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In the cinematic world, there is a little niche genre that focuses on a prisoner who, for some reason, seems to join a wildfire service and ends up having to fight the fire. Wildfire 7 puts this tale into a made for television script and, of course, adds a bit of extra juicy melodrama. Nell, our leading lady, has her forest camping trip soiree with her estranged daughter and relations set on fire. How about this for a happy reunion? Or will you get tired of the cheaply made news footage that attempts to cover a light budget? The choice is yours…
Forest fires, elderly who have a penchant for barbeque grills, heaps of tin foil, an uncle who clearly hates life but does not want to be involved in anyone’s life, and a strange urge to shout directly into your work colleagues’ face to assert dominance.
Nell is currently serving time for manslaughter but claims it was self defense and has enrolled into a firefighting program to reduce her sentence. There she meets Yeager, her supervisor, who is constantly yelling at his workers and has the general beefy look. Most workers would consider him a woeful sight. Though Nell and Yeager do not have the greatest relationship, she learns to appreciate him. After saving him from getting injured by a fire engine, she gets promoted and is able to change her unit. Not only does this help her reduce her sentence, but allows her to hone her skills.
Fast forward four years, and she is asked to join Wildfire 7, after the previous boss died in a fire. She takes the assignment as it makes her closer to her family that has never returned any of her letters. Unknown to her, evil grandmother has been intercepting them along with instigating her daughter Sophie to never return the letters sent to her. Oh dear. Nell’s new team consists of Doc whom she finds friendly, angrey lads girl, and surprise surprise, Yeager. Yeager appears to has been demoted because of his poor behavior, and after seeing Nell, it is clear he does not want to be ordered around by her.
However, their argument could not go for too long because our forest fire is about to start. Unfortunately, it is on the same day Sophie, her daughter is camping with her father Scott and friend, as well as his uncle Nick. Nick is arguably one of the worst characters in disaster film history. Instead of the debonair villain that we see at the beginning of most films, he transforms into a moany, helpless, frightened and utterly pathetic excuse of a man. They end up needing rescuing because as they turn around to see the source of the smoke and flames, they are off the beaten path. Luckily, this is when Wildfire 7 parachutes in! Are there any civilians left alive to save? Will Wildfire 7 survive long enough to rescue the civilians? The most pressing question is, will anyone land a punch on Uncle Nick? Or will Nell successfully find her daughter to rescue her, and then witness in horror as Sophie powers off without her?
Wildfire 7 is as funny as it is entertaining, and more things than one. Somehow Aunt Sophie works best as a antihero, based on how sickenly dependent these characters are on her. Set for release in 2002, TV novels had a very short budget to work with, hence, they came up with absolutely absurd strapped story lines to keep the viewers guessing. This is what results in such hamfisted acting in Wildfire 7 as it has been mixed awkwardly with feel good drama, teamed with some motivational slow motion camera work. There is a very subdued quality to the acting to the extent some performances come off as clumsy. In detail, none of the actors appear to be very convincing to be, because Nell does not seem to have the calmness to want to take control.
Jo Jo had a humorous street swagger persona. Yeager merely screams and glares at everyone. The personalities are reminiscent of comic books and it adds a strange flavor to the movie.
The movie is just a lil over 90 minutes, yet there is a lot of padding. Stock footage is used more than once, the news reporters keep saying the same things, and the bystanders are just very silly. Everyone calls a lady stationed in a fire watch tower “Mother” and during tactical fire meetings, the everyone else addresses her as Mother. Then there is this grandmother who is always looking out of the window while she only spent 5% of entire screen time with a worried expression that was funny to me. She appears to have Gaviscon deficiency.
I could be kidding, but Wildfire 7 did keep my attention. The first twenty minutes were, I must say, quite captivating when Nell is undergoing fire training. It makes sense, as the viewer, to see her hone her skills and keep track of the details of what you can conclude will be important down the line. The film did set a captivating disaster in motion, even though the scale of what did take place fell short of the devastation you wish to see.
A majority of fire scenes were taken from archive footage and differ in grain quality. While certain shots are CGI and there is real fire at the beginning, they seem out of context when placed in the rest of the narrative. Wildfire 7 employs a combination of primitive CGI and real fire. While the practical effects deliver with some degree of success, the early CGI is ghastly, particularly during the dramatic escape scene when traversing a fallen tree. To depict heat haze, the whole screen is set to a wave distortion, creating an effect that is flat out strange. Our characters are untouched, leading to a baffling result.
Seeing that many of you are not familiar with the characters, I’d like to point out Wildfire 7 which features two teenage girls who are actually decent. Unlike Uncle Nick, who frankly needs some therapy, these two teenage ladies are incredibly well-balanced and moderately courageous. Also, commendations go out to Mother who perfectly conveys the, “Well, I have resided here my whole life, so good luck getting me to leave” sentiment. Strangely, the IMDB site lists the movie at 1 hour 40 minutes long while my version is a mere 1 hour 34 minutes. There are several characters that appear only once like the park ranger and the married couple. It’s my guess the other character subplots were cut out of the movie. The ranger, who does not even get mention in the credits, has the highest casting rank, but in all of his scenes, he only shouts things like, “IT’S FIRE SEASON! BE SAFE!” which is a little too extreme, but there we go
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