It's always there it's just that you learn to control it." You have to have a level of fear and respect for the fire, but you never get over the fear. "That's what the firefighters will say: if you're not scared, then get out of the job. You don't overcome the fear, you learn to control it," Phoenix explains.
"It was amazing to go into the training and face a lot of these fears. To play the role, Phoenix and fellow cast members went through intensive training with real firefighters and on the set they dealt with real, not computer-generated, flames. Joaquin Phoenix stars as Jack Morrison who goes from novice, fresh out of the fire academy, to skilled firefighter, putting his life on the line. Ladder 49 is the story of the crew of ladder truck number 49 in the East coast city of Baltimore. In firehouse jargon, a "ladder" is a truck equipped with a long extension ladder to reach high up to burning buildings.
#How long is the movie ladder 49 tv#
As an action film, Ladder 49 might have worked-but as a drama relying on manipulation and firehouse "boys will be boys" hijinx, it's pure TV drama: weepy, bland, and soggy.Real-life everyday heroes who fight fires and save lives come to the screen in a sweeping drama set at a big city fire station in the new film, Ladder 49. The only redeeming part of Ladder 49 is the first-rate special effects and genuinely scary firefighting sequences. (The film's favorite tactic? Plenty of montages set to soulful contemporary music, which are clumsily meant to stir the soul, but instead just up the cheese factor.) Not helping are the thinly drawn characters-the audience is never given any background on where characters come from, why they do what they do, or why the increasingly puffy John Travolta is so excruciating to watch as he hacks his way through his trite lines.
Jack goes about the normal, unexciting drama of family life-getting married, starting a family-before he takes on the search and rescue duties of the firehouse, upping the danger factor of his work many times over.Īs a portrait of the life of a firefighter, Ladder 49 trades depth for drama, establishing itself as being more concerned with squeezing tears from the audience than accurately presenting any sort of realistic portrayal of the harried lives of firefighters.
#How long is the movie ladder 49 full#
Jack, as a rookie 10 years earlier, is full of piss and vinegar, and finds a mentor in Mike Kennedy (John Travolta), the captain of the firehouse. while, of course, trapped in a 20-story blaze. The story of firefighter Jack Morrison (Joaquin Phoenix) is told through flashbacks as he reflects on his career. But that familiar, post-9/11 heroic glaze of idealism is certainly present in Ladder 49, a high-gloss look at the lives of supposedly "ordinary" firefighters that only wishes it could be as moving as most 9/11-inspired heroic schmaltz. At first glance, it'd be easy to categorize Ladder 49 as a piece of post-9/11 heroic schmaltz-then again, sappy movies about firefighters were being made long before 9/11.
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