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Sandwiched in between the critical beating John Wayne took for The Green Berets and a bunch of westerns culminating in his Oscar performance for True Grit is this little known film he did about a group of men fighting oil fires, a truly dangerous profession. The Hellfighters has the look and feel of a Wayne family effort with it being produced by Batjac and having in its cast Wayne regulars like Edward Faulkner and Bruce Cabot. I wonder where son Patrick was.

A little over 20 years after Hellfighters came out, the person that Wayne's character was based on, Red Adair came into prominence when he took on the Herculean task of putting out all those oil fires that Saddam Hussein started in Kuwait when he fled that country. Turns out the biggest assignment Adair had was way in his future in 1968.

I'm sure Red Adair must have been flattered all to heck when the biggest box office draw in cinema history was portraying a facsimile of him on the screen. Who knows though maybe Red Adair's real story and real name on the screen might be good entertainment. Might be a great subject for a film now, what with all the new computer generated special effects that could be used.

Though the film is based on Adair's exploits, it is first and foremost a John Wayne film. He's not Red Adair on the screen, it's the Duke that all of us have come to know. Wayne and his cast put together a nice action filled film with a minor subplot about his family life. Vera Miles plays his estranged wife, Katharine Ross his daughter, and Jim Hutton a protégé Wayne is grooming to take over his company.

This was Wayne's third film with Vera Miles and twice before he didn't wind up with her, either in The Searchers or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Third time the charm.

Hellfighters also is an example of Wayne's well known generosity to his fellow players. When he liked you he was the best friend you could have. Jay C. Flippen who plays an oil executive lost a leg to diabetes a year or two before. Wayne gave him that extra pay day by casting him in Hellfighters in a wheelchair. I could cite a lot of other examples of him helping people by doing that in other films.

Hellfighters is an enjoyable two hours of Wayne in modern dress, battling the elements like he did in The High and the Mighty and Island in the Sky instead of bad guys. There is one sequence where he and his crew were battling an oil fire in Venezuela with some rebels shooting at them. Since it's the Duke, you kind of expect him to pick up a rifle and blow them all away.

Though Hellfighters is a good, not a great film, I'd still like to see the real Red Adair story on screen.

One thing about John Wayne movies are the great first names he always had in them. Singin Sandy, Spig, Taw, John Henry, Cord, Rockwell, Rooster, Wedge. This ones no exception "Chance" Chance Buckman played by Wayne is the CEO of a company that fights fires. Oil well fires that is. Along with a number of character actors in supporting roles who teamed with the Duke in many of his films. The action is plenty and the story entertaining. The women in this movie are there as the faithful ladies whose husbands battle the flaming liquid from the bowels of the earth.

No film had been made about oil well fire fighters so this made it an original. This is one of those movies that would excite a person to the point of saying "That's the life for me. Good pay, travel, good-looking women all the time. A job of never ending excitement'! Don't miss this John Wayne classic. Also don't miss an A&E documentary about the real exploits of Oil Well Fire Fighters.

After the first Gulf War, we heard a steady stream of news reports about workers putting out oil fires in Kuwait. I immediately understood what they were describing, because I had seen Hellfighters, and they were using the same techniques.

I really liked this movie. I thought Chance Buckman was the perfect role for John Wayne's character...his character seemed to match the sort of person who would be doing this for a living. Fighting the fires while getting shot at by guerrilla fighters seemed a big much, until I considered what is going on with people working on the infrastructure in Iraq...not much different.

I've heard the complaint that the special effects are not up to today's standards, but they work for me...they do not interrupt my suspension of disbelief, and they are not distracting like some of todays whiz-bang special effects.

I think this is one of John Wayne's best movies.

Action and romance with John Wayne as the head of a company that specializes in putting out oil well fires. An accident leads to his co-worker and friend Jim Hutton contacting Wayne's estranged daughter Katharine Ross and ex-wife Vera Miles, who left Wayne because she couldn't handle the stress of being married to a man in such a dangerous profession. Wayne and Miles are therefore stunned when Hutton and Ross fall for each other and quickly get married, insuring that the younger couple will face the same situations.

