Comments (0)

LADDER 49

Script Review: LADDER 49
(Draft date: May 9, 2002), written by Lewis Colick

Reviewed by Christopher Wehner

WARNING: SPOILERS!

(5/7/03)

The last movie I’ve seen where a firefighter was a main character was the awful Firestorm, which had little to do about firefighters. The last important movie about firefighters, which was pretty good, was Ron Howard’s direction of Gregory Widen’s script Backdraft. A movie that centered on the investigation of an arsonist who was targeting firemen. It was also a fairly competent character study about being a fireman.

The upcoming Ladder 49, due out sometime in early 2004, is one of two major firemen movies in development since 9/11. (The other being Truck 44). The script I am discussing is by Lewis Colick (October Sky, Domestic Disturbance, Ghosts of Mississippi, Judgment Night, Unlawful Entry) and is his first draft dated May 9, 2002. As it is a first draft we can assume it has been rewritten. From what I know, Colick is the only writer on the project and that’s always a good thing.

Ladder 49 centers on one Jack Morrison, to be played by Joaquin Phoenix. He is in his mid-thirties, is married and has several children. He is a likeable guy, and his exploits during calls shows him to be a brave and honorable firefighter. Not long into the story (about 10-15 minutes of screen time) Jack and his station are called to a major fire at Macy’s department store. There, while trying to rescue someone, which he does accomplish, Jack is trapped with no apparent way out of the monstrous fire. Trapped, facing possible death, Jack reflects back on his life. The story is then told in a series of long flashbacks. Taking us all the way back to his first days as a fireman, how he met his wife, the birth of his children, and other highs and lows he had experienced as a fireman. We learn right away that Jack is questioning his choice for a career. He apparently is torn between doing the job and being with his family. His wife and children obviously worry about him on an almost daily basis, as anyone would.

This is a script that Colick clearly had an enormous amount of passion for. It is well-written and great care was taken with the establishment of the characters, especially Jack who is nothing but sympathetic.

Some of the flashbacks do meander a bit, some seem redundant in that we already know Jack is a good guy and that he loves his children. There were several scenes that really didn’t move the story forward. The problem with telling your story completely in flashback is that it’s not a very effective way to tell a story. It’s effective, in my opinion, when you have one encompassing flashback for an entire story with bookends grounded in the present that tie everything together. It’s effective when you have a character telling a story and we have voice over intermittent with the flashbacks. (I don’t think a movie has ever accomplished this technique as well as Darabont’s Shawshank Redemption which relies heavily on voice over and flashbacks.)

When Jack is first stranded in the burning building we do not know much about him, the story then attempts to bring the audience along with flashbacks showing us the ups and downs of Jack’s life. I’m not convinced this is going to work. If not for 9/11 I’d bet the farm it wouldn’t work, but in light of that day and the heightened awareness of the hardships firefighters endure, today’s audience most likely will be patient enough to discover Jack as a character in this after-the-fact manner.

I also worry that Colick’s passion for this story is in itself a problem. He seems to go so far out of his way to make us want to like Jack that it comes off as melodramatic and over-the-top in several instances. This is just my perception of a few of the scenes, and I could be completely off-base. Also, a reminder that this is a first draft and most likely Colick has self-edited himself on this if it was an issue.

The only real issue I have with the script is the characterization of Jack. At one point he’s not sure he wants to be a fireman, and yet we all know it’s what he was born to do. Of course he’s the only one who can’t see that. This is a normal setup for an evolving character arc. Jack, while trapped in the fire, will discover why it was that he first became a firefighter. But he doesn’t, towards the end he tells his chief Mike Kennedy that he doesn’t know why he is a firefighter. Which is too cynical of a way to end the story -- cynicism can be perfectly fine for a movie, only I think it’s a mistake here because it will leave people feeling cheated. It’s setup for us to discover why Jack became a fireman. The whole story has the audience focused on this poor fireman who has sacrificed so much to help others, and in the end he has no idea why? That doesn’t make sense.

The story opens with him as a kid watching a fire truck go by. The script tells us this kid is going to be a fireman. But then in the end, it fails to tell us why. Jack’s verbalized reactions to being a fireman early on needed to be resolved. He sounds pathetic at one point, which could be normal for someone feeling some self-pity. A conversation takes place before Jack is trapped in the fire. He is talking to his wife Linda after being rejected for a loan at the bank to do home improvements:

JACK: Lately I’ve been thinking about something. Wondering… if it’s worth it.

LINDA: Jack…just cause some little jerk at the bank wouldn’t –

JACK: This has been coming on me for awhile now. The bank was just the icing on the cake…Thirteen years in, Linda, thirteen years, and what have I got to show for it? A Body full of scars, bad lungs, bad back… I’m only thirty-five years old, Linda, I fee like I’m fifty…And I’ll tell you something else…I could count on one hand how many people bothered to say thank you…

This was all wrong in my opinion. "I could count on one hand how many people bothered to say thank you…" Excuse me, but if that’s reason enough to question being a fireman then Jack would have never become one. It was an obtuse thing to say. Later on during another scene we hear about these poor people who are losing their homes, loved ones, and their lives are destroyed by fires. A true fireman would never condemn these people for not remembering amid the chaos to thank them.

That scene could have been important though. Jack’s self-loathing could have setup a dramatic ending where he truly discovers why he was a fireman. How the riggers and the trial and tribulations of being a fireman caused him to forget and became a bit disillusioned.

Nonetheless, I think this story can be an important one, making a movie about firemen is a worthy one, and one I’m looking forward to seeing. I am confident that the script has been worked on by Colick and will be improved, at least I hope.

Until next time…

Chris

 

Comments

Only logged-in members can comment. You can log in or join today for free!