One Paragraph Movie Review: Fires Were Started

One hundred and forty-seventh film: Fires Were Started, a British docu-drama from 1943 that follows a day in the life of London firefighters during the Blitz in WW2. This is less a movie than a dramatic observation, acted by real firemen shown fighting staged fires in an extremely matter-of-fact way. Scenes shot in the firehouse are charming — cups of tea, rousing songs by the piano, and ladies with neat hairdos taking calls, and scenes at the fire are moderately gripping and tinged with tragedy. I can’t get excited about it, but I’m going to be thinking about it for a long time — it gave me a really authentic-feeling sense of 1940s Britain, war, technology, grime, and manners, both cockney and posh. I still don’t know how to feel about it, but I definitely need a bath and a gin and tonic. Two and a half piles of sandbags out of five.