This isn't awful, and the firefighting scenes are interesting, but the melodrama aspects are tired and dull. I always like seeing Jay C. Flippen, even if this is one of his wheelchair roles after losing a leg to diabetes complications. Ross reportedly battled with Wayne throughout filming due to their contrasting views on Vietnam.

This COULD have been an exceptional John Wayne film, as the plot was so unusual and was based loosely on the exploits of oil fire expert Red Adair. The idea of him working as a man who travels the world to put out oil fires is pretty cool! This was a very nice change of pace for The Duke and the film had some wonderful moments. However, while the script SOMETIMES offered a lot of new and interesting moments, at other times it was very clichéd and formulaic--cheapening the exploits of Adair AND making it just another mediocre late 60s/early 70s John Wayne film. Now understand that I really like John Wayne films, but I must admit that aside from THE SHOOTIST, all his films after THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE were mediocre and formulaic--so much so that they offer nothing particularly new (even TRUE GRIT which garnered Wayne an Oscar even though he'd made many better films). Even one of his films I really liked from this era, ROOSTER COGBURN, is essentially THE African QUEEN set in the old West. And what formulaic elements do these films have in common? Well, how about a way too old Duke Wayne getting in a fist fight in all these films (and he was into his 60s), macho arguments among the manly actors about who is going to do the "selfless" act (whatever that might be), an occasional over-reliance on comedy and John walking through the film as if he's in slow-motion (which, at his age, he was). No, Wayne didn't age very well in these films and his fans watched them because they loved the actor--not because they were outstanding films. That's exactly why I watched them.

It deals with red suited firefighters who attempt to quell large scale oil and gas blazes around the world. Enterprise Buckman and Co. whose owner results to be John Wayne , takes up with his younger colleague, Jim Hutton, and subsequently takes place a romantic subplot in Armageddon film style, being entirely suspicious , as young guy falls for the chief's daughter .It is based on the real career of Red Adair. Acceptable and passable film, though the moving screenplay turns out to be uneven, sexist, windy and dull, remarking a strong machism. Buckman/Adair and his group of brave hell fighters are the authentic protagonists . In fact, real life of oil well fire fighter Adair was used as main axis in script and he served as technical advisor to this. And Wayne role is clearly based on him. What passes for a script involves Wayne's stranged daughter, Katharine Ross coming down off The Graduate , and who falls for the second in command, Jim Hutton. As they extinguish massive fires in oil fields all around the world. As they go aboard their airplane to Canada, Malaysia,and South America : Venezuela where the valiant bunch is attacked by a violent guerrilla.

This exciting film packs emotion, ordinary fights, thrills and spectacular scenes . Apart from the main subject, this is a typical Wayne vehicle, screen-written by Western expert Clair Huffaker, and ,being accompanied by a peculiar team , as well as developing troubles between themselves and their wives . Fragmentary but enjoyable, the movie is full of saloon brawls , action , battles, blunt staccato dialog and silly love stories . But is a shame Adair or other writers didn't fire up the screenplay . The picture benefits itself immensely from the breathtaking conflagrations and impressive production design by Alexander Golitzen. Here Wayne was generally deemed to be too old for this role. Wayne gives his habitual acting thanks to McLagen, in fact he directed him in several Westerns as Cahill United States Marshal, The undefeated, Chisum, McLintock , Big Jake . Along with a fine cast as his redundant love interest, Vera Miles, and their daughter Katharina Ross , though Vera was only 10 years older than Ross. Support cast is pretty good , such as : J C Flippen, Bruce Cabot, Laraine Stephens, Edward Faulkner, Valentin Vargas , among others.

It contains a rousing and attractive musical score by Leonard Rosenman. Colorful and evocative cinematography in Technicolor and color de Luxe by William H Clothier, John Ford's regular . This stirring tale of macho oil well firefighters and their wives was professionally directed by Andrew McLagen. He was the son of Ford's stock company stalwart, Victor McLagen. He was a prolific craftsman who made all kinds of genres , such as : Wartime : Dirty dozen next mission, Sea wolves, Breakthrough, Wild geese, The Devil's brigade . Action adventure genre : Sahara , Ffolkes , Mitchell, On wings of eagles . And Western : Shenandoah, The way west , The rare breed, Bandolero, The last hard men , The Blue and the Gray and The shadow riders again with JKatharine Ross. The flick will appeal to John Wayne fans. Well worth watching.

