Playing with Fire (1985) review

Dir. Ivan Nagy

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★

Credit is due to internet archivist @theshadowknight1979 for unearthing and uploading a copy of Playing with Fire, a 1985 TV movie starring Gary Coleman, to the web. It was believed to be lost media; a forgotten fable that debuted on NBC to low ratings and may or may not have also been played in classrooms as a cautionary tale of starting fires for fun. According to Coleman, who monologues to the camera at the end of the film, arson was an epidemic amongst juveniles in the 1980s.

Who knows if this seldom-seen, mostly forgotten TV-flick had any kind of impact, but I know a few things. For one, its intentions are pure, it’s bolstered by strong performances, Coleman excels at more serious, dramatic material, and the film remarkably swerves by forgoing a Full House-esque talking-to that resolves everything cleanly.

Coleman stars as 15-year-old David Phillips, the eldest of three children, whose parents, Carol (Cicely Tyson, Roots) and Steve (Ron O’Neal, Super Fly), are in the middle of separating. David doesn’t receive a lot of love at home, with his younger siblings absorbing much of the attention. At school, he’s sorta-friends with a jock (Tom Fridley), and the girl in his science class (Tammy Lauren) thinks he’s cute in a “geeky” way.

However, those morsels aren’t enough to stop David from acting out. He starts by harassing the family dog. Then he gets his hands on his mom’s cigarette lighter. He lights her jacket on fire first. Then he starts a small brushfire. Later, an even bigger one by the school. His actions immediately concern the local fire chief (Yaphet Kotto), who pleads with David and his parents, who try to turn a blind eye, believing their son would be incapable of such acts.

Playing with Fire‘s arson sequences are well-captured, with the harrowing qualities of watching an uncontrolled blaze in tact. The film has a significant amount of unpredictability to boot. I never knew quite where each scene was headed, a testament to the writing of Lew Hunter, who served as chairman Emeritus and Professor of Screenwriting at UCLA’s film department. It’s about time Hunter’s work here get some recognition.

Coleman really shines as a surly teenager unmoved by his parents, who have disappointed him enough as of late, and the fire chief’s grave concerns. There’s a casual realism in the way Coleman delivers lines, plus his Diff’rent Strokes days prepped him to be so outwardly dismissive and sarcastic. Tyson and O’Neal as David’s helpless parents are also given room to shine. Tyson has one strong moment of emotional power in a sit-down with an appointed therapist. O’Neal’s best moments come when he’s an absentee father trying desperately to connect with his son, who finds himself on the razor’s edge of going to a juvenile detention center, regardless of the fact that he wants to believe otherwise.

Impressively, Hunter negates the easy screenwriting out of resolving all of this with David receiving a stern lecture. David rejects his parents’ platitudes. Kotto’s chief is a man of monk-like patience, getting dismissed by the delinquent on more than a couple occasions. Playing with Fire sidesteps the simplicity of its genre, informing David, and the audience, that in order for this problem to go away, “I’m sorry” won’t cut it. He needs to look inward, and say what’s on his mind, even if it takes considerable time to process his emotions.

File Playing with Fire alongside Dummy, which featured one of LeVar Burton’s best performances, as one of the finest TV movies of its era. Unlike Dummy, this film wasn’t fortunate enough to get the studio preservation treatment, yet this is why internet archivists who dutifully document lost media can and should exist.

NOTE: Playing with Fire is available to watch on YouTube, free of charge, with some delightful 1985 commercials fully in-tact.

Starring: Gary Coleman, Cicely Tyson, Ron O’Neal, Yaphet Kotto, Tammy Lauren, and Tom Fridley. Directed by: Ivan Nagy.