Backdraft: B, Apollo 13: A-

Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon hasn’t been released wide yet, but has been getting respectable, if not spectacular, reviews. Recently, I was able to catch two of Howard’s earlier films. They share themes of male bonding, man triumphing over nature, and lost innocence . . .

After making slight comedies and family films in the 1980s, Howard’s first try at more adult subject matter was Backdraft, the best firefighting, sibling-rivalry, murder mystery of 1991. Howard’s creates sufficient tension and excitement in the firefighting scenes and occasionally allows his camera to stand back from the action, allowing the Chicago landscapes to participate. This is a surprising jump in directorial achievement from Howard’s previous works. The acting by brothers Kurt Russell and William Baldwin are good and OK, respectively. Donald Sutherland is terrific as the super-creepy pyromaniac and Robert De Niro gives his standard, great, lived-in performance as an arson investigator. But while the story is interesting and engaging, the dialogue is average at best. Besides Backdraft, screenwriter (and former fireman) Gregory Widen has mostly dealt in the horror and sci-fi genres (Highlander, The Prophecy) where dialogue doesn’t matter as much as concepts and action. But if you’re film is part family drama, you need better dialogue – and a lead with a little more depth than Alec’s little brother. Hanz Zimmer gives the film a superior score, much better than it deserves.

Interestingly, it is James Horner’s score that doesn’t feel quite up to the challenge in Apollo 13, a beautifully acted, tightly constructed, perfectly realized account of the troubled 1970 mission to the moon. Howard deftly combines and fuses a seemingly unwieldy, complicated story into a coherent, interesting, tense film. He might not knock your socks off with camera angles or movements, but he doesn’t need to: the unbelievably true story does the heavy lifting. William Broyles Jr. (Cast Away) fills the script with humorous tidbits and appropriate character development - and lots of classic lines (“Failure is not an option.”). The cast is uniformly superb, with Ed Harris as the standout. Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Loren Dean, and Kathleen Quinlan all give Howard strong performances. Great cinematography and special effects round out the cinematic experience. Backdraft: B, Apollo 13: A-