THE HELLFIGHTERS
US, 1969, 121 minutes, Colour.
John Wayne, Vera Miles, Jim Hutton, Katharine Ross, Bruce Cabot.
Directed by Andrew V. Mc Laglan.
The Hellfighters is a John Wayne film done in the typical John Wayne manner. His director is Andrew V. Mc Laglen who had directed him in quite a number of westerns including Mc Lintock, The Undefeated, Chisholm. This time John Wayne acts as Red Adair, the hellfighter who, during the sixties and seventies, went round the world to combat all manners of accidents with oil drilling and huge fires. The material is spectacular action stuff, the background of romance and difficult marriages is quite conventional material with Vera Miles as the long-suffering wife and Katharine Ross as the rebellious daughter. The film is popular action material and fits into the category of a very average John Wayne adventure.
1. What is the appeal of this film? What audience was it made for? did it meet their expectations?
2. The tone of title, the reference to the fire-fighting, the demonic energy, the themes of the film?
3. How typical a John Wayne film was this? What are the characteristics?
4. The film was loosely based on a a real person’s life and career. Was this impressively conveyed? Did the characters and situations seem realistic? How sensational was tlh treatment? How sympathetic?
5. How well did the film portray the kind of lives of these men and women? Their values and crises? How particularly American?
6. How sympathetic a hero was Chance? The picturing of his skill? His style and personality, confrontation with others, capacity for relating to others, dedication to his job? His reaction to being hurt? His love for his daughter and protecting her? His love for his estranged wife? The priorities of his work? His decision to take a desk job? The need for his ingenuity and skill? The American heroic type, what characterics?
7. How well did Greg represent the younger generation? Would he grow up into Chance? His skill, the contrast with chance and similarities? His managing the firm? His love for Tish? His making the marriage work? His joining Chance in the final heroics? A well developed character in the film?
8. The presentation of Horne aa Chance's pal? Friendship and its values?
9. Tish as also belonging to the new generation? How sympathetic a heroine? Her similarity to her father? Her relating to him, to her mother? Her going to the fires, waiting, ability to handle this aspect this aspect of the marriage? Was her personality explored in the film?
10. The portrayal of Madeline? Was the breakdown of the marriage understandable? Her love for her daughter, her willingness to take Chance back? The crisis of waiting through the disaster, her didcovery that she could cope, hopes for the future? A realistic exploration of a wife?
11. Jack Lomax and his managing the firm? A sympathetic retired man?
12. Comment on the films atmosphere of adventure, travel to exotic places, the need for skill, machinery etc?
13. The atmosphere of Singapore and the jungle, Venezuela and its terrain, the terrorists?
14. The presentation of the fires and the interest in them? Too repetitious or exciting?
15. How exciting was the culmination? The fighting ot the fire and the skill required, the guerlla warfare and the planes? John Wayne type of heroics? American virility? Why do audiences always enjoy this type of film?
