Entry Forty-Two: Steel Dawn (1987)

Steel Dawn (1987)

Dir: Lance Hool

"He is the desert warrior, carving the future with his sword."



I'm celebrating once again having heat here in the Basement of Sleaze by heading out into the irradiated desert with the Swayziest of all post-nuke movies, Steel Dawn

Patrick Swayze plays a nameless, wandering Buddhist swordsman in a post-apocalyptic future with no electricity, firearms or motorized vehicles.  After killing the shit out of some Tusken Raider-like mutants, he witnesses an old friend getting murdered by a feathered-haired assassin and happens upon a "water farm" run by Lisa Niemi (who would become Mrs. Swayze in real life) and her platonic partner, the great character actor Brion James (48 Hours, Flesh + Blood-here sporting a Hulk Hogan look).  Swayze becomes Niemi's lover and a father figure to her son, but is forced to take up his sword again when James is killed and the little boy is kidnapped by rival farmer Anthony Zerbe (The Omega Man, License to Kill) and his gang (including a young Arnold Vosloo, from Hard Target and The Mummy), who wants Niemi's land.

Yes, this is an uncredited remake of Shane in a cost-effective post-nuke setting.  Everybody in the movie looks like they walked right off the set of an 80s pop metal video, particularly Niemi and Zerbe's chief assassin, Christopher Neame (Dracula A.D. 1972), who kinda looks like Vince Neill.  Zerbe's gang ride silly-looking "wind racers (think soapbox racers with sails sticking out of them)."  This is a pretty standard entry in the popular post-apocalyptic action genre genre; it's nowhere near the quality level of George Miller's Mad Max films and it isn't as entertainingly flamboyant and gory as the slew of Italian entries that got churned out in the 80s.  Swayze looks pretty bored through most of it, but he met Niemi during the making of this film and they remained married through his death in 2009, so he got something good out of the deal.