Review of Firestarter (1984) by Eric S — 18 Nov 2004

[i]Starring Drew Barrymore, David Keith, Martin Sheen, George C. Scott, and Art Carney. Directed by Mark Lester. Rated R.

[/i]Mark Lester's [i]Firestarter[/i] was one of numerous Stephen King adaptations unleashed on the box office during the early-to-mid 1980s. Some of these translations came off rather well ([i]The Dead Zone[/i], [i]Christine[/i]), while others fell incredibly flat ([i]Cujo[/i], [i]Cat's Eye[/i]).

King himself views [i]Firestarter[/i] as one of the lower points in his writing career, probably because it robs familiar themes from his other novels, notably [i]The Dead Zone[/i] and [i]Carrie[/i]. There's more than a bit of irony in the fact that Lester was able to craft a relatively strong film out of a pedestrian novel. [i]Firestarter[/i] is therefore lucky to be near the top of a very messy heap.

The film version stars Drew Barrymore (fresh from [i]E.T.[/i]) as Charly, the progeny of two college students who were part of a secret CIA medical experiment. Therapeutic drugs have endowed her father (David Keith) with a form of persuasive ESP, while Charly has the unique ability to ingnite blazes at will. Naturally, the project's leader (Martin Sheen) wants to re-capture his guinea pigs for military purposes. To further this end, he recruits John Rainbird (George C. Scott), a pedophilic CIA assassin... of course, Rainbird has more sinister plans in store for Charly.

[i]Firestarter[/i]'s plot follows a predictable path, as our heroes run, escape, get caught, escape, then run again. The villains are cardboard caricatures in the grand Hollywood tradition... greedy, lying, scheming pigs. As in all films of this type, the baddies are destined to get everything that's coming to them. Appropriately, Lester stretches this climactic moment to a full twenty minutes of explosive pyrotechnics, as Charley literally rains down fire and brimstone on her captors. If you have ever wanted to see a human being get swept up by a fireball and hurled like a ragdoll into tree limbs, [i]Firestarter[/i] is likely to constitutes your only chance.

What sets [i]Firestarter[/i] apart is the quality of the cast, with no less than three Oscar and Emmy Award winners in the top billing. They're not given much to work with scriptwise, but all of them put a great deal of energy and humanity into their characters. Barrymore does a superb job of tugging at the heartstrings, as does Keith in the role of long-suffering father. Art Carney is also on hand as a kindly farmer who takes Charley under his wing -- it's a delightful role that unfortunately, we don't get to see enough of.

George C. Scott has the strongest presence onscreen, cast very much against type. Even a tough viewer will wince during a pivotal scene with Sheen, in which Scott calmly and politely describes his murder-rape fantasies toward Barrymore. The complexity of this character suffers from slight underwriting... there's hints dropped throughout that Rainbird sees Charly as a chance to attain supernatural powers in the next world, but we're never given any clue as to how or why her abilities would be transferable on request. Perhaps the book fleshes out the concept in greater detail. Nonetheless, the raw malevolence of Scott's performance overwhelms such criticism.

The throbbing synthesizer score, provided by Tangerine Dream, complements the film extremely well. It's worth owning, regardless of whether one finds the movie itself enjoyable.

Mark Lester was a hot property in the 1980s, making a stunning debut with the Perry King/Michael J. Fox exploitation thriller [i]Class of 1984[/i]. He went on from [i]Firestarter[/i] to direct the dumb-but-fun Arnold Schwarzenegger movie [i]Commando, [/i]and then disappeared from the scene after briefly revisiting [i]Class...[/i] with a sequel in 1990. He's an efficient action director; it's a pity he didn't try his hand with more challenging projects.

Overall, [i]Firestarter[/i] is a worthy Stephen King adaptation, and given its company over the years, that's more than faint praise. It's not scary, but certainly entertaining... and it's your only chance to see this once-in-a-lifetime cast working together.