I think Mr. Wayne had a great time making this movie. Knowing some of the advisors, I know he did. Typical JW genre. Great machoisim. Well advised and inspired. Mediocre acting by Ross. Again, watch it for what it is and leave it alone.

When I first saw "Hellfighters" I was only about 13 years old. The movie certainly captivated me, in part because it seemed so realistic. Also, the slogan of the Buckman Company really appealed to me. "Around the world, around the clock." This was a story about someone who really went the distance to help people.

This movie was so visually stunning that Popular Mechanics ran a cover story on the special effects, describing how a mixture of propane and diesel oil was used to make the fires, which were fed by underground pipes. It also explained that Red Adair really did use explosives to put out oil well fires, which many people found hard to believe.

This was a highly believable, present day performance by John Wayne, which is somewhat special in and of itself. There was only one brawl, which was all good fun, and we even get to see Mr. Wayne get a face full of what looks kind of like oil. (It was dyed water.) There is no heavy, moralistic message to this film, a minimum of flag waving, and watching it is just plain fun.

'Hellfighters' sees the iconic actor John Wayne swap his revolver and saddle for a water cannon and private jet; his firefighting adventures are shared with his younger partner, played by Jim Hutton, and – disapprovingly – his daughter, played by Katharine Ross. This title could have explored the strains and stresses of a dangerous occupation, and how it affects family life, but the film tragically falls short of saying anything profound or meaningful. In his later films, John Wayne often adopted the role of an on-screen mentor to a younger companion or accomplice. This sometimes worked well, for instance in the films 'Big Jake' and 'True Grit'; sadly, the "father-son" relationship of John Wayne and Jim Hutton comes across as quite uninspired in this film. The action in 'Hellfighters' – largely consisting of firefighting and the occasional bar-brawl – is promising to begin with, but quickly deteriorates due to its repetitiveness, and the outcomes are generally predictable. The most seasoned of John Wayne fans may be able to derive some minor enjoyment from this title, but to everyone else I say: look elsewhere.

Loosely based on the exploits of Red Adair, Hellfighters is a perfect vehicle for John Wayne. The characterizations are a bit overstated, but this was standard for the era, so I allow for that. And who could have picked a more appropriate love interest for the Duke than Vera Miles as a San Francisco Department Store heiress.

I thought Jim Hutton and Katherine Ross made a good offsetting couple to JW & VM and Bruce Cabot, a long-time associate of Wayne's, an excellent comic element.

I think the thing that sold it for me was the reality of the fire scenes which I just marveled at until I saw that Red Adair was a technical adviser on the film. That and the knowledge that Wayne was all for reality as much as possible really made me a watch it anytime fan of this picture.

If one takes into account the decade in which the picture was made, it can be and is, for me at least, a very enjoyable film. I highly recommend it!

Hellfighters is directed by Andrew V. Mclaglen and written by Clair Huffaker. It stars John Wayne, Jim Hutton, Katharine Ross, Vera Miles, Jay C. Flippen, Bruce Cabot, Barbara Stuart and Edward Faulkner. Music is by Leonard Rosenman and cinematography by William H. Clothier. Plot follows a group of oil well fire fighters led by Chance Buckman (Wayne), it pitches them into action while also showing the strain on the family life. It's based on real life oil well fire fighter Red Adair who served as one of the advisers on the film.

Too long at two hours in length, and spending too much time on family strife yet still managing to under write the ladies of the piece, Hellfighters has invariably over the years garnered mixed reactions. It's not a great film, but it is exciting in parts (the fire fighting is very well done) and it does give us an adequate glimpse into the work that the brave oil well fire fighters do.

Narrative is strung together in simple fashion. A fire somewhere in the world needs capping, so Chance Buckman and his loyal men go off and do their stuff, then comes a period of family strife in the form of Buckman's wife and daughter, the first is estranged, the latter just married to Chance's right hand man (Hutton), and then onto the next fire, family strife, next fire and etc etc. It's hardly rich story telling, but the cast are engaging enough to make the screenplay work and then it's the finale, where a series of fires need capping in Venezuela, all while the boys are under fire from Guerrillas because it's a hot zone of another type! And then? Well it's just as you would expect for a John Wayne hero adventure movie.

