#Movie ladder 49 movie#
Though aiming to expose the “hidden human” elements behind the familiar headlines of firefighters battling nasty blazes, the movie rehashes what the public already knows from news programs, documentaries and Hollywood pictures, such as Ron Howard’s equally clich and predictable, Backdraft (1991). Set against a busy Baltimore engine company, Ladder 49 offers a look at the unique subculture of values and practices of a typically busy urban firehouse. There’s nothing in the film to ground it in any particular reality, past or present. With the notable exception of state-of-the-art special effects, the story could have taken place anywhere and anytime. The whole movie seems to exist in a historical void. That Jack plays a positive stereotype makes it no less a stereotype. The film’s characters are just detailed stereotypes, worked up to fit the big screen and mass market. To be fair, Ladder 49 doesn’t exploit the traumatic event–but neither does it serve it well.
Why not, then, make a more realistic movie that draws on actual lives There must be countless true stories that are far more exciting than Ladder 49 about the noble men who sacrificed their lives on the horrible day of the terrorist attacks. These days, it’s impossible to see a TV series (Rescue Me) or a movie about firefighters without thinking about the true-life heroes of 9/11. The heroic firefighters of 9/11 deserve much better tribute than the solemn and tiresome one they get in Ladder 49, a formulaic picture that despite good intention and timely issue exists in a limbo, disregarding politics and history.Īs written by Lewis Colick and directed by Jay Russell, this inspirational chronicle of the life of one devoted firefighter (played by Joaquin Phoenix) is an extremely old-fashioned fare, reminiscent of the recruitment movies John Wayne and other stars had made back in the 1940s.
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