Review of Ladder 49 (2004) by Kate . — 28 Jul 2008

'Ladder 49' is the story of a band of courageous American fire-fighters who go above and beyond the call of duty to help rescue innocent American citizens from violent and dangerous blazes. It's a nice film; nice being the key word.

From the opening credits it becomes apparent that the films objective is to glorify and honour American fire-fighters. I have no problem with this premise as I am sure they are very worthy of such praise, but the directors lack of subtlety and sophistication whilst trying to express this point causes the objective to become under-mined, making it highly over-dramatic and unfortunately a bit cliché.

This over-dramatisation is due mainly to the large amounts of slow-motion shots and over-powering and melodramatic score that tends to ruin the films otherwise decent atmosphere. This over-sentimental approach clouds and denounces the clarity of the texts moral message; that Fire-Fighters really are modern day heroes.

Having said this however, 'Ladder 49' is still an entertaining piece of cinema. There are some very good performances from Joaquin Phoenix, John Travolta and Jacinda Barrett and the director makes a good attempt at realism by including the plot devices of the nuclear family and the 'band of brothers' type friendship, but unfortunately the film falls just a little to short of its aim, creating a much weaker emotional and moral punch than I initially expected.

However, I was impressed with the slightly less commercial ending which led to a more satisfying and realistic conclusion. Typical of Hollywood, and a little cliché, but none-the-less, 'Ladder 49' is an entertaining melodrama.

Not bad.