Hacker Cinema
Backdraft
1991 · Film · 137 min
Directed by Ron Howard
Two feuding siblings carrying on a heroic family tradition as Chicago firefighters. But when a puzzling series of arson attacks is reported, they are forced to set aside their differences to solve the mystery surrounding these crimes.
1 mixed5 neutralfrom 6 commenters
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7 comments on Hacker News
Yeah, I haven't been involved in film projection since late 1998. Back then, it was at my university student cinema, we had 70mm capability but only showed one or two films a year in 70mm because there were so few films available for us to hire in that format. If I recall, the main one we showed every year was Backdraft. By comparison, there were 2 showings per day during term time (so 7x10x3 days per year) and most films would only be shown 1 or maybe 2 nights.
I was told then that we were very lucky to have that projector as there were only around 4 or 5 cinemas in the country with 70mm projectors (other than IMAX), and I can only imagine it's gone down since then. That said, it's hard to find information on it now - the only list of 70mm cinemas I could find had 5, but included IMAX and not my university cinema even though they showed Interstellar in 70mm last year so probably are just not listed because it's not open to the general public.
This reminds me of the movie Backdraft, about firefighters and a mysterious arsonist.
Nothing. No computer, No TV (I don't do TV)
Crumbs get into keyboards.
But before your generation, seriously, Dad would watch news during dinner, and it was coverage of the Vietnam war. Not to be a smartass, but I found the imagery and emotionally charged opinions expressed (half of them, anyway) to be completely unsuited to dinner.
So, I play music. Not just at dinnertime but anytime, classical music is good for the soul. If you have a nearby classical radio station, they will likely play lots of music that doesn't demand attention. But most stations stream and you can go from light to heavy music that demands and rewards close attention.
The big benefit of audio, any old time, is that you are free to roam around and actually get those irreducible chores (or work) done without lock-in.
If you abstain from TV for a while, encountering it is rather shocking in the way it pulls your brain into the screen and takes it over.
FWIW, I used to watch old movies and shows when I was married and we had cable. Dinner can be quite the experience when watching the old Japanese "Iron Chef" episodes, since food is the focus. For nostalgia buffs, the original series used great music by Hans Zimmer, from the movie "Backdraft" which added to the camp feeling.
Not the greatest, but interesting. "Backdraft" the movie has sound by Hans Zimmer, used extensively in the Japanese version of "Iron Chef." which was high camp fun.
The Full (Japanese) Iron Chef theme is here:
https://archive.org/details/tvtunes_30483
I see a lot of people talking about the privatization of firefighting and the future. In this case there is a big difference between the two types of firefighting that is being talked about.
1. The first type of firefighting is your traditional city structure firefighting departments. These are the ones we see most of the time in the movies(Backdraft, Ladder 49). These are government funded by local and municipal taxes. They traditionally provided structure and medical services to a city. While the firefighting portion of these departments has stayed public the medical(ambulance) services have been heavily privatized for years. Due to the large migration we have seen of people wanting to live closer to nature, wildland Urban Interface firefighting has become a service that these traditional structure departments have stepped up to provide as they have expanded their boundaries to provide services to the ever increasing number of homes that have been built outside of the traditional city landscape.
2. Wildland firefighting has traditionally been paid for and managed by the Federal Government. Last I saw around 40% of wildland firefighting resources are privately owned. This includes fire engines, water tankers, showers, food caterers, hand crews(20 man crews that dig fire line in an attempt to contain the fire), tree fallers(loggers who are brought in to fall dangerous trees), air tankers, and helicopters. This particular part of firefighting has been privatized for 20+ years and the Federal government shows no signs of changing this trend anytime soon.
There is also a lot of talk of people leaving the structural "public" fire departments to go private. In my experience the trend is actually the opposite. Private firefighters are generally significantly underpaid compared to their government counterparts. When I was working for the Federal government 15 years ago, I was making a base wage of $15-$20 an hour, if I went out on a fire I got $2 an hour hazard pay for the entire day. If I went over 40 hours in a week I then was paid time and a half and anything over 80 was double time and a half. If I got sent out on a fire for a 14-21 day tour I would work 16 hour days for 14-21 days straight and just be raking in the money. My private crew counterparts were making somewhere between $7-$12 dollars an hour and were only getting time and a half over 40 hours.
Source: Spent 10 years as a volunteer structure and wildland firefighter.
Plus, insurance fraud was at an all time high, detecting accelerants was very difficult, people smoked in bed, people smoked everywhere. As a kid, all I remember is adults lighting cigarettes. My job was stomping out the butts.
Source:watching Goodfellas, and that movie with Bull--forget the name--Backdraft.
It's not like I'm defending yelling "fire!" in a movie theater.
I absolutely do defend the right to yell "fire!" in a movie theater. I also absolutely think you are subject to the consequences thereof.
If there IS a fire, then by all means yell "fire!" accordingly.
I've twice seen Penn Jillette stand on stage before thousands, juggling flaming torches, pontificating loudly about and proceeding to yell "fire!"
I've seen the movie _Backdraft_ in a movie theater; there was much yelling of "fire!" therein.
And, of course, if you scare a crowd into a life-threatening stampede by yelling "fire!" when there isn't one, then you're culpable for any harm that follows.
All of this is different from what you portrayed, which was incarcerating someone for yelling "fire!" in a theater purely on grounds of doing so, regardless of whether there was/wasn't a fire and whether (in case there was) it posed a threat.