Chance Buckman (John Wayne) has one of the most dangerous jobs there is—when an oil rig catches fire, he’s the man you call in to take care of things. Chance loves the thrill and excitement of his job, but his wife could never get used to him running off into danger, and so he’s been divorced for quite a while and hasn’t seen his daughter in decades. However, Buckman’s best friend and business partner of the past ten years, Greg Parker (Jim Hutton), actually finds the opposite to be true—the fires really heat up his social life. He likes to bring new women to watch him work—the lure of the danger never fails to make him score, usually resulting in a quickie during the job or one night stand afterwards.

Buckman runs his operation like a well-oiled machine (no pun intended), and the safety of his team is of the utmost importance. However, one day, shortly after extinguishing and capping a well, an overzealous reporter causes a terrible accident that sends Buckman to the hospital in a coma. Fearing the worst, Buckman’s friend, oil tycoon Jack Lomax (Jay C. Flippen), arranges for Chance’s estranged daughter Tish (Katharine Ross) to be flown in and reunited with her father. Chance probably have refused this had he been awake, but Tish is interested to confront her father after all these years. However, while waiting for Chance to wake up, Tish meets Greg and the two hit it off. Greg pulls his usual move, inviting Tish to see him put out a fire—something that Chance definitely would not have approved of—and by the time Buckman wakes up, Tish and Greg are already a couple.

Hellfighters is part family/relationship drama, part exciting fire-fighting film, though it focuses more on the former. Much of the drama centers around Chance and the women in his life—his daughter and ex-wife. Chance tries to explain to his daughter why he has been away for so long, and why he wants to keep her away from the danger of the job. However, unlike her mother, Tish is eager to see Greg at work and actually worries less about him when she is on the scene. At the same time, Chance’s ex-wife Madelyn (Vera Miles) is now back in the picture, and Chance contemplates taking a desk job in order to win her back. However, the thrill of the job may be too hard for him to let go, especially when his company gets a call about a massive Venezuelan oil rig fire that presents a unique challenge.

As the film opens, we see Buckman and his crew putting out an oil well fire, and as this happens, one of the crew members explains the process step-by-step in great detail to a reporter. At first this felt like an unnecessarily detailed level of exposition, however, it turns out that this information serves a really useful purpose throughout the rest of the film. Buckman’s company is called out on many jobs over the course of the movie, and after the first fire, the viewer is already aware of the details and dangers of each step in the process of cleaning up an oil rig fire. So this helps turn the audience into an expert, understanding what’s going on, and building the tension and excitement, without having to re-explain everything each time the crew tackles a new job.

The movie opens with a disclaimer that the film is based on real experiences, which I’m guessing applies just to the more action-oriented aspects of the movie. These scenes are really well done, often quite exciting and nail-biting. It’s amazing what these brave people go through to put out these massive oil well fires. I’m sure the technology and tools are a lot better these days, but this film was made over 50 years ago. On the other hand, the family drama aspects of the film didn’t work quite as well for me. These scenes get a bit overly-dramatic and unbelievable at times, and tend to slow things down. It’s also a bit repetitive—how many times can Chance be surprised to see his daughter at the scene of a fire?! At the same time, some of these dramatic beats also feel a bit rushed—who gets engaged/married after knowing someone for just 5 days?! In addition to the action and drama, the film also has some fun, humorous moments.

I don’t really have a lot of experience with John Wayne’s work, so I can’t really compare this movie to his more well-known Westerns. However, I thought the actor did a good job of making this fire-fighting expert feel natural, brave and believable. He really conveys the danger and excitement of the job, and why Chance finds it so alluring.

The film is rated G, but the ratings system must have been far more lenient back in 1968. In the opening moments of the film, an oil well explodes and people are set ablaze. Then, Buckman and his crew are being called in from their various romantic trysts, and Parker and Buckman discuss their conquests and quickies at the job site. In the final act, there are also scenes with people being shot and killed, as guerillas attack the oil field. While the conversations would likely go over younger viewers heads, it just doesn’t feel like a G movie by today’s standards, and I’m not sure the more dramatic parts of the film would appeal to a younger audience anyway.

Hellfighters had previously been released on Blu-ray by Universal in 2015. While neither that release nor Mill Creek’s new Blu-ray contain any bonus material, Universal’s release did include a 5.1 audio track, while this new release only includes a 2.0 soundtrack. I’m not sure why that surround track was not ported over to this release. While the dialogue remains clear throughout, and the explosions and danger of the fires comes through, the soundtrack doesn’t really have any immersive quality to it. The score is a bit odd, with the opening title sequence sounding more like a western, and then the actual film taking on a more comedic tone at times, sounding more like the score for an episode of The Brady Bunch, rather than that of a feature film. The overall video quality is quite good, with a nice level of detail, and a pleasant amount of film grain, but also evidence that it has been cleaned up a bit.

The Blu-ray disc comes packed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase, without a slipcover. The disc just offers a basic menu with a subtitle on/off option and a play button. There is no bonus material or digital copy.

What’s Included:

Film: (2:00:59)

• 1080p / Widescreen 2.35:1
• Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
• Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:

This release contains no bonus material.

Final Thoughts:

Hellfighters has some exciting oil rig fire-fighting scenes, but the film gets dragged down a bit by the family drama, which tends to be a bit repetitive and unrealistic at times. Mill Creek’s Blu-ray features solid picture, but opts for a stereo audio track while the previous Blu-ray release offered surround sound. There are is no bonus material or digital copy included. The film itself is worth a look for the exciting action sequences.