Steel Spirit

Movie / Show Details

Review

Ex-bounty hunter Dallas McQuaid (Steven Pershing) has a problem. He s been working as a car salesman since he quit the trade seven ago, and he s just been unceremoniously fired. While in a bar attempting to drown his sorrows, he finds out persons unknown have put a $5 million bounty on his head. Before he can even finish his beer, all manner of lowlifes are after him to get the money while law enforcement agencies from the local police to the FBI want to bring him in. That s Steel Spirit in a nutshell. Writer, director, producer, and lead actor Pershing has pulled together his childhood friends, a Hi-8 millimeter video camera, and a shoestring budget to put together what is essentially an homage to the action films of the 1980s, and a reasonably enjoyable one at that. McQuaid, during his storied career, put away 46 of America s most wanted. He did all this while searching for the man who killed his family 20 years ago (and all while sporting a snazzy duster and cowboy hat). Once he metes out revenge for that deed, he hangs it up for the next seven years. It isn t until the aforementioned bounty is issued that he has to dust off his guns and get to the bottom of things. The cast is pretty competent which, when you consider they re all unpaid and non-professional, is pretty impressive. Pershing obviously also has a great love for the genre, and throws several action/adventure elements into the pot to make Steel Spirit come together. There s a great broomstick (yes, broomstick) fight that evokes both The Empire Strikes Back and Highlander, while his shooting angles during the chase scenes make me suspect be was a big A-Team fan. There s a shout-out to Fantasia, some evil ninjas, and McQuaid s tricked-out Plymouth Duster would give the Batmobile a run for its money. Well, the 1960s Batmobile anyway. Not all of it really works, or makes sense for that matter. McQuaid and his best friend Jack (Brian Papakie) are apparently ex-Marines, and an oddly hokey interlude utilizing the Corps at Arlington National Cemetery (what better place to hide from the Feds than two miles from the J. Edgar Hoover building?) combined with a truly bizarre climactic dream sequence left me a mite puzzled. Perhaps Pershing initially intended this as a USMC recruiting video. Still, it s refreshing to see a low-budget attempt to make an action picture instead of yet another angst-ridden faux deconstructionist diatribe. Steel Spirit is a fairly entertaining effort, and one that doesn t suffer overmuch for its lack of high-end talent or effects, provided you can get past some of the cheesier moments and the intermittent feeling that everyone involved is playing grown-up Cowboys and Indians. Or why a bald guy with a goatee and a price on his head doesn t shave and buy a wig. –Film Threat

Local director s Steel Spirit brings film to big screen. Week of April 12, 2002 By ERIC FINE, for the Press of Atlantic City, (609) 272-7247 Like the main character of his film Seel Spirit , Steven Pershing qualifies as a working-class hero. Pershing is a self-taught jack-of-all-trades, with a resume that includes computers, construction work and now filmmaking. The Egg Harbor Township resident shot his action/adventure about a fictitious bounty hunter in 1998 and 1999. Pershing cast himself as Dallas McQuaid, who tracked down 46 of America s Most Wanted before trading in the dangerous line of work for the anonymity of selling cars. Pershing,30, is no stranger to the quiet desperation to which McQuaid has exiled himself. For one forgettable day, he donned a rubber suit, climbed into a 40-foot tank, and shoveled human waste products on the grounds of the Atlantic City International Airport. The job didn t last long. That s why I really started considering maybe actually going for the dream, says Pershing, a computer technician with the Federal Aviation Administration in Atlantic City. I did that one day, and I actually quit halfway through the day and started making my plans to make a move as far as getting into the entertainment field. In 1994, he accepted a position at the Atlantic City Race Course, where he gained experience in the field of television production. He held the position until 1999, when he took time off to finish shooting Steel Spirit . The 90-minute feature begins with McQuaid losing his job at a car dealership. Afterward, he walks into an Atlantic City bar and sees his picture on television, and listens to a newscaster announce that he is the subject of a $5 million bounty. He soon finds out that everybody is betting against his survival-including the bookmakers in Las Vegas. Pershing says he tried to bring together the best qualities of Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark, but the script will remind film buffs of The Guantlet and Midnight Run, as well. The script also recalls the paranoia in Kafka s, The Trial — McQuaid has no idea who bankrolled the contract. Shot on 8mm HI-8 video with a Sony home-video camera, Steel Spirit co