Hold Your Fire (film)

Last updated

Hold Your Fire
Hold Your Fire (film).jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Stefan Forbes
Written byStefan Forbes
Produced by
CinematographyStefan Forbes
Edited byStefan Forbes
Music byJonathan Sanford
Production
company
InterPositive Media
Distributed by IFC Films
Release dates
  • September 10, 2021 (2021-09-10)(TIFF)
  • May 20, 2022 (2022-05-20)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$5,614 [1] [2]

Hold Your Fire is a 2021 American documentary film written, directed, shot, edited, and produced by Stefan Forbes. It is about the 1973 Brooklyn hostage crisis, a 47-hour standoff in New York City in January 1973 that saw one of the first successful uses of crisis negotiation by American law enforcement. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2021, and was theatrically released on May 20, 2022 by IFC Films.

Contents

Premise

Hold Your Fire follows the events of a hostage crisis that lasted from January 19 to January 21, 1973, which occurred after four young African American Sunni Muslims shot a police officer and took a dozen hostages while attempting to rob a sporting goods store in the Bushwick and Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhoods of Brooklyn. The documentary specifically centers around the negotiation strategies used by the New York City Police Department, spearheaded by police psychologist Harvey Schlossberg, to ensure the safe release of the hostages and the suspects' surrender, a departure from the typical aggressive hostage rescue tactics used by American police at the time. [3] [4]

Reception

Box office

In the United States and Canada, the film earned $3,041 from fourteen theaters in its opening weekend, [5] and $612 from eight theaters in its second weekend. [6]

Critical response

Manohla Dargis, writing for The New York Times , called the film "formally audacious". [7]

Allan Hunter of ScreenDaily.com wrote: "Hold Your Fire has all the ingredients of a Sidney Lumet film… as tense as any thriller from that period, the involving human stories and lasting impact of the events makes for an absorbing, gripping film with theatrical potential."

Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter praised it as a "fast-paced, suspenseful real-life thriller featuring an array of fascinating characters". [8]

Tambay Obenson of IndieWire give it a grade A, describing it as "a searing look into a little-known moment in history with profound repercussions for how we understand policing today". [9]

Awards

Hold Your Fire won the 2020 Library Of Congress Better Angels Grand Prize for historical films and the Metropolis Grand Jury Prize at the 2021 Doc NYC Film Festival. It was also NPR's Documentary of the Week in November 2021. [10]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Negotiator</i> 1998 American action thriller film by F. Gary Gray

The Negotiator is a 1998 American action thriller film directed by F. Gary Gray. It stars Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey as Chicago police lieutenants who are expert hostage negotiators. The film was released in the United States on July 29, 1998, receiving generally positive reviews from critics and grossing $88 million worldwide. The film is considered by many as one of Jackson’s most underrated films.

<i>Sleeping with the Enemy</i> 1991 film by Joseph Ruben

Sleeping with the Enemy is a 1991 American psychological thriller film directed by Joseph Ruben and starring Julia Roberts, Patrick Bergin and Kevin Anderson. The film is based on Nancy Price's 1987 novel of the same name. Roberts plays a woman who fakes her own death and moves from Cape Cod to Cedar Falls, Iowa to escape from her controlling, obsessive and abusive husband, but finds her peaceful new life interrupted when he discovers her actions and tracks her down.

<i>The Jackal</i> (1997 film) 1997 action thriller movie directed by Michael Caton-Jones

The Jackal is a 1997 American action thriller film directed by Michael Caton-Jones, and starring Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, and Sidney Poitier in his final theatrically released film role. The film involves the hunt for a paid assassin. It is a loose take on the 1973 film The Day of the Jackal, which starred Edward Fox, and was based on the 1971 novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth. Although the film earned mostly negative reviews from critics, it was a commercial success and grossed $159.3 million worldwide against a $60 million budget.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tika Sumpter</span> American actress (born 1980)

Euphemia LatiQue"Tika" Sumpter is an American actress and producer. Sumpter began her career as the host of Best Friend's Date. From 2005 to 2010, she appeared in the daytime soap opera One Life to Live. In 2010, she made her film debut in Stomp the Yard: Homecoming and later featured in supporting roles for What's Your Number? (2011), Sparkle (2012), and A Madea Christmas (2013).

