Fires of Kuwait

1992
7.3| 0h36m| en| More Info
Released: 09 June 1992 Released
Producted By: IMAX
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

After Saddam Hussein had the Kuwait Oil wells lit up, teams from all over the world fought those fires for months. They had to save the oil resources, as well as reduce air pollution. The different teams developed different techniques of extinguishing the fires. Man's emergency creativity can be seen at it's best.

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Cast

Rip Torn

Director

Producted By

IMAX

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Reviews

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.
BeSummers Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.
Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
Portia Hilton Blistering performances.
Brent Burkwell More BS from the left, obviously the concentration on the "allied" attempts to stop the burning fields is intended to give credit where it is NOT due. The USA did the bulk of the work, mentioning the tank mounted twin Mig engines proves that the left wanted to take away the bulk of the credit from the USA and give it to less deserving nations. Hungary? Give me a break! The left seeks to alter history to fit their twisted view of the world, namely, capitalism=bad, communism/socialism/totalitarian regimes = the public good. If you are a thinking person, it doesn't take long to see through this propaganda. Utter BS, avoid at all costs.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Fires of Kuwait" is a 35-minute documentary that will have its 25th birthday next year. The director is David Douglas who has worked on several other IMAX films as well. Narrator is Oscar nominee Rip Torn and speaking about Oscar nominees, this one also got in with the Academy. Strangely enough, it was nominated in the feature category and not in the documentary short category. I have no explanation for that though. Anyway, back to this film here, the fact that I rated it fairly low has only to do with personal preference. My interest in technology is not that big and I definitely would have enjoyed it more if it was more about the political context of Hussein setting these oil fields on fire. There are some moments that deal with this subject, but really the vast majority of the film is about how these fires got extinguished from the technological perspective and that was just something I did not find too interesting. The flames were also not spectacular enough to keep me interested for over 20 minutes. For firefighters, maybe even people who worked there back then, this may be a great watch. Everybody else can skip it.
Rodrigo Amaro The engulfing flames that hide the whole desertic scenario, leaving only the colors yellow and black result of the combination fire and smoke, present in "Jarhead" is just an example of what's to be seen in the great documentary "Fires of Kuwait". But the CGI composed image from Sam Mendes film doesn't get near the real dimension of what happened in the early 1990's when Saddam Hussein ordered the destruction of all the oil fields in Kuwait during the Golf War. It's disturbing images, the pollution and waste of resources, haunting, a hellish nightmare yet it's strangely beautiful, astounding, hypnotizing. It's a shame that technology still isn't able to make us feel what it is to be close to an event of this magnitude, to smell, to feel the heat. The closer we can get of this effect (or at least the lucky ones who saw it in the theaters) is just the images, fully developed in IMAX with outstanding resolution. From the tragedy, we get the spectacle of fumes. It's importance isn't wholly on the burning, it's about the team effort from people all over the world who coordinated and worked to extinguish the fires the best way they could. Their operation tested several different ways to combat the fire with one team using of water from pipelines (a team even tried to make a way to the ocean through the desert) and another team had a "The Wages of Fear" kind of mission, to put out fire with more fire by using dynamite. 9 months of extreme hard work, horrible conditions and a mission that seemed impossible. The challenge and the positive outcome of it, that's where the story is, that's why we join this real venture guided by the powerful voice of the great Rip Torn. 9/10
c_nordby The neatest thing about this documentary was watching the fire crews come up with the many ingenious ways to battle the various oil well fires. I saw this film on an IMAX screen which certainly added it's own cinematic touch to the works. There's nothing quite like watching a 40 ft. pillar of flame shooting up in front of you. I've also seen the video version, and while it's not as visually stunning, it is still highly enjoyable.