TV Reviews : ‘Fire and Rain’ on Cable Depicts Little of Either

The crash of Delta Airlines Flight 191 at Dallas-Ft. Worth on Aug. 2, 1985, killed 131 people and resulted in the longest major aviation trial in U.S. history. Twelve days ago, a federal judge absolved the National Weather Service and air traffic controllers of negligence and instead placed the blame on the crew.

It’s typical of “Fire and Rain” (showing at 9 tonight on cable’s USA Network), a movie about the crash and its aftermath, that the dispute and the trial are never mentioned.

Instead, the movie ends with the words of a priest at the funeral of one of the victims: “We must accept what has happened and trust in God whose wisdom is beyond our understanding.”

When in doubt, blame God.

Placement of blame isn’t the only thread left dangling. The script doesn’t even bother to fill us in on the fates of some of the injured whose stories we’ve followed.

But then, the movie attempts to cover so many of those stories that the victims and even their rescuers tend to blur. We get endless shots of gurneys rushing into Parkland Hospital, but the people who are on those gurneys get lost in the shuffle.

Likewise, there are so many featured actors that none of them gets much screen time (it sounds as if narrator Tom Snyder spent about five minutes recording his few lines). Perhaps this is just as well, considering some of Gary Sherman’s dialogue. Among those who must soulfully intone the most wooden speeches are nurse Angie Dickinson and rescue workers Dean Jones and Charles Haid.

We see the workers discover a dog, a baby, a teddy bear, in addition to the grown-up victims. Despite the potential heart-tugging, however, director Jerry Jameson maintains a subdued tone--so subdued that the tempo never really picks up after the crash itself. The movie evokes neither tears nor hard thought--so what’s the point?