With an amazing poster like this film has, how can you go wrong? Well, ok, there is a slight misstep out of the gate when the actual film omits the exclamation mark that is on the poster, but power on through and, to paraphrase 'Hellraiser,' they have such sights to show you.
Cards on the table, this is a late 70s disaster movie, coming after most of the greats (you know, yer Airports, Earthquakes, Avalanches, Swarms, Rollercoasters, Poseiden Adventures, and Towering Infernos), but it follows the basic formula: a large cast of actors of varying degrees of fame--some trying to get back into (or keep their place in) the game, like Leslie Nielsen or Barry Newman; while others, like Ava Gardner, Henry Fonda, and Shelley Winters, seem to have been just looking for a paycheck--are introduced in rapid fire fashion, with one quirk apiece but no more (Gardner is an alcoholic, Newman a womanizer, Susan Clark is (was?) having an affair, Fonda is two months from retirement, etc). Once everyone is introduced over the first half hour or so, some kids accidentally start a fire which, psych!, the fire department manages to put out (only a couple of buildings burn). Then a disgruntled employee at the oil refinery (built in the city; Nielsen's mayor's quirk is that he's corrupt, dontacha know) runs about opening random valves which cause the refinery to go up in flames but, psych!, the fire dept comes through again.
All this is, frankly, a little slow going, especially as it is interspersed with a half-assed blackmail subplot and the opening ceremony of the new hospital (staffed by Newman and extra cranky Winters, among others). But then a couple of welders accidentally ignite a river of spilled oil that the fire dept missed, sending flames racing back to the refinery which promptly starts exploding and burning again. This time it's too much and the city does, indeed, catch on fire.
I include all the above mainly to tell you that, if you wanna watch shit burn, stick with it; though it feints a few times, this film genuinely delivers on the 'fire' front.
Anyway, the rest of the film features our cast, most of whom have ended up at the hospital (for, you know, reasons), trying not to be on fire. The main exceptions are Gardner and James Franciscus, the latter of whom is the tv producer (quirk: recently quit smoking) trying to keep the former's anchorwoman from drinking herself under the table while reporting the big story.
Yeah, there's a pregnant woman; yeah, there's kids in peril; yeah, there's overacting--these are the things you expect in a disaster movie, though.
What you might not expect:
* Newman making a breakfast, um, smoothie (?) consisting of, among other ingredients, egg (including the shells), avocados (including the skins AND pits), a bottle of wine, and milk
* the aforementioned kids smoking; as in, actual children actually taking drags of cigarettes
* a relatively graphic (though faked) surgical procedure
* two characters having a heartfelt reconciliation of sorts while the camera is focused, entirely, on the face of an elderly patient, um, relieving himself in a bedpan
* a weirdly downbeat ending that focuses on losses
But, what really set this film apart from its disaster contemporaries is that, while there are some disappointingly lame, special effect flames here and there, this production actually set an entire section of Montreal on fire. Like, really. Montreal was looking to clear some derelict buildings and let the filmmakers have eight blocks (according to the internet) to just set on fire. And you can tell; these are real, out of control fires that no one is going to extinguish. There are even a bunch of full-body burns, including one guy who gets hit by a moving car (which, itself promptly launches into the air and crashes into, well, fire.
I'm telling you, you wanna watch fires, this is yer movie.
[Addendum: apparently, there is a 2001 Jim Wynorski straight-to-video film called 'Ablaze,' that is not only a quasi-remake but essentially lifts all the fire footage from this. Yes, it's now on my watchlist]
[Addendum 2: it turns out that I probably saw at least some of 'City on Fire!' (sorry, I'm keeping the exclamation point) as it was featured on the very first season of Mystery Science Theater 3000, back when it was a local show in Minneapolis & St Paul]
With an amazing poster like this film has, how can you go wrong? Well, ok, there is a slight misstep out of the gate when the actual film omits the exclamation mark that is on the poster, but power on through and, to paraphrase 'Hellraiser,' they have such sights to show you.
Cards on the table, this is a late 70s disaster movie, coming after most of the greats (you know, yer Airports, Earthquakes, Avalanches, Swarms, Rollercoasters, Poseiden Adventures, and Towering Infernos), but it follows the basic formula: a large cast of actors of varying degrees of fame--some trying to get back into (or keep their place in) the game, like Leslie Nielsen or Barry Newman; while others, like Ava Gardner, Henry Fonda, and Shelley Winters, seem to have been just looking for a paycheck--are introduced in rapid fire fashion, with one quirk apiece but no more (Gardner is an alcoholic, Newman a womanizer, Susan Clark is (was?) having an affair, Fonda is two months from retirement, etc). Once everyone is introduced over the first half hour or so, some kids accidentally start a fire which, psych!, the fire department manages to put out (only a couple of buildings burn). Then a disgruntled employee at the oil refinery (built in the city; Nielsen's mayor's quirk is that he's corrupt, dontacha know) runs about opening random valves which cause the refinery to go up in flames but, psych!, the fire dept comes through again.
All this is, frankly, a little slow going, especially as it is interspersed with a half-assed blackmail subplot and the opening ceremony of the new hospital (staffed by Newman and extra cranky Winters, among others). But then a couple of welders accidentally ignite a river of spilled oil that the fire dept missed, sending flames racing back to the refinery which promptly starts exploding and burning again. This time it's too much and the city does, indeed, catch on fire.
I include all the above mainly to tell you that, if you wanna watch shit burn, stick with it; though it feints a few times, this film genuinely delivers on the 'fire' front.
Anyway, the rest of the film features our cast, most of whom have ended up at the hospital (for, you know, reasons), trying not to be on fire. The main exceptions are Gardner and James Franciscus, the latter of whom is the tv producer (quirk: recently quit smoking) trying to keep the former's anchorwoman from drinking herself under the table while reporting the big story.
Yeah, there's a pregnant woman; yeah, there's kids in peril; yeah, there's overacting--these are the things you expect in a disaster movie, though.
What you might not expect:
* Newman making a breakfast, um, smoothie (?) consisting of, among other ingredients, egg (including the shells), avocados (including the skins AND pits), a bottle of wine, and milk
* the aforementioned kids smoking; as in, actual children actually taking drags of cigarettes
* a relatively graphic (though faked) surgical procedure
* two characters having a heartfelt reconciliation of sorts while the camera is focused, entirely, on the face of an elderly patient, um, relieving himself in a bedpan
* a weirdly downbeat ending that focuses on losses
But, what really set this film apart from its disaster contemporaries is that, while there are some disappointingly lame, special effect flames here and there, this production actually set an entire section of Montreal on fire. Like, really. Montreal was looking to clear some derelict buildings and let the filmmakers have eight blocks (according to the internet) to just set on fire. And you can tell; these are real, out of control fires that no one is going to extinguish. There are even a bunch of full-body burns, including one guy who gets hit by a moving car (which, itself promptly launches into the air and crashes into, well, fire.
I'm telling you, you wanna watch fires, this is yer movie.
[Addendum: apparently, there is a 2001 Jim Wynorski straight-to-video film called 'Ablaze,' that is not only a quasi-remake but essentially lifts all the fire footage from this. Yes, it's now on my watchlist]
[Addendum 2: it turns out that I probably saw at least some of 'City on Fire!' (sorry, I'm keeping the exclamation point) as it was featured on the very first season of Mystery Science Theater 3000, back when it was a local show in Minneapolis & St Paul]
