Fires of Kuwait (1992)

the audience applauded

Purely Joyful Movie!

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

"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.

It may not be fair to review this work from the DVD version rather than the IMAX adventure it was meant to be - the Warner DVD picture quality being uncomfortably compressed. Still, for a purely visual experience as this was meant to be, camera placement counts for a lot and David Douglas has nothing on Herzog's team. It's the difference between hack prose and epic poetry.Douglas' approach to the ruination of Kuwaiti oil fields juxtaposes the horrific fire geysers underneath didactic narration about firefighting (voiceover by the lackluster Rip Torn), reducing the impact to that of an in-house industry video or recruiting tool for the Army Corps of Engineers. After showing the colossal scale of environmental devastation, Douglas has the temerity to put a feel-good spin at the end, creating a bizarre agenda that is anything but convincing.

There is no doubt that this documentary is visual treat and people who shot this documentary must have worked in a very unfriendly environment. The thing which remained with me is the method engineers used to put out the fire. Using a dynamite to put out fire. That's something I couldn't have imagined. How water has to be used and where to throw it etc. I like the idea of putting a sealing at the opening with an open funnel while keep throwing water on that funnel and then finally close that funnel from the top. Fantastic. It seems when these engineers started working on this project they thought it will take years to kill the fire in 700 wells. They finished the job in months. A documentation of the triumph of human imagination and its capabilities. A must watch for engineering students. 10/10.

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.