Product: Hellfighters [VHS] (1968)
Rating: 5.0
Contending with Deadly Oil-Well Fires and Contending with Human Nature
The realities of fighting oil-well fires were brought to public consciousness during the First Gulf War, when Saddam Hussein's forces torched 700 Kuwaiti oil wells. Instead of taking many years to extinguish, it took only a fraction of that time to do so. This movie, however, hearkens back to the 1960's, when the extinguishing of oil-well fires was done with relatively primitive equipment. It shows how oil-well fires were put out then. You may learn a thing or two!Buckman (John Wayne) heads a company whose slogan is: "Around the World. Around the Clock". In the movie, they fight fires in oil wells in such places as Louisiana, Calgary, and Malaysia.No John Wayne movie would be complete without a fistfight, and this one does not disappoint. Wayne clobbers an Australian firefighter who, having come to help extinguish the Malaysian fire, has no problem drinking to excess the evening before the start of the tricky firefighting operation.One subplot of this film is the relationship of Buckman (Wayne) with his estranged wife and daughter. There is an ongoing conflict between Buckman, who wants to keep his relatives out of danger, and his wife and daughter, who want to go to the fires.The Buckman team gets the assignment of their lives. They are sent to Venezuela to fight an oil-well fire that had been set by enemy guerrillas. Soon after they arrive, and despite assurances and protections from Venezuelan military and political officials, they face a renewed attack by the enemy guerrillas that leaves their hut peppered with bullet holes, and more oil wells set on fire. In fact, they now face the never-before-encountered challenge of extinguishing and capping five closely-spaced oil fires. How to put one out without it getting re-ignited from its still-burning neighbor?As they do their dangerous and arduous work, they face an additional guerrilla attack from the ground and an even more unexpected one from the air. Will they preserve their lives, and succeed in putting out the fires, or will the guerrillas score an impressive propaganda victory?