Hellfighters (film)
| Hellfighters | |
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Original theatrical poster
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| Directed by | Andrew V. McLaglen |
| Produced by | Robert Arthur |
| Written by | Clair Huffaker |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Leonard Rosenman |
| Cinematography | William H. Clothier |
| Edited by | Folmar Blangsted |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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121 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $3.75 million (US/ Canada rentals) |
Hellfighters is a 1968 American film starring John Wayne and featuring Katharine Ross, Bruce Cabot, Jim Hutton, Jay C. Flippen and Vera Miles. The film, directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, is about a group of oil well firefighters, based loosely on the life of Red Adair. Adair, "Boots" Hansen, and "Coots" Matthews, served as technical advisers on the film.
Hellfighters was for the most part negatively received.
Chance Buckman is the head of a Houston–based oil well firefighting outfit. With a team that includes Joe Horn, Greg Parker, and George Harris, Chance travels around the world putting out blazes at well heads from industrial accident, explosion or terrorist attack. Chance enjoys the thrills, but longs for ex-wife Madelyn. She divorced him 20 years earlier, taking their daughter Letitia with her, because Madelyn could not bear to see her husband risk his life. Though they love each other, Madelyn could not deal with her terror that Chance might burn to death in a fire.
While extinguishing a burning wellhead, Chance suffers a near-fatal accident when he is crushed by a bulldozer blade. Against his wishes, his daughter Letitia (Tish) visits him in the hospital, summoned by his old friend and former firefighting partner Jack Lomax. She also pursues Greg Parker to a well fire in Louisiana. (Greg has a notorious reputation for using fires to pick up women. Generally, any woman he takes to a fire ends up in bed with him.) In the case of Buckman's spitfire of a daughter, however, after considerable initial friction Greg and Tish fall in love and marry five days after their first meeting. In spite of Greg's reputation, Buckman comes to trust his daughter's choice and accepts Greg into the family. Madelyn, projecting her own fears onto her daughter, though gracious is rather less accepting, despite her liking for Greg.
Greg suspects that his new father-in-law is growing increasingly protective of him after the marriage in an effort to protect his daughter from heartbreak should her new husband be harmed or killed. Tish wishes to see the fires that her husband and father fight, something that neither man encourages. Her father relents and allows her to accompany Greg into the field.
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Wikipedia