--- title: Review: Rebuilding Paradise Delivers on Its Hopeful Title description: Ron Howard's documentary about a California town in the wake of a devastating wildfire is a true work of compassion. canonical: https://time.com/5874389/rebuilding-paradise-review-ron-howard/ author: Stephanie Zacharek article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-07-31T19:25:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T09:04:10.948Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Rebuilding Paradise Delivers on Its Hopeful Title og:description: Ron Howard's documentary about a California town in the wake of a devastating wildfire is a true work of compassion og:url: https://time.com/5874389/rebuilding-paradise-review-ron-howard/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8b453cd27092838/698a10ef656a3fd48fbda60d/campfirethur07.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5568 og:image:height: 3132 og:image:alt: California Wildfires og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rebuilding Paradise Delivers on Its Hopeful Title twitter:description: Ron Howard's documentary about a California town in the wake of a devastating wildfire is a true work of compassion twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8b453cd27092838/698a10ef656a3fd48fbda60d/campfirethur07.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ron Howard's _Rebuilding Paradise_ Chronicles the Aftermath of Tragedy With Cautious Optimism > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Stephanie Zacharek](https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Film Critic Jul 31, 2020 7:25 PM UTC  A home burns as the Camp Fire rages through Paradise, CA on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018. A home burns as the Camp Fire rages through Paradise, CA on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018.Noah Berger—Noah Berger  by [Stephanie Zacharek](https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Film Critic Jul 31, 2020 7:25 PM UTC In early November 2018, a wildfire ripped through the California town of Paradise, [killing 86 people](https://time.com/5471283/camp-fire-victims-death-toll-recovery/) and destroying more than 18,000 buildings, including, of course, many of the [residents’ homes](https://time.com/5455128/how-paradise-california-will-rebuild-after-wildfire/). If you’ve never suffered through a major natural disaster yourself, imagining the emotional—not to mention monetary—cost of such an event is nearly impossible. Ron Howard’s bracing, and sometimes upsetting, documentary _Rebuilding Paradise_ brings the suffering of [those who lost so much](https://time.com/5452222/paradise-california-escape-camp-fire/) closer to home. It’s a film that seeks to stoke compassion, an emotion that appears to be in short supply across our nation these days. The devastating event that came to be known as The Camp Fire—it originated on Camp Creek Road, in Butte County—was caused by a faulty Pacific Gas and Electric transmission line that threw off sparks, quickly setting the forest around it ablaze. The sequence that opens the movie is the most harrowing. The fire was moving so rapidly that when the citizens of Paradise (a town with a population of roughly 26,500) were told they needed to evacuate, there was little time to pack up belongings. Footage shot from vehicles shows a morning sky so blackened with smoke you’d mistake it for midnight. Even more frightening is the sense of the bright orange blaze closing in so quickly, and from all sides. The accompanying audio is particularly disturbing: A woman prays for her home to be spared; another simply sobs. This is the part of _Rebuilding Paradise_ that’s hardest to watch. Though the footage is edited carefully, obviously with an aim to protect victims’ privacy and avoid sensationalism, this opening section is so distressing that it might tempt you to turn away. But _Rebuilding Paradise_ mostly delivers on the hopeful promise of its title. Howard conducted interviews with those who survived the fires as a way of providing a window into how individuals and communities move forward after a catastrophic event. Many of the survivors found their way to temporary shelters or housing provided by FEMA in communities outside Paradise, and when they were finally allowed to return to their homes—or, more often, the charred sites where their homes once stood—there was little left to salvage. One woman lost every possession except for an angel figurine and a shot glass emblazoned with John Wayne’s face. The glass used to be one of a collection of about 70, though the woman notes that if only one was going to make it through the fire, she’s glad it was Wayne’s. The fortitude of the people of Paradise—in the face of roadblocks thrown up by government agencies, of PG&E’s disingenuous apologies for the damage and heartbreak caused by their negligence, of a President who referred publicly to their town as “Pleasure” because he couldn’t be bothered to remember the actual name—forms the backbone of Howard’s documentary. There’s Woody Culleton, who moved to Paradise from the Bay Area in 1981\. He was an alcoholic at the time, but he sobered up in 1984 and eventually ran for office. “I went from being the town drunk to being the town mayor,” he says. Culleton was one of the first Paradise citizens to be granted a permit to rebuild—and as a tractor breaks ground on his property, he begins to cry. He’s slightly embarrassed, but he acknowledges that all that unexpressed emotion had been backed up for months. Howard is especially sensitive to the way the community banded together after the disaster, eager to help one another and to get their town back to some semblance of normal. As it stands now, according to _Rebuilding Paradise_, they’re not even close. Still, they’ve made amazing progress, and they believe so much in their town that they refuse to give up. Howard’s camera follows school superintendent Michelle John as she tries to make sure that all the district’s schoolchildren are accounted for and have a place, temporarily, in one of the nearby schools. And she makes it possible for the high school seniors to graduate on their schoolgrounds, something they’d all hoped for—only to lose her husband to a heart attack a few days after the ceremony. This is the way life works: Being fortunate enough to survive a catastrophic event doesn’t necessarily protect you from future heartbreak. _Rebuilding Paradise_ recognizes that, though it also offers some cautious optimism. 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