(1993)
3
Brian J. Dillard
This better-than-average TV miniseries uses global warming as the backdrop to disaster-flick spectacle, social commentary, and family melodrama. The contrast between gated utopian communities and endless competing dystopian nightmares gives The Fire Next Time an air of science fiction authority; plenty of the horrors the characters endure already occur all over the planet, just not usually to nice middle-class American families. Director Tom McLoughlin, a horror veteran, and screenwriter James Henerson, a frequent TV scribe, acquit themselves admirably in the scenes that focus on epic storms, civil unrest, refugee camps, looters, and profiteers; they aren't as convincing with the soap-opera stuff. Bonnie Bedelia and Craig T. Nelson, however, do their best to enliven the sometimes clichéd emotional dynamics in a script that tends to wring its hands whenever the action slows. Lots of first-rate talent also enlivens the supporting cast, especially Louise Fletcher as a beatific huckster, folksinger Odetta as a hymn-singing refugee, and Marla Gibbs as a kindly relief worker. Richard Farnsworth and Jurgen Prochnow get saddled with, respectively, a doddering oldster and an effete villain role, but they attack their parts with typical professionalism. If only the script didn't give so many talented actors such mawkish dialogue to recite, The Fire Next Time would be top-shelf instead of just acceptable.
cast-crew for Fire Next Time on AllMovie
Fire Next Time (1993)
