack by Hans Zimmer lays a solid foundation for the action sequences but fails to create an amazing theme like most of his modern music.  Donald Sutherland delivers an incredible performance, despite being limited to about 15 minutes of screen time.  Robert DeNiro and Jennifer Jason Leigh also provide great performances, though no performance in this movie can compete with Kurt Russell.  All in all, this is a great movie that should be on the list of every movie buff.