<i>Inside Man</i> 2006 film by Spike Lee

Inside Man is a 2006 American crime thriller film directed by Spike Lee and written by Russell Gewirtz. It centers on an elaborate bank heist-turned-hostage situation on Wall Street. The film stars Denzel Washington as Detective Keith Frazier, the NYPD's hostage negotiator, Clive Owen as Dalton Russell, the mastermind who orchestrates the heist, and Jodie Foster as Madeleine White, a Manhattan fixer who becomes involved at the request of the bank's founder Arthur Case to keep something in his safe deposit box protected from the robbers.

<i>Shoot to Kill</i> (1988 film) 1988 film by Roger Spottiswoode

Shoot to Kill is a 1988 American buddy cop action thriller film directed by Roger Spottiswoode and starring Sidney Poitier, Tom Berenger, Clancy Brown, Andrew Robinson, and Kirstie Alley. The film follows an FBI agent pursuing a homicidal extortionist; when the extortionist kidnaps a fishing guide in the Pacific Northwest, the agent teams up with her partner, a local wilderness guide, to rescue her.

<i>Someone to Watch Over Me</i> (film) 1987 American film

Someone to Watch Over Me is a 1987 American neo-noir romantic thriller film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Howard Franklin. It stars Tom Berenger as a police detective who has to protect a wealthy woman, who is a key witness in a murder trial. The film's soundtrack includes the George and Ira Gershwin song from which the film takes its title, recorded by Sting, and Vangelis' "Memories of Green", originally from Scott's Blade Runner (1982).

<i>Mad City</i> (film) 1997 film by Constantin Costa-Gavras

Mad City is a 1997 American thriller drama film directed by Costa-Gavras, written by Tom Matthews based on a story by Matthews and Eric Williams, and starring Dustin Hoffman and John Travolta, with a supporting cast featuring Mia Kirshner, Alan Alda, Blythe Danner, Ted Levine, Raymond J. Barry and Larry King. This is Costa-Gavras's first English-language film since Music Box. The title comes from a nickname of Madison, Wisconsin, where it originally was going to be set, and was used for its multiple meanings.

Stefan Forbes is an American screenwriter and film director whose films and social justice work often address issues of race, class, masculinity, violence, and restorative justice.

<i>No Good Deed</i> (2014 film) 2014 American film

No Good Deed is a 2014 American psychological thriller film directed by Sam Miller and written by Aimée Lagos. The film stars Idris Elba, Taraji P. Henson, Leslie Bibb, Kate del Castillo, and Henry Simmons. The film was released on September 12, 2014.

<i>Supremacy</i> (film) 2014 drama thriller film by Deon Taylor

Supremacy is a 2014 American drama thriller film directed by Deon Taylor, written by Eric J. Adams, and starring Joe Anderson, Dawn Olivieri and Danny Glover. The film chronicles the real life events of March 29–30, 1995, perpetrated by Aryan Brotherhood members Robert Walter Scully Jr. and Brenda Kay Moore. After fatally shooting a police officer, neo-Nazi Garrett Tully, along with his companion, Doreen Lesser, breaks into a house and takes an African-American family hostage.

The 1973 Brooklyn hostage crisis occurred when four robbers in Brooklyn, New York City, took hostages and engaged in a standoff with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) over the course of 47 hours from January 19 to January 21, 1973. One police officer was killed, and two officers and a perpetrator were injured, all within the first three hours of the incident; there were no further casualties during the standoff.

<i>211</i> (film) 2018 film by York Shackleton

211 is a 2018 American crime action film directed by York Shackleton and written by John Rebus, based on a screenplay by Shackleton. The film stars Nicolas Cage, Dwayne Cameron, Alexandra Dinu, Michael Rainey Jr., Sophie Skelton and Ori Pfeffer. Very loosely based on the 1997 North Hollywood shootout, the plot follows a police officer and a teenager who are locked in a violent shootout with heavily-armed bank robbers.

