Film Review: Steel Dawn (1987)

Patrick Swayze is best remembered as the romantic lead in some of the most popular films of late 1980s and early 1990s, but, at the same time, he was bona fide action star. One of his first leading action roles was in Steel Dawn, 1987 post-apocalyptic action film directed by Lance Hool. The plot is set in the world decades or centuries after the major war that wrecked civilisation; it was apparently followed by minor wars, the last being fought with swords. One of the veterans is the unnamed protagonist (played by Swayze and called “Nomad” in the credits). He wanders the desert wastelands. Chance encounter with old mentor Cord (played by John Fujioka), who soon afterwards gets murdered by assassin Sho (played by Christopher Neame), gives Nomad new purpose. While tracking the killers, he comes to Meridian, settlement that includes a farm run by beautiful widow Kasha (played by Lisa Niemi). He takes a job a farm hand and soon befriends Kesha’s young son Jux (played by Brett Hool), much to displeasure of Tark (played by Brion James), old foreman who sees himself as the main authority on the farm. Tark and Nomad, however, work out their differences and act together when the farm gets threatened by Damnil (played by Anthony Zerbe), powerful local landowner who has intimidated local farmers in order to control all of the water in Meridian.

Steel Dawn was produced by Vestron, studio specialised for video distribution, and made with very low budget on locations of South West Africa (today’s Namibia). Those locations, which include spectacular sand dunes, serve this film well in conveying the desolation of post-apocalyptic world, but their full potential, like almost everything else in the film, isn’t used to full potential. Script by Doug Lefler was obviously written as unofficial post-apocalyptic remake of Shane, classic western about mysterious stranger that comes to the aid of community troubled by local bully. However, instead of keeping the story simple, he complicated it with some unnecessary details which were supposed to give some sort of “flavour” to the post-apocalyptic world, but which were never properly explained – like the band of mutated “Sand People” that attack Nomad in the beginning. Director Lance Hool, on the other hand, handles action scenes reasonably well and Swayze does decent job as an action star. Unfortunately, his acting abilities aren’t put much to the test due to poor script and even the relationship of his character with Kasha, being played by his real-life Lisa Niemi, looks poorly written. Anthony Zerbe is wasted as equally one-dimensional villain, unlike Christopher Neame as his henchman with something resembling twisted code of warrior honour. Brion James, veteran character actor who played mostly villains, here shines in one of the rare roles of a character that viewers might find sympathetic. Brian May adds a little gravitas with his music score, but in the end Steel Dawn looks too much like a glorified television production and embodiment of all the content that gave 1980s post-apocalyptic films such a bad name.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

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