Theme Song:
“When I’m Gone” by Don Tweedy
“Highways” by Don Tweedy
Both are country-ish songs. They are okay.
Interesting Dated References: In the ‘50s-60s-70s-80s-90s, there existed small rag-tag groups of touring “thrill show” performers. More than an average demo derby, thrill shows featured a variety of car stunts and bonehead antics. These groups booked state fairs across the country and traveled together performing their acts. Most of these thrill-shows are long gone, done-in by insurance liabilities and the general understanding that the world sucks now.
Social Context: According to commentary, director Mark L. Lester (Truck Stop Women, Roller Boogie, Class of 1984, Firestarter, Commando) befriended one such thrill show group and traveled with them, filming the action and writing additional scenes to give the movie a narrative. The results are somewhere between awesome fly-on-the-wall ‘70s documentary and terrible, grindhouse, action-schlock (this is a net positive).
Summary: Down on his luck and looking for work, Dusty Russel (played by stuntman Dusty Russel, whose real name is Bob Hanna) gets a job running moonshine. This immediately goes wrong, as he showboats and is fired after losing a supply of booze. Dusty flees, and chums up with fellow stunt driver, Buddy Love. They enter a demolition derby, only to be subsequently recruited into the “Circle of Death Hell Drivers” traveling show.
Look, the general plot is secondary to all the real-life daredevils and footage from their shows. Seriously, some of these guys have a lot of road mileage on them and they’re so authentic it almost borders on absurd.
Think of the weirdest character your dad peripherally knew growing up, then multiply that by like ten and place that character in the ‘70s. It’s seriously an awesome cavalcade of odd men who may be criminals.
Dusty eventually becomes the star of the show, but aging vet, Crash, tries to sabotage his daring stunts (and by stunts, all I really mean is bashing one car into another or rolling a car over as many times as possible until someone passes out).
Worth Mentioning:
– What could be the possible explanation for needing a band-aid across your entire bottom lip? Fella has a terrible attitude, as well. You’d think he’d be a little more relaxed, considering he’s advertising to everyone a large portion of his lip needs to be covered because of an abscessed sore.
– There’s something overly charming about this movie. The sincere, though wooden, performances from some of the stunt drivers are nice. You can tell they’ve been given a rough idea of what to talk about, but a lot of this seems to be off-the-cuff ad lib. I’m into it.
Poster and Box Art: The theatrical poster for Steel Arena is definitely of-the-era and of-the-genre.
Various scenes from the movie, a couple embracing, an intense call to action – what more do you need in your ‘70s low-budget exploitation? The Vestron home video release definitely tried to update the look a bit, featuring a clearly early-80s sedan.
