Fire, Ice & Dynamite

Fire, Ice & Dynamite is the absolute pinnacle of the cinema of attractions. The absurd and blatantly shaky plot justifies the bombastic power of Jeux sans frontières and Red Bull Cup. Willy Bogner created and shot the skiing sequences for several Bond movies, but he was always disappointed that the sports action in those films never accounted for more than ten percent of the runtime. His whole filmography was aimed at reversing this ratio, and Fire, Ice & Dynamite is in a certain way the culmination of that effort. That’s not because there is no plot (that didn’t come until much later films), but because it is so blatantly absurd. However, it remains functional, as it justifies the endless deluge of attractions of every kind, including insipid verbal and slapstick humour, hit songs on the soundtrack, spectacularly insane product placement and cameo appearances by all manner of international celebrities. But the lead role is played by individual phantasmagorical disciplines in captivating natural settings and the breakneck conquering of those settings. It’s not about who wins, but about the various obstacles that can be placed in the athletes’ way to arouse the greatest possible astonishment by depicting them as effectively as possible. Sure, that is the antithesis and total vulgarisation of the principles of the action blockbuster, but at least in the ratio of spectacle to total runtime, no one in the world, neither in Hollywood nor in Hong Kong, could match the German tycoon Bogner and his phantasmagorical extravaganza across the elements (at least until the arrival of Mad Max: Fury Road). (2022-06-18)