| Steel | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Kenneth Johnson |
| Written by | Kenneth Johnson |
| Based on | |
| Produced by |
|
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Mark Irwin |
| Edited by | John F. Link |
| Music by | Mervyn Warren |
Production company | Quincy Jones-David Salzman Entertainment |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 97 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $16 million |
| Box office | $1.7 million[1] |
Steel is a 1997 Americansuperhero film based on theDC Comics characterof the same name. The film starsShaquille O'Neal as John Henry Irons and his alter-ego Steel,Annabeth Gish as his wheelchair-using partner Susan Sparks, andJudd Nelson as their rival Nathaniel Burke.
The plot centers on an accident caused by Burke which leaves Sparks paralyzed. The accident results in Irons quitting his job. Burke begins mass-producing weapons and selling them to criminals. In order to stop Burke, Irons and Sparks create a suit of armor that leads Irons to become the superhero Steel.
Written and directed byKenneth Johnson,[2] the film separates itself from the comic book series (and John Henry Irons' status as a supporting character ofSuperman) by using original protagonists and antagonists.
Upon its initial release on August 15, 1997,Steel was abox-office bomb and received generally negative reviews from critics, who complained about the film's "cheesiness" and poor acting.[3]
John Henry Irons is a weapons designer who invents high-tech laser guns, protective armor, andsonic sound cannons for the United States military. One soldier, Nathaniel Burke, decides to show just what Irons' weapons can do and sets one of Irons' sonic cannons at the highest power setting, firing the device at an abandoned building, but the weapon backfires and destroys the building the team is situated in. Irons' partner, Susan "Sparky" Sparks, is crushed by a large slab of concrete in the ensuing chaos. In court, Irons reveals Burke's role in the incident and Burke is dismissed from the military. Because his weapons resulted in Sparks becoming a paraplegic, Irons resigns in disgust. Meanwhile, Burke hatches a plot to sell Irons' weapons to criminal gangs, recruiting avideo arcade manager to help him carry out this deed.
Irons witnesses a bank robbery organized by gang members wielding Burke's modified guns; they escape before he can interrogate them on where they obtained the weapons. The gang does not tell Irons anything when confronted directly in their hideout. Irons visits Sparks in a veteran's hospital and takes her to his own assembled laboratory, where he hopes he and Sparks can create weapons needed to combat the criminals. With the help of Uncle Joe, they forge a suit of armor and the weaponry necessary for Irons to carry out his war on crime and become the vigilante "Steel". During his crusade against crime, Irons is pursued by the cops and is forced to return to his lair. Five nights later, the robbers arrange to rob another bank. Irons, as Steel, tries to stop them, but is hindered by the robbers' weapons. When Irons returns to his grandmother's house, he is arrested.
Meanwhile, Burke prepares to auction off all his modified weapons to every criminal organization in the world over the Internet. When Irons is released from jail, Sparky is captured by Burke's thugs. Irons, as Steel, attempts to infiltrate Burke's headquarters, but is captured himself in the process. When Burke continues with the auction, he is tricked by Steel, which allows him and Sparks to rebel and destroy Burke's lair. Burke himself is killed when a laser he fires towards Steel reflects back towards him due to Steel's suit. After this, Steel, Sparky, Joe, and Martin escape Burke's lair.
The following day, Col. David talks to actorArnold Schwarzenegger (actually Irons viavoice changer) about Steel and the events on what happened the day before and offers him to help before realising it is actually Irons who he is talking to and after that, Irons declines David's offer.
In the grand opening of her restaurant, Irons' grandmother tells him about Steel and then tells Joe that everyone would be proud of his heroism. After Sparky shows the new modifications of her wheelchair that allows her to walk, Irons smiles and hugs her.
Production of the filmSteel started with music producerQuincy Jones and his partner David Salzman.[4] Both Jones and Salzman were fans of theSteel character, especially Jones, who found personal reasons to support the project.[4] Jones stated that he found children's "perspective on the future has changed for the worse, and I hate seeing young people who don't believe in the future. Steel—and I don't want to use that word 'superhero' because he doesn't fly or anything like that—represents a role model. Let's just call him a 'super human being'".[4]Wesley Snipes was Kenneth Johnson's first choice for the lead role.[5] Jones and Salzman had initially approachedShaquille O'Neal and his agent Leonard Armato regarding aHardware adaptation, but the basketballer said he related himself more to Steel.[6] Johnson later admitted that Shaq was a bad choice for the role.[7]
Kenneth Johnson was the screenwriter and director ofSteel. Johnson was originally uninterested in doing asuperhero film, having previously turned down similar projects after the success of his television seriesThe Bionic Woman,Alien Nation, andThe Incredible Hulk.[4] Film producer Joel Simon described Steel as being different, stating that he was "a knight in shining armor in a contemporary setting".[4] Johnson removed Steel's cape from his costume to reflect this.[4]
Johnson described Steel's persona as a "blue-collarBatman" and removed Steel from his comic book storyline and replaced it with protagonists and antagonists of his own invention.[4] To aid with the urban aspects of the dialog Johnson took a copy of the script toSouth Central Los Angeles and spent a day with a group of kids to ensure that the language of some of the characters was more believable.[4] Throughout the film and script, Johnson created several allusions to his previoustelevision seriesAlien Nation.[8]
The filming schedule consisted of fifty-one days with thirty-two full nights of shooting in downtownLos Angeles.[9] The shooting schedule presented difficulties for the director due to the schedule of the starShaquille O'Neal. O'Neal was already committed for playing in the1996 Summer Olympics, and training at theLos Angeles Lakers' camp inHawaii.[4] This left Johnson with five weeks to complete filming all scenes with O'Neal.[4] O'Neal had one read-through of the script before the Olympics and then worked with acting coach Ben Martin in between games to work on his character. When O'Neal returned to act with the rest of the cast, he had all his lines memorized.[4]
As well as acting in the film, Shaquille O'Neal contributed to the soundtrack for the film. The single "Men of Steel" has him featured alongside rappersKRS-One,Ice Cube,B-Real, andPeter Gunz. The soundtrack was released on Quincy Jones' record labelQwest Records and included songs featured in the film and songs inspired by it.[9] The album charted in the United States on theBillboard 200 at number 185 and on theTop R&B/Hip-Hop Albums at number 26.[10]
The film was released onVHS andLaserDisc in 1997 byWarner Home Video.[11]
The film was released onDVD in 2010 by theWarner Archive Collection.[12]
Steel was released in theUnited States on August 15, 1997, making only $870,068 across 1,260 theaters on its opening weekend.[13] With a second weekend decline of 78%, it achieved the record for having the biggest sophomore weekend drop for any superhero film, being tied withThe Marvels in 2023.[14] The filmbombed at the box office,[14] earning just $1.7 million domestically with an estimated budget of $16 million.[1]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 8% of 25 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3/10. The website's consensus reads: "Steel is a badly-acted movie that indulges not only in superhero cliches, but also the sappy TV-movie-of-the-week ones."[3]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 28 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[15] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[16]
Leonard Kladly ofVariety wrote that the film is "too broad and episodic to attract anything other than the most undemanding crowd".[17]
Peter Stack of theSan Francisco Chronicle described it as a "tolerable stinker of a film" that "plays like a Saturday morning cartoon".[18]
Lawrence Van Gelder ofThe New York Times stated that the film is "slow to gather momentum and generates little excitement or tension".[19]
Shaquille O'Neal earned aRazzie Award nomination as Worst Actor for his performance in the film, but lost againstKevin Costner forThe Postman.[20][21]