It has faults but it's honest with them, and there's plenty enough to enjoy and admire regardless. 7/10

Unintentional laughs hardly compensate for unnecessary movie. Silly storyline was created in an attempt to use honest to god film footage of oil field fires. Can you already see where we're headed ? JOHN WAYNE'S character is named 'Chance Buckman' which sounds like they stole it off of a young stud catalyst from a William Inge play. As usual WAYNE will knock down a man or two to show us and himself what a real man he is but of course one of these men WAYNE will come to realize is actually up to his impeccable standards. Why the man might actually marry WAYNE'S gutsy, perky daughter. Haven't we seen this before ? Of course ego centric plot aside there are other WAYNE staples here too including BRUCE CABOT as his sidekick and ANDREW McLAGLEN (McLINTOCK) as the movie's director and just enough non-white actors to show us how 'multi-cultural' a JOHN WAYNE movie can be. Interior sets have the cost quality of a porn movie.

Near criminal to see someone of VERA MILES' caliber in a stinker like this. Usual fight scenes abound. During production KATHARINE ROSS who plays the DUKE' daughter with the most unflattering hairdo I've ever seen on her normally breathtaking self told a reporter that the film "was the biggest piece of crap" that she'd ever done. I'm inclined to agree.

Granted this is not the best Wayne film...but it has a lot of merit in my opinion. Would like to know why this is not on the Wayne choices to buy on Apple TV (formerly iTunes). It is just as good if not better than some of the other older Wayne films. Please add it soon!

No, it's not the best movie ever made, but it is worth a watch. As far as I know, nobody else has done a movie about people who put out oil well fires. So it is in a class by itself.

Red Adair served as technical adviser so you know they got the details right. You got the definite taste of what it is like to fight an oil well fire. No glamor, no glitz. Just hard, dangerous work.

The score wasn't too bad. I enjoyed the theme song. It always starts up whenever a call about a new job comes in. It helps make a nice transition from the everyday ordinary life, and the serious business of putting out fires.

A bit of trivia, the last fire that supposedly was in some Latin American country was filmed in Wyoming. When John Wayne comes flying into the airport there, you can see Casper Mountain in the background. It's quite amusing for anyone who has ever spent time there.

Hellfighters is a terrific movie that hits us with great drama, tension and action.

The cast are all great with the exception of Jim Hutton who provides a pretty sexist and dismissive attitude towards the Katherine Ross character. I was cognizant of this in the 80's when I first watched this movie, perhaps reflective of the time but when you watch the Wayne character he is tough but respectful.

Probably could have trimmed 20 minutes out of it to really tighten the story.

Loads of fun.

This used to turn up very frequently on BBC television throughout the 1970s . It was a favourite film of mine in childhood . Fire and explosions have always held a morbid fascination for me so any film featuring an abundance of both is one to constantly watch . That said I haven't seen it for many years but since it was being broadcast on Film4 I made a point of watching it again

Oh dear . Oh dearie me . Well to be fair it's not a dreadful film but by the same yardstick it's not a great one and falls firmly in to the memory cheats camp . I should qualify by what I mean by this and state it's full of fires and explosions and macho heroics . In fact too much testarone fuelled macho heroics and my TV actually grew a beard while I was watching this !

If this isn't a problem then heroics involving characters played by John Wayne and Jim Hutton are . John Wayne might have been an American icon and a film star for several decades . He was however never an actor and somewhat ironically in a film featuring so much combustible material the most flammable thing in the movie is the star due to his wooden performance . Hutton was probably a very nice chap in real life ans was no doubt an obvious casting choice for lightweight romantic comedies . Alas he was never the type of actor you'd think of casting if you were wanting a " tough guy " character . See also THE GREEN BERETS . There's something unintentionally funny watching Wayne and Huttton pulling out every heroic cliché in the book alongside misjudged humour without the slightest hint of irony . As I said it's not a dreadful film but you might find it entertaining for all the wrong reasons

