Red Skies of Montana

As I write this, the shock of the loss of nineteen firefighters in the major wildfires in Arizona is still an open wound on the hearts of all who consider such men and women doing this as a career as true heroes. Indeed, my DVD arrived on the day of the memorial service in Arizona for the fallen "Hotshots". Forest fires, newly coined as "Wildfires" are part of life in the American West. They will always occur, and teams of firefighters will always go into danger to extinguish them to lessen loss of life and property. And unfortunately, from time to time, some of these courageous women and men will lose the fight and their lives. The Red Skies of Montanna was produced in 1952 and is the story of the loss of five of six members of a crew of elite "smokejumpers" working on a remote fire in the forests of Montanna, much the same as what has just happened as life imitated art. In this story, however the foreman of the crew is the only survivor, and in investigations that clear him, the seeds of doubt as to his courage are planted in his own mind as well as in the mind of the son of one of the killed crewmen, and the film rides on this terrible tide of amnesiac doubt, mistrust, and blame. Richard Widmark as the survivor and Jeffery Hunter as the vengeful son shoulder the load. Action is present in a well done plot and Technicolor photography is beautiful, although most intense in fire scenes. And speaking of scenes, the film was mostly shot on location with some real fires filmed and intercut with studio filmed special effects. That's real fire the actors are filmed in, with the only model stuff shown is some false forests going up. No computer effects were even dreamed of then. Hats off to 20th Century Fox on this one. The cast actually went through a substantial bit of U.S. Forest Service basic training and show the smokejumper drills with actors doing a lot of the stuff. Also to be found among the actors are many guys who would later be recognizable faces in movies ant TV of the 50s and 60s- Richard Boone, Richard Crenna( in the equipment line behind " Pop" as the doomed men gear up for the drop early in the film), John Fiedler( we know him as the little owl-faced milquetoast actor from the era, but mostly as "Lawyer Dagget" from TRUE GRIT),and in the crew cafeteria and later on the fire line at the climax of the movie, look for Charles Bronson. The Forest Service also supplied equipment and aircraft for the film. Great shots of the smokejumpers inside and leaving a USFS Ford TriMotor. A movie to watch as well as own. (Boy, it would be a natural to remake and update today.) One final note, the story here is fiction, but it is rooted in fact. In 1949, a smokejumper team was lost in fighting a fire in the Mann Gulch tragedy. This story borrows a bit from those events. And still more, in the late 1990s, Sebastian Junger, writer of The Perfect Storm, wrote the book YOUNG MEN AND FIRE, telling the story of yet another such fatal tragedy as well as directing interest towards the Mann Gulch event and this film. One more book- Stan Cohen of Missoula, Montanna, home of the smokejumpers school, wrote a history of SMOKEJUMPING in the 1980s with references to the above movie and events up to that time.

I first (and last) saw this movie in the late 1950s when I was a kid and have long been trying to get a copy. Thanks to Amazon for making it available. I remembered it fondly but not terribly well and I'm happy to say that it is still very much worth watching. It is the story of the folks who fight forest fires. In the movie, the guys are smoke jumpers, guys who parachute to places where it's hard to get to. The movie's story was loosely based on a real incident, the Mann Gulch Fire of August 1949, when a number of smoke jumpers were killed when the fire spread very quickly. This is an exciting and dramatic movie, with a lot of action, some beautiful scenery and a narrative at the beginning of the film that talks a little bit about how forest fires might get started (dry lightning, or lightning strikes when no rain follows). I like those little touches and wish modern movie makers would go back to those just a little bit. The cast was made up of actors who were well known at the time and I also like the differences in mood and style of movie-making: I like modern approaches too, but sometimes it's just a lot of fun to see them made the old fashioned way.Over all this is a winner. There have been a number of movies about fire fighting, but all too few on fighting forest fires.

The re-emergence of this film is extremely timely, given the tragic deaths of 19 firefighters in Arizona as of July 1, 2013. The film starkly shows how dangerous these wildfires are. How they put the movie together is a wonder, particularly in an era without computer special effects. Trees are burning and exploding all over the place. You learn a great deal about fire-fighting back in the 1950s (Richard Widmark has a walky-talky that looks like a giant handheld robot) and it's in color no less. The blah actress Constance Smith is given top billing but has little to do but wish her husband (Widmark) well as he goes off to fight another fire. (She's vacuuming the bedroom when he calls to tell her.) There's a big misunderstanding by Jeffrey Hunter about Richard Widmark, but it all gets resolved at the end after everyone fights a really big fire. Richard Boone, who has always seem dour and depressing to me, turns in a really good performance here and is sympathetic to boot. Oh, by the way Fox Cinema Archive fans -- there's a pet raccoon in this film and I believe it's the same one used in "Lost in the Wilderness." A good full-frame (4:3) print. Another review here is critical of the print, but to this eye it's worn but the color is solid and it's stable.

I saw this movie when it first came out in 1952. It was based on an actual event from 1949 (The Mann Gulch Fire.) I was 7 at the time, and it must have made a huge impression on me, because I have remembered all these years. I have despaired because it wasn't available (that I know of) until recently. I received my copy of the dvd yesterday (5/2014) and I must say I am as impressed now as I was then. The filming of the fire scenes had to have been intense for all concerned. I love Richard Widmark. He always had such a convincing presence, no matter what role he played, and this role calls for bravado, reluctance, and leadership. To me, he covered these more than adequately. The entire movie made me cry, cheer and be a bit scared. Thank you, Amazon, for making this great movie available. By the way, if you look carefully, you'll catch a quick glimpse of a young Charles Bronson (in an uncredited role) in mess hall scene. I wasn't sure what I'd seen, but a few minutes later I heard his unmistakable voice. This movie is also, in my view, a great companion piece to Steven Spielberg's "Always."

Einer der seltenen Filme über die Arbeit der Brandlöscher in den riesigen Waldgebieten des Nordwestens der USA, von denen einer in den Verdacht gerät, seine Kameraden aufgrund von Feigheit im Stich gelassen zu haben. Eine gute Rolle für Richard Widmark ("Die Ratte von Soho", 1950; "Cheyenne", 1964), dessen Gegenspieler durch den zu Unrecht fast vergessenen Jeffrey Hunter ("Die weiße Feder", 1955; "König der Könige", 1961) verkörpert wird. Sehr ansehnlicher, spannender Farbfilm in guter Restaurierung.

Diesen super Geilen Film habe ich zuletzt als Teenager gesehen und da wurde ich in seinen Bann gezogen. Nun ist das ewig lange warten auf diesen tollen Film vorbei, endlich erscheint er mit deutscher Sprache auf DVD ich bin entzückt 😄Update : 04.12.15 Der Film ist heute bei mir an gekommen und ich freu mich wie ein Schnitzel 😂

Ein guter alter amerikanischer Film. Habe lange gebraucht um ihn zu bekommen.

Schwiegervater hat sich sehr über das Geschenk gefreut.

Gut