With all of the crap repeatedly churned out by Hollywood; the endless (and pointess) remakes, the tv-to-cinema conversions, the over-produced special effect wankfests...what ever happened to a great book getting turned into a fantastic movie?
Report From Engine Co. 82 by Dennis Smith is THE seminal novel about firefighting in America. Released to commercial success in 1972, it chronicled the men of Engine Company 82 in the New York City Fire Department...one of the busiest houses in the city located in the tumultuous South Bronx of the 1960's & 70's.
The novel nails what it would have been like to be a fireman in the 60's & 70's in one of the worst ghettos in the biggest city in the world. Racial tension between the almost exclusively white FDNY and the almost exclusively black & latino residents of the South Bronx boils over on a regular basis. The men of Engine Co. 82 are routinely pelted with bottles & garbage as they ride to calls.
The neighborhood does not approve of the Irish-Catholic protagonist's relationship with is Puerto Rican girlfriend. The social commentary in the book is thought-provoking without being trite.
And finally...the fire-related writing is spot on; a benefit of the author being a veteran of the FDNY. He takes you into a job where guys will see six and seven fires in a 14 hour tour, where firemen will pass a burning building because it's vacant...and there's a bigger fire up the street.
So please...someone buy this book...read it...and pass it on to a movie exec. Let's get this movie made...so long as neither Kurt Russell or Joaquin Phoenix are the male lead.
Do it, Cash. Write the book into a screenplay. get it out there. get people to notice. The great films are defined by a single person who cares enough about it.
Cash
USA
OLD SKOOL
JUL 02, 2008 07:32 PM