FILM I MASCULINITY
‘Backdraft’ is Old-Fashioned Masculinity
Ron Howard’s 1991 action drama about firefighters still appeals to men.
There are so many stories in Ron Howard’s 1991 movie, Backdraft. There is the main one about two brothers who follow their late dad’s footsteps to become a ballsy firefighter. There is the story of the Engine 17 Chicago Fire Department, a loyal and tenacious crew of great firemen. There is Robert De Niro, the ex-firefighter, whose body has brutally burned in a fire set by an arsonist. There’s Donald Sutherland, the maniac who’s obsessed with flames and spends his days behind bars because of it. There is the story of alderman J.T. Walsh, who’s involved in a corrupt scam, which costs the lives of several firemen to make a lot of dough.
The movie is overwhelmed by tragic, dramatic narratives that, for the most part, remain unexplored. The one thing that connects them is the seductive, ruthless, breathing-eating-living monster: the fire.
Backdraft’s main storyline is a sort of slow-motion masculinity: the toxic kind, which consumes whiskey, tobacco, women, and innocent lives. But sometimes, men enjoy watching masculine assholes. We want to indulge in Kurt Russell’s irresponsible and dangerous behavior when he goes into burning buildings without an oxygen…