<i>Those Who Wish Me Dead</i> 2021 film by Taylor Sheridan

Those Who Wish Me Dead is a 2021 American action thriller film directed by Taylor Sheridan with a screenplay by Michael Koryta, Charles Leavitt, and Sheridan, based on Koryta's novel of the same name. The film follows a boy who witnesses the murder of his father and goes on the run with a smokejumper in the Montana wilderness to escape a pair of assassins hired to kill him. Jon Bernthal, Medina Senghore, and Jake Weber also appear.

<i>Crown Vic</i> (film) 2019 film by Joel Souza

Crown Vic is a 2019 American crime thriller film written and directed by Joel Souza, with Alec Baldwin having served as one of the producers, and stars Thomas Jane, Luke Kleintank, Gregg Bello, David Krumholtz, Bridget Moynahan, Scottie Thompson, and Josh Hopkins. The film focuses on the events during a night shift for veteran LAPD officer Ray Mandel and his trainee Nick Holland. The film's title derives from the Ford Crown Victoria, a car widely used by US police, which the main characters also use.

<i>Ambulance</i> (2022 film) 2022 American film by Michael Bay

Ambulance is a 2022 American heist action thriller film directed and co-produced by Michael Bay and written by Chris Fedak. A co-production between New Republic Pictures, Project X Entertainment and Bay Films, it is a remake of the 2005 Danish film Ambulancen. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as adoptive brothers who hijack an ambulance after robbing a bank, and take a paramedic and a police officer hostage.

<i>Breaking</i> (film) 2022 American film

Breaking is a 2022 American thriller drama film starring John Boyega as a Marine Corps veteran, Brian Brown-Easley, who is in financial trouble and robs a bank. It is written and directed by Abi Damaris Corbin and co-written by Kwame Kwei-Armah, based on the true story of Brown-Easley, detailed in the 2018 Task & Purpose article "They Didn't Have to Kill Him" by Aaron Gell. The film also stars Nicole Beharie, Selenis Leyva, Connie Britton, Jeffrey Donovan, and Michael Kenneth Williams.

<i>Raging Fire</i> (film) 2021 Hong Kong film

Raging Fire is a 2021 Hong Kong-Chinese action film produced and directed by Benny Chan in his final directorial effort before his death on 23 August 2020. The film stars Donnie Yen and Nicholas Tse in the lead roles.

<i>Memory</i> (2022 film) 2022 American film by Martin Campbell

Memory is a 2022 American action thriller film starring Liam Neeson as a brooding hitman with early dementia who must go on the run after declining a contract on a young girl. It is directed by Martin Campbell from a screenplay by Dario Scardapane. It is based on the novel De Zaak Alzheimer by Jef Geeraerts and is a remake of the novel's previous adaptation, the Belgian film The Alzheimer Case. The film also stars Guy Pearce, Monica Bellucci, Harold Torres, Taj Atwal and Ray Fearon.

<i>Violent Night</i> 2022 film directed by Tommy Wirkola

Violent Night is a 2022 American Christmas action comedy film directed by Tommy Wirkola and written by Pat Casey and Josh Miller. It follows Santa Claus as he fights mercenaries who have taken a wealthy family hostage in their home. The film also stars John Leguizamo, Alex Hassell, and Beverly D'Angelo.

References

  1. "Hold Your Fire". Box Office Mojo . IMDb . Retrieved May 27, 2022.
  2. "Hold Your Fire". The Numbers . Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved May 27, 2022.
  3. Anderson, John. "'Hold Your Fire' Review: History as Thriller". WSJ. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
  4. Henderson, Odie. "Hold Your Fire movie review & film summary (2022) | Roger Ebert". Roger Ebert. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
  5. "Domestic 2022 Weekend 20". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved May 25, 2022.
  6. "Domestic 2022 Weekend 21". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved June 4, 2022.
  7. León, Concepción de (May 19, 2022). "'Hold Your Fire' Review: Ending a Siege". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved April 29, 2023.
  8. Scheck, Frank (September 22, 2021). "'Hold Your Fire': Film Review | TIFF 2021". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
  9. Obenson, Tambay (September 10, 2021). "'Hold Your Fire' Review: The True Story Behind the Heist That Taught Cops How to Save Hostages Without Bullets". IndieWire. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
  10. "Documentary of the Week". NPR.org. Retrieved December 31, 2021.