Fireraiser

“I wanted to understand how a man who had masterminded the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians could be regarded as a national hero, and how he justified these actions to himself...” Albert Hunt – writer “Fireraiser”, a drama-documentary starring Max Wall, stets out to explore the relationship of Sir Arthur (Bomber) Harris to bombing history. By intercutting drama, documentary and archive footage, this film presents an alternative view of the part that Britain played in the Second World War and the political gains that were expected to be made from it. Based on a play by Albert Hunt, the drama within the film presents Bomber Harris as a man with an obsession – obsessed with the system of bombing and the methods available, Harris perfected a technique of mass human destruction which culminated in his bombing of Dresden in February 1944. This film presents a uniquely personal view of the realities of the Second World War and the political scheming that went on behind the scenes. Bomber Harris is presented both as a man with an obsessional belief in mass bombing as the way to win wars and as a puppet of the Government of the time. The consequences of these policies are drawn out by the witnesses and Harris himself at the end of the film. What if the bombing of civilians had been tried as a war crime, where would Truman, Nixon or Reagan be now?