The usual action film of our time,
familiar to any moviegoer, invariably features heavy doses of physical
violence, gunfights, car chases (and crashes), advanced technology, and enough
weapons of mass destruction to provoke the posturing of George W. Bush. As its
title indicates, however, Ladder 49,
a very different sort of action flick, celebrates the heroism of the everyday
in the business of fire fighting.
The movie chronicles the brave
actions of ordinary, working-class people serving society in an important,
dangerous, but hardly exotic or romantic activity. Its appearance also
represents yet another result of the tragedy of 9/11, which reminded the nation
of the extraordinary demands of the profession.
The picture begins in the middle of
things, with the sort of spectacular blaze in a tall building that the
television stations love to use to open the news shows, and which they
invariably describe as “raging out of control.” After rescuing a panicky victim,
a fireman falls through several floors to a basement, where he calls for help
on his radio and, while his comrades attempt to locate him, wanders in and out
of consciousness. In the tradition of such moments in cinema, the man’s life
flashes before his eyes, which, with occasional interruptions in the present,
constitutes the major narrative of the film.
Joaquin Phoenix plays Jack Morrison,
the trapped fireman, and Ladder 49 essentially recounts the events that brought him to his perilous situation. The
long flashback begins with his first day at a Baltimore firehouse, Engine 33,
and his introduction to the realities of his profession.
As a rookie, he must undergo a
process of initiation, performing the most menial chores around the station and
enduring the jokes and pranks of his new colleagues, who demonstrate, with such
gags as setting him up to confess to a fake priest and stashing a goose in his
locker, that a thin line separates the firehouse from Animal House.
Aside from the depiction of everyday
life around the firehouse, the picture naturally shows the men — despite
affirmative action, no female firefighters appear — responding to a number of
alarms, dealing with a variety of fires, rescuing civilians, and risking injury
and death. The simple business of a dozen or so firefighters interrupting their
normal activities — eating, sleeping, reading, playing pool, and so on —
and sliding down poles, donning all their cumbersome gear, and leaping on the
huge red trucks to race through the city streets, provides the sort of
excitement usually associated with the usual action blockbusters. The actual
process of dealing with the heat, smoke, darkness, and confusion of a big fire
also enlivens the narrative, hinting somehow that, whatever the dangers, the
firefighters actually love the challenges and hazards of the job.
Along with his progress in the
profession, the flashbacks also focus on the personal side of Jack Morrison’s
life. He meets, woos, and eventually marries a young woman (Jacinda Barrett),
which allows the filmmakers to introduce a sometimes exaggerated emotional
element that gradually seeps into most of the other areas of the movie. The
fact of the marriage and the birth of his two children reinforce for Jack and
his wife the possibility of loss — the prospect of his death haunts the
family and darkens even the lightest moments of their relationship.
The combination of the professional
and the domestic lives of the firemen, with an attendant exaggeration of
emotion, somehow makes Ladder 49 both
a chick flick and a guy flick. The concentration on the vulnerability of Jack
and his family, their melancholy acknowledgment of the danger he faces,
occasionally contrasts with the boisterous, often juvenile humor of the
firehouse, where even the captain admits that he functions as a babysitter.
Aside from the thrill of the fires
themselves, most of the best and perhaps the most authentic moments in the
movie consist of the raucous celebrations of masculine comradeship in the
firehouse and their favorite bar, where the firemen show they can handle other
liquids besides water.
Partly in keeping with the ethnic and
working-class background of the profession itself, the picture rivals the
gangster film in its depiction of Catholic ceremony — weddings, baptisms,
funerals, even the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day (apparently, as in New
York, Baltimore’s firemen are heavily Irish). As a reasonably accurate
examination of the life of the firefighters and certainly as a tribute to their
courage and service, Ladder 49 succeeds admirably.
One hundred years from now, students
of the cinema may examine it also in terms of its special temporal and spatial
context, its historical position, its place in American culture. The movie in a
sense reflects yet another consequence of an event no one had ever experienced
and a sacrifice no one could have ever imagined.
Ladder 49 (PG-13), starring Joaquin
Phoenix, John Travolta, Morris Chestnut, Robert Patrick, Jay Hernandez, Tony
Conigen, Billy Burke, Balthazar Getty, Jacinda Barrett, Tim Griner, Kevin
Chapman; written by Lewis Colick; directed by Jay Russell. Cinemark Tinseltown;
Loews Webster; Pittsford Plaza Cinema; Regal Culver Ridge; Regal Eastview;
Regal Greece Ridge; Regal Henrietta.
This article appears in Oct 6-12, 2004.
