Trial by Fire
Trial by Fire
| 27 September 2008 (USA)
Trial by Fire Trailers

A firefighter is wrongly blamed for the death of her father, hours before he was due to retire from the department. Eager to prove herself to her peers, she sets out to join an elite squad of smoke jumpers who are expected to jump from aeroplanes into the heart of a blaze.

Reviews
awparran

I am a pilot and believe airplanes were made to be flown and not jumped out of. That said, I salute those that are smokejumpers. I salute those that fight forest fires. As an American from Indiana, I never knew how severe such devastation could be until living in Salmon Arm, BC when in 1998 we were evacuated because of one. The first in Canadian history for mass evacuation.Since then there have been may fires that have caught national attention.So what if the plot was weak? So what if the woman had skinny legs? Sorry but I do not believe in that BS. If she can do the job, I'll root for her. Oh by the way, when I was in Vietnam, the best man for the job in many cases was someone that wasn't all brawn.And finally, having lived and traveled across British Columbia, it was great seeing the old places again.

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tflynn-7

Entertaining movie but one of the most predictable movies I've seen lately. The writers tried to throw in every known plot twist: Her sister just happening to be camping in the fire area, the little girl going to the bathroom, but her parents looking for her everywhere but the bathroom, the bathroom door being stuck, her just happening to be on a date with one of the instructor when the whole thing goes down, the whole situation of a rookie being taken on a fire jump, etc. Maybe I watch too much TV, but when I can predict the whole movie after watching 5 minutes of it, does not show much originality on the part of the writers.

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edwagreen

While the film trivializes jumping out of planes to combat fires, it's an interesting one with a heartwarming story to support it.Blamed for her father's death by fire, as he is about to retire, Kristin, his daughter and fire-lady decides to go for fire jumping. The film adequately shows the rigors involved what the applicants have to go through when applying for such a position.The problem is that the film becomes Hollywood-oriented when an emergency arises, and Kristin is immediately put to the test. This is Hollywood, what do you expect?Basically, the film is a good one as it shows the sibling rivalry between daughters of the deceased fire fighter and the fact that the daughter applied her knowledge learned during the "brief" learning period as well as what her father taught her. Naturally, there is sexism involved as the firemen in both jumpers and regular fire fighters resented a woman among them.

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traceym-7

I am also a region 5 firefighter and all I can say about this movie is it is awful. Not only does it not represent what it takes to be a wildland firefighter but it also does makes the entire profession look like a macho fest with no rules, guidelines or knowledge. I wonder if this writer/director/crew did any research before doing this film. Rookie camp is 6-8 weeks, the physical requirements are not even the same as they are in real life. It takes much more years of experience to be a smokejumper and much more smarts than any of these actors portrayed. That simple information can be found on any smokejumper site. Truth-be-told I am embarrassed I even rented this film as a firefighter but I just wanted to see how realistic it was and I was right. If you watch this film please know that being a smokejumper takes much more work than this and being a wildland firefighter is a much more grueling profession that takes far more knowledge than these actors portrayed.

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