Theme Song:There’s a school dance sequence in this movie featuring so much licensed music it’s insane: “Computer Blue” by Prince, “Slave to Love” by Bryan Ferry, “The Heart of Rock & Roll” by Huey Lewis and The News, and “Bit by Bit (Theme From Fletch)” by Stephanie Mills. It’s a 5-minute scene crammed with all those songs and more, but who cares about that, there’s some hot original music as well:
“In It For Love” by soundtrack veterans James House, Andy Goldmark, and Patrick Henderson.
“Fire With Fire” performed by Chicago’s own Wild Blue (formerly known as Jinx). They released one major label album and seem to have vanished.
Also, Howard Shore did the original score.
Interesting Dated References: Leadership at an all-girls Catholic School thinking it’s a good idea to have a school dance with the neighboring troubled-boy work camp.
Best Line: None
Social Context: Fire With Fire somehow mixes elements of forbidden love, dancing, and criminals on the run into the lowest-stakes movie about those topics you’ve ever seen. Unengaging at best, Fire With Fire plods along with all the style of a terrible music video with absolutely no emotion.
Summary: Lonely and artsy Catholic schoolgirl Lisa (Virginia Madsen, Candyman, The Hot Spot) loves to take pictures of herself in the woods while hiding from nuns. It’s during one of these trips she crosses paths with hunky Joe, an inmate of the neighboring prison work camp for troubled juvenile boys (played by Craig Sheffer, star of Nightbreed and 21 episodes of the Teen Wolf animated TV series).
They immediately are sexually attracted to each other even though this is not conveyed on screen by acting nor emotion. Later, the “inmates” go to see Friday The 13th: A New Beginning, where Joe sees Lisa again, this time seated in the dark, and becomes even more sexually attracted to her.
Despite the fact it’s basically voluntary and all Joe is in for is “punching his old man,” Boss Deshard (Coen Brothers veteran Jon Polito doing an intense Slingblade-style voice) constantly harrasses Joe, especially when the idea comes up for the inexplicable dance between the Catholic School and the Juvenile Work Camp.
So then the dance happens, the boys rake leaves at a graveyard, Joe decides he has to run off with Laura, the boys rake leaves at a graveyard again, Laura and Joe have sex in a crypt in the graveyard, the boys all rake leaves at the aforementioned graveyard yet again, and Joe and Laura run off to a remote cabin.
Deshard follows them and shoots tons of bullets at them for absolutely no reason! There isn’t even a crime being committed outside of stealing a car! It’s so absurd!
Suddenly they realize they are camping near the rock ledge Sylvester Stallone jumped off in First Blood, and decide to take selfies and then do the same thing. They immediately survive the jump and walk off into the sunset with no logistical plan for where to live or what to do next.
Worth Mentioning:
– Directed by Duncan Gibbins who is responsible for the music videos for “Who’s That Girl” by Eurythmics, “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” by Wham!, “Careless Whisper” by George Michael, “Smuggler’s Blues” by Glenn Frey. While technically adept, he fails to engage.
– As mentioned above, parts of this movie were filmed at the same location as First Blood, and later, Twilight, which is Golden Ears Provincial Park.
Poster and Box Art:This Paramount box art has a super-intense vibe. You’d think there was some really forbidden stuff going on in this movie, but there isn’t.
Availability: For no reason whatsoever, a restored print is available on Amazon to stream.