Steelyard Blues

Oddball drama about outcasts (Sutherland, Boyle and Fonda) starts shaky, but finds its footing

A group of misfits in the Oakland area hang out in a junkyard and an abandoned airstrip. They come up with the harebrained scheme of repairing a PBY Catalina flying boat and escaping their troubles. Donald Sutherland plays the black sheep brother of a district attorney (Howard Hesseman) while Jane Fonda is on hand as a high-priced prostitute sorta romanced by the former. Meanwhile Peter Boyle plays an eccentric bloke who used to work in the circus. John Savage is also on hand.

"Steelyard Blues" was shot in 1971, but not released until 1973. Sutherland & Fonda were an item after the success of “Klute” (1971), but this one understandably failed at the box office and fell into obscurity. It’s a drama with amusing touches and not a comedy; although it could be described as a black comedy. It tries to be the early 70’s follow-up to iconic counterculture flicks like "Easy Rider" (1969).

In any case, it starts shaky and I was concerned that I had stumbled upon a real dog, but it thankfully finds its footing by the second act as the characters are fleshed out. I suddenly found myself involved in their story. Boyle goes over-the-top to entertain and his Brando scene is a highlight. Another good sequence involves the successful brother (Hesseman) and his ‘loser’ sibling (Sutherland) having a melee in a cell.

Meanwhile, Fonda’s character is a turn-off, but that’s just me. The movie was released during the height of the backlash over her 1972 trip to North Vietnam earned her the nickname Hanoi Jane.

The notable soundtrack fittingly features rockin’ country blues by variations of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, then known as Better Days; featuring Nick Gravenites and Mike Bloomfield, as well as Maria Muldaur.

The movie runs 1 hour, 33 minutes, and was shot in Oakland, California, & places nearby.

GRADE: C+

I usually reckon that heist movies are always more interesting as the plotters get together and do their scheming, then they fall away a bit as very, very, rarely do they ever get away with their crime. Well this one has the scheming phase, ok, but it isn’t remotely interesting. Donald Sutherland heads the cast with what’s almost an identical reprise of his quirky “Oddball” character from “Kelly’s Heroes” (1970). This time he’s a stock car racing addict “Feldini” who has been released from his latest term in prison with one last chance before they just throw away the key. He has allied himself with a gang of like-minded folks and together they have decided it is time to get away from it all. To that end, they decide to refurbish an old wartime flying boat and head off into the sunset. The thing needs parts, though. Lots and lots of them, and they have no cash. Their only solution is revert to their thieving ways and so a raid on an air force base has to be planned and executed. Along the way, we discover that his arch nemesis is none other than his brother - now a politically minded cop (Howard Hesseman) and we meet his long-suffering pal “Iris” (Jane Fonda) and so there are now some antics between all of them that really only clutters up the really limited potential of this screwball plot that, for me at any rate, just fizzled out. It’s got quite a toe-tapping country music-style original score but in the main it’s a weakly written vehicle for a star who is going through the lacklustre comedy motions before we build to a conclusion that really let the whole thing down. Sutherland is charismatic, there’s no doubt about that, but Fonda offers little of value and it’s a long old ninety minutes that has little point.