Product: Hellfighters [VHS] (1968)
Rating: 5.0
So bad that its good
Its been said that there are no bad John Wayne movies. "Hellfighters" is certainly one of them. The film looks and sounds (music wise) like a 1960's TV movie. Frequent "fade-to-blacks" between scenes leave the viewer anticipating an upcoming TV commercial. The script is lackluster, the dialoge is wooden... ah, but so what! Watch the cars whizzing by on the freeway outside the windows of Wayne's office. They all go the same speed and you keep seeing the same red car every few seconds. Yup, its a studio backdrop and a pretty lame one at that. Watch while Vera Miles drives Katherine Ross from the airport. The car turns before she turns the wheel. The car stops before she applies the brakes. This is fun stuff! But somehow, this film still works as pure entertainment and with The Duke heading the cast, how can you not love it? The special effects of burning oil well fires are great and worth the price of the video. No miniatures here. No matte backgrounds. It hauntingly foreshadows the oil fires of Kuwait we grew familiar with while watching Desert Storm on CNN. I give this film five stars, simply because of its cult appeal. A film so bad, that its actually very good!