Revisiting 'Backdraft': Ron Howard's not half bad blockbuster

Ron Howard's work as director is often dismissed as workmanlike or even hacky, but the man is capable of making solid, even grand mainstream entertainment. He doesn't have a signature style that I can put my finger on -- certainly it isn't subtlety -- but he definitely can deliver a rousing adventure.

Certainly, his version of Solo, which seems to have largely pleased diehard Star Wars fans if not wider audiences, has made cinephiles give him a second look. One movie worth a reappraisal is his 1991 ode to firefighters, Backdraft.

Not only is the movie a marvel of early '90s era practical effects, it is also far more interesting character-wise than it ever needed to be. It may be at least 20 minutes to long and 20% less heavy handed to be considered great -- but it definitely delivers on several visceral fronts.

First off this is arguable peak Baldwin brother coolness, you had The Hunt for Red October the year before and this was William Baldwin's one, and probably only, shining moment on screen. He's the pretty boy conduit for the audience here, although its Kurt Russell who walks away as the film's true star.

He plays a pretty angry, mean-spirited and disturbing character on many levels, who is forgiven for his obnoxiousness by almost every character in the movie because he's well, Kurt Russell. I'm not sure if it was Death Proof or simply time that helped America come to appreciate Russell as the great leading man he is and was, but this movie really highlights his unabashedly macho charm.

But this is a cast full of heavy hitters. Rebecca De Mornay is luminous in a thankless role as Russell's estranged wife, Jennifer Jason Leigh is bizarrely cast in the even more thankless role of Baldwin's love interest, Scott Glenn is initially charming and then creepy as all get out as one of the fireman -- and the movie has two huge aces up it sleeve in Robert De Niro and Donald Sutherland in two campy roles that they both play to the hilt in such fashion that I ached for seeing a movie just about them.

De Niro plays a horribly scared arson detective with a short fuse but also an almost Zen-like approach to analyzing fire. Meanwhile, Sutherland is doing his version of Hannibal Lector as a creepy arsonist (also scarred), who sees De Niro as some sort of symbiotic partner in a lifelong dance with the "monster" of flames.

It's all wonderfully silly and entertaining. I know the movie has a horrid reputation with actual firefighters and it's easy to see why. Other than making a good faith effort to pay tribute to camaraderie and sacrifice of real fireman, it is much more preoccupied with concocting an elaborate murder plot, exploring an overheated sibling rivalry, and throwing in enough sex appeal to make this play like Top Gun with firehoses.

But I'm not complaining. There is something so appealing and quaint about the absurdity of Backdraft, something totally '90s. And these days, I miss those days.

I can't go so far as to say I am a Ron Howard fan. Although, I have next to no criticism of The Paper, Night Shift, Splash and Apollo 13. His legacy is a strange one, since competency and craft are not always prized above personal vision, but he's a pro, that much I know.