Steelyard Blues (USA, 1973) 93 min color DIR: Alan Myerson. SCR: David S. Ward. PROD: Tony Bill, Michael Phillips, Julia Phillips. MUSIC: Nick Gravenites. DOP: Laszlo Kovacs, Stevan Larner. CAST: Donald Sutherland, Jane Fonda, Peter Boyle, Howard Hesseman, John Savage. (Warner Bros.)
The same year that The Sting was released, another film from its screenwriter, David S. Ward, hit the screens, which is arguably more adventurous if not as successful, but in concept, this little fable is a perfect “Up Yours” to 1970s Conservatism. A bunch of societal outcasts – ex-con Jesse Veldini (Donald Sutherland), prostitute Iris Caine (Jane Fonda), guitar-strumming hippie Kid (John Savage), and asylum escapee Eagle Thornberry (Peter Boyle) – plot to fix up an old airplane, so they can escape from the world which oppresses them. Their chief antagonist is Veldini’s brother Frank, a hopelessly straight-laced official (Howard Hesseman, of all people). Perhaps this movie is too ambitious -the opening with overlapping subplots and time frames doesn’t add up to much- but it is a very entertaining conversation piece, and proof positive of why it’s so fun being a 70s cinema completist. You never know what you might find! Peter Boyle steals the film as the perpetually insane Eagle– in each scene, he credibly plays a different character! Don’t miss the moment later on when he does a bullseye imitation of Marlon Brando! (He was also a scene-stealer in the comedy caper film, Slither, released the same year.)
Originally published in Vol. #1, Issue #10 (“Summer in the 70s”).
Greg Woods
Greg Woods has been a film enthusiast since his teens, and began his writing "career" at the same time- prolific in capsule reviews of everything he had watched, first on index cards, then those hardcover dollar store black journals, then an old Mac IIsi. He founded The Eclectic Screening Room in 2001, as a portal to share his film love with the world, and find some like-minded enthusiasts along the way. In addition to having worked in the film industry for over two decades, he has been a co-programmer of films at Trash Palace, and a programmer/co-founder of the Toronto Film Noir Syndicate. He has also written for Broken Pencil, CU-Confidential, Micro-Film, and is currently working on his first novel. His secret desire is for someone to interview him for a podcast or a DVD extra.