Unfortunately, while the premise is solid, the movie itself ends up feeling pretty generic.
1987 was big for Patrick Swayze. Steel Dawn was one of the two films he starred in that year. The other was Dirty Dancing, which launched him into superstardom. Once that movie hit, he really didn’t have to look back on smaller genre efforts like this Steel Dawn. Still, if you grew up during the VHS era, this movie was practically unavoidable. The tape seemed to be on the shelf of every video store.
The film also features Lisa Niemi, Anthony Zerbe, Brian James, and Christopher Neame. It was directed by Lance Hool, who also directed Missing in Action 2: The Beginning, and written by Doug Lefler, who is actually better known for his work as an art director but also worked on projects like the animated series Denver: The Last Dinosaur.
Taking place in a post-World War III desert wasteland, the story follows a wandering swordsman known simply as the Nomad. Nomad identifies himself as a former soldier, although we never learn for whom or in what capacity. Early in the film, he arrives at a farm that is part of a small settlement called Meridian. The farm is run by Kasha, played by Lisa Niemi, along with her foreman Tark, played by Brion James. Over time, the Nomad befriends Kasha’s son, Jux, and gradually earns the trust of the community and, of course, begins to form a connection with Kasha herself.
But things aren’t peaceful in Meridian. The area is being threatened by a rival landowner named Damnil, played by Anthony Zerbe. Damnil wants control of the region’s water supply, which happens to lie beneath Kasha’s land. From there the story moves in a fairly predictable direction: tensions escalate, the Nomad confronts Damnil’s forces, and eventually faces off against the villain’s deadly assassin, Sho, played by Christopher Neame.
If that setup sounds familiar, it’s because the film is basically a post-apocalyptic riff on the classic wandering-hero story. Like many genre films of the 1980s, Steel Dawn clearly takes inspiration from the success of Mad Max 2, combining desert wasteland imagery with a mysterious drifter who arrives, saves the day, and then disappears again. There’s also more than a little bit of influence from the western Shane in there: the quiet outsider who helps a struggling community before moving on.
Unfortunately, while the premise is solid, the movie itself ends up feeling pretty generic. The acting isn’t terrible, but it’s not especially memorable either. The action mostly consists of sword fights and skirmishes, and aside from the opening scene — where the Nomad battles strange mutant creatures that rise out of the sand — there’s not a lot of inventiveness in the set pieces. The fights are serviceable, but none of them really stand out.
The musical score by Brian May, who also composed music for films like Road Games, is perfectly fine and suitably heroic, but it’s also the kind of score that could easily be dropped into just about any 1980s sci-fi or post-apocalyptic movie without anyone noticing the difference.
That said, the film isn’t completely without charm. There are a few unintentionally funny moments, especially when it comes to the hairstyles. Sho, the assassin, has one of the most aggressively teased 1980s hairdos you’ll ever see in an action movie. He looks like he wandered straight off the set of a Poison music video. Meanwhile, Kasha’s hair seems to change styles throughout the movie depending on what she’s wearing, suggesting that even in the apocalypse there’s apparently a full-time hairdresser on call.
The costumes look as if they’re recycled from the “Turbo Lover” video by Judas Priest. It’s very much that leather-and-desert aesthetic that was popular in sci-fi action movies at the time.
One thing the film does have going for it is its location. Steel Dawn was shot in Namibia, near the Skeleton Coast, and the natural landscape does a lot of the visual heavy lifting. The filmmakers didn’t need elaborate set design to create a wasteland environment. The barren desert scenery already looked the part. At one point you can even see an actual shipwreck sitting in the middle of the desert, which must have been a nice bonus for the production since they didn’t have to build or paint one in.
In the end, Steel Dawn isn’t a bad movie. It’s reasonably entertaining and moves along at a decent pace. But it’s also not particularly original or memorable. It’s the kind of film that works fine if you’re flipping through movies on a lazy Saturday afternoon and want something with some sword fights, desert scenery, and a young Patrick Swayze wandering around being cool.
Fun, but ultimately pretty forgettable.
2.5 out of 5.0 stars
