Riveting Doc ‘Burn’ Chronicles City on Fire

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly versionE-mail page to friendE-mail page to friendPDF versionPDF version
No votes yet
HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 4.5/5.0
Rating: 4.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Detroit, Michigan has more fires every year than any other city in the United States. As the city’s population dwindles (from 1.8 million in 1950 to just over 710k in 2010), people are burning what’s left behind to the tune of 30,000 fire calls a year. Executive produced by Denis Leary, the stellar documentary “Burn,” opening in Detroit and Chicago today, offers viewers a chance to spend a year in a Motown firehouse and the result is riveting filmmaking that both captures the personalities on the truck and the larger issues at play in a city on fire.

Directors Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez structure “Burn” in a brilliant way, allowing viewers not just access to life behind the fire hose but to make personal connections with these men who act against the human instinct to run away from the flames. The first thing one notices about the film is the incredible on-the-scene access the filmmakers were given. You will feel the flames, the splash of the water, and the danger as firefighters often wore cameras as they ran into burning homes. These guys brag about how they fight fire with balls. They are the fearless firefighters of Detroit, the ones who run into burning buildings and put fires out from the inside instead of just shooting water at it from the street. Metal guitar riffs play, the men get excited when the bell goes off, and we see the thrill and appeal of fighting flame in a way that has rarely been capture before.

Burn
Burn
Photo credit: Area 23a

Then “Burn” takes its turn. It starts with the macho posturing but slowly becomes more melancholy as the unique difficulty of fighting fires in Detroit becomes a more prominent part of the story and we get more personally involved with these men. We spend a lot of time with three primary “characters” – one young, handicapped firefighter struggling to return to normalcy after a building collapse, one older firefighter near retirement, and the new fire chief of Detroit, a transplant from the city who worked in Los Angeles for years and has returned to try to save a city that may not be savable.

How do you fight fires with trucks that don’t work? How do you plan for the safety of the citizens of your city when 96% of your budget is going to salary and there’s no money left for repairs? At one point in “Burn,” a fire truck bursts into flames on its way TO A FIRE. This is what’s left in Detroit. Broken equipment trying to save a broken city. And when firefighters are working multiple jobs to make ends meet, equipment isn’t working, and the city is burning, human lives are bound to be lost.

I’ve had some issues with documentaries this year that seemed more like happy accidents – films which undeniably have important subject matter but the filmmaking ends with pointing the camera at that subject matter. I was very happy that this is not the case with “Burn.” Putnam and Sanchez shape this story in fascinating ways, drawing personal stories from these men in ways that connect emotionally and placing them in the context of a city so deeply troubled that there are even some who suggest they should merely let it burn.

“Burn” opens in Chicago on December 7, 2012.

HollywoodChicago.com content director Brian Tallerico

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

User Login

Free Giveaway Mailing

TV, DVD, BLU-RAY & THEATER REVIEWS

  • Manhunt

    CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on March 21st, 2024, reviewing the new streaming series “Manhunt” – based on the bestseller by James L. Swanson – currently streaming on Apple TV+.

  • Topdog/Underdog, Invictus Theatre

    CHICAGO – When two brothers confront the sins of each other and it expands into a psychology of an entire race, it’s at a stage play found in Chicago’s Invictus Theatre Company production of “Topdog/Underdog,” now at their new home at the Windy City Playhouse through March 31st, 2024. Click TD/UD for tickets/info.

Advertisement



HollywoodChicago.com on Twitter

archive

HollywoodChicago.com Top Ten Discussions
tracker