Fighting a raging wildfire in Arizona is definitely cinematic but, as these are real firefighters who were involved in a relatively recent tragedy, it probably didn’t feel right to try to force their story into the template of a Hollywood disaster movie.
So they handed director Joseph Kosinski a gritty procedural about a US fire crew.
Instead of building up to the big disaster from the off, we instead begin with a very low-octane examination of fire regulations in western America.
Eric Marsh (Josh Brolin) leads one of the best crews in Arizona, but they will need to jump through some hoops to become “hot shots” – an official designation that allows them to work on the front line of wildfires.
As we’re not going to get to the big disaster scene for another two hours it puts the drama on a very slow burn.
It’s well-meaning but a more exciting movie might have been a better tribute.