My ex-husband was a huge John Wayne fan and had me watch every JW movie over and over. This was my favorite. The acting and script are not the point of watching this movie. The attitudes, clothes(especially the women's), and the sets are Soooo Sixties. My favorite thing is the "window" in the office. If you look closely you can see it isn't a window at all, it is a miniature of a highway(like a miniature railroad), but it is supposed to look like the view out the "window". I'm sure that was state-of-the-art in the late 60's. Katherine Ross is fabulous and wears the best clothes. Jim Hutton is quite handsome. John Wayne acts like....John Wayne. If you're a JW fan you'll recognize most of the cast. Great fun!!!!

A rootin', tootin' Western masquerading as a yarn of fire eaters who put out oil fires starring John Wayne, Jim Hutton (Timothy's dad), Katherine Ross & Vera Miles (who made at least 2 other movies w/the Duke; The Searchers & The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance). This is a Wayne working in lower key in a film that's easy on the eyes but you just wish was a hell of a lot better (the equivalent of eating a TV dinner to satisfy a week of fasting). Wayne & Hutton are the best in the business but when Wayne is hurt on the job & his pals fear he's about to bite the big one, his estranged daughter Ross is called & things start getting hairy as she falls for Hutton even though her mother, Miles, left him because the dangers of the job was too much for her to bear & things are looking like they're going to repeat themselves. I can't fault the film for trying but this kind of easy going entertainment is best left to a colorful 10 minute anecdote rather than a 2 hour slog like this one.

This is a very entertaining film ... co-staring Jim Hutton, Katherine Ross & Vera Miles. Some of the acting of Hutton & Ross may have been less than one would expect. But the film should be seen keeping mind that this was years before the disaster films of the early seventies like The Poseidon Adventure & The Towering Inferno. It is a fun watch as Buckman's crew travels the world putting out oil well fires while kindling a few fires of their own in the local women. It is fun to watch many of the fire-fighting scenes today and wonder how they pulled this off thirty years ago. It is very John Wayne as can be seen as some of his regulars turn up here, such as Bruce Cabot, Edward Faulkner who were part of his stable. Watch it and enjoy.

The Duke is in charge of a team of specialized firefighters. They go where they are needed, all over the globe. One of his men, Jim Hutton, uses his death-defying job as a way to scare up some skirt and it usually works.

When Wayne gets seriously hurt, his estranged daughter (Katharine Ross, who I bet argued with the hairdresser, lost the battle and had to walk around in what appears to be a wig on backwards) gets summoned, along with his department store heiress wife Vera Miles. Its really just a way to bring them into the story so there's no need to take his injury seriously at all.

Before you can say 'Mrs. O'Leary's cow', Hutton and Ross have entered coupledom. This angers Wayne, who knows Hutton to be a skirt-chaser, and Miles, who hated that Wayne was a firefighter and left him for that reason.

There is much drama, most of it needless. There is very little realism in the way in which the people interact. Its a stretch to think that Ross has to follow Hutton all over the globe as he is fighting deadly fires, but without that forced subplot you don't have much else to chew on.

Best scene is when Miles is allowed to let loose on an official of the Venezuelan goverment, who has let the guerillas (don't ask) too close to the firefighters. She shows the spunk that made her career much valued, for me at least. She is the perfect wife for a larger-than-life figure as John Wayne, as she seems to have a handle on how to be a person when he'd rather she were just a woman.

In all honesty, the only real reason I watched this is because Katharine Ross is in it. For that reason I am glad I saw it. 6/10.

Impossibly dumb and square firefighting action-drama initially looked to be something different from star John Wayne, but the film is more soap opera than adventure story. Based on the real-life exploits of Red Adair, the screenplay makes its first mistake by renaming the lead character Chance Buckman (!), and Wayne plays him as if he had run out of chances. So slow are the Duke's actions here, one might assume his pants were made of lead. Katharine Ross (in an awful bubble hairdo) looks terribly uncomfortable cast as Wayne's headstrong daughter; this amateurish performance might have killed off Ross' blossoming career if anyone had even noticed she was in the picture. A cheap, lifeless mess that reeks of the Universal backlot. * from ****