Steelyard Blues (1973)

Undescribable Perfection

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The acting in this movie is really good.

I spent the entire Summer during the making of the film on the set/location of the film, and I would say that being thirteen years of age at the time, it was a heck of ride!!! I learned about racial tension on the streets of Oakland. The local African American population wasn't always crazy about the film crew's presence...lots of discernible anger and tension.I learned about how you try to shoot on location at a real demolition derby with a real live audience. It was organized chaos, and fights were breaking out in the stands and on the track....Peter Boyle was always making everybody crack up with his Marlon Brando imitations.....there was a lot of focus and preoccupation on getting scenes done correctly with pyrotechnics and explosions....hours of debate and preparations...It was the end of the sixties, and the Vietnam War was going on endlessly with no end in sight....Jane Fonda was blackballed by Hollywood and Steelyard Blues was at least a paycheck.A piece of Hollywood history during a very uncertain time....

"I dunno nothing about climbing... except onto broads and motorcycles." --Peter Boyle replies to Donald Sutherland in a Brando voice when asked to climb into someplace to steal something."A '50 Studie!" --Donald Sutherland exclaims when he sees a 1950 Studebaker at a demolition derby, the only model he had yet to crash into in his derby driving days before prison.Most, if not all, of the members of the comedy group The Committee appear in the movie and there's a great bit that defies description involving Hessman, his henchman, a sort of movie-prop housefront with someone pretending to be an out-of-control guard dog barking at the window while one of the others tries to hold him back.I think Sutherland said in a Playboy interview that it was during the filming of this movie that Jane Fonda raised his consciousness.Sigh, I never would have seen most of my favorite movies if it weren't for revival houses that brought this and other classic or off-beat movies back from time to time. Sadly, most of those theaters are long gone too these days.

I recall seeing the movie in '73 and enjoying it. I was about 24 then, and it seemed like a "normal" film with "normal" people doing "normal" things, at the time! lol.What I've been trying to figure out for decades now, is if this is the Sutherland/Fonda film where he rolls the black super ball (which he refers to as a "marble") from the back of the empty bus down the aisle, past Fonda, the only other passenger, as she sat up front ignoring the ball, which was clearly, a message from him. Without turning to acknowledge him, she hurriedly gets off the bus, trying to slip away into the night. He gets off the bus, catches up with her and asks: "Why didn't you answer my marble?" Somebody! Please! Tell me if this is the film that the line came from! I'm desperate to "get closure" on this one! lol. Been using the line all these years thinking it was from "Klute", but that's wrong! Nobody I've ever known seems to recall what I would term "THE classic line" from the film.Thanks! CMAR

A warm fuzzy movie from a stoned era. Rebels without a clue decide to flee the rat race in a surplus flying boat. A few problems rear their ugly heads. Like their being permanently broke, the plane needing some major rebuilding, and their inability to hold down anything approaching a full time job. Boyle is in fine form as the down at heel mechanic and the fight between him (knife) and Sutherland (felt tip pen) is a comedy classic. A fine goofy feelgood ensemble piece that plays like they busked it for laughs. It would probably seem quaint and a bit dated if I saw it now, but back in the 70s it was a breath of fresh air. With a faint whiff of hash about it.