Watch Hellfighters

Starring John Wayne, Vera Miles, Jim Hutton and Katharine Ross, ‘Hellfighters’ is a movie about the experts who are called in to put out the oil field and oil rig fires, as well as the lives of the women who love these experts. The movie centers on Chance Buckman (Wayne), who is a veteran oil fire fighter, or hell fighter. Chance’s daughter, Tish (Ross), has grown up, mostly without her father, and has decided that she wants to get to know her father much better. Surprising her father with a visit, Tish also surprises her father’s young partner, Greg Parker (Hutton), who finds himself falling in love with Tish, much to Tish’s delight and Chance’s chagrin.

Tish and Greg hastily marry and Chance tries to explain to his daughter how difficult her life may be as the wife of a hell fighter, but her youth and determination blind her to the harsh realities of traveling from location to location with her husband as well as the worry she must endure due to the dangers of her husband’s job. However, Chance and his estranged wife, Madelyn (Miles) understand this concept only all too well as they both endured the same issues. Madelyn stays to help her daughter’s transition in dealing with the concerns and worries that face a wife with a husband in such a dangerous profession, however, she finds herself reconnecting with Chance as they realize what brought them together in the first place.

The two couples each work through their own specific problems as they begin growing much closer to each other. The women soon come to understand what it is that drives their men in their love for the type of work that they do, while the men come to better understand the depth of love that the women have that drives them to worry so much about the safety of the men they love so much.