Blue Steel (1990)

Blue Steel (1990)
by Kathryn Bigelow

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DVD Reviews of Blue Steel (1990)

DVD Review: More than they can chew?
Summary: 3 Stars

Jamie Lee plays Megan, a rookie cop who gets suspended after shooting a robber her first night on the job. (The robber is a cracked out Tom Sizemore). The crime scene gun, which would clear her, disappears into the hands of one of the witnesses. Ron Silver is the Wall Street gold trader who grabs the gun and begins a maniacal killing spree, carving Curtis' name into the bullets and implicating her. In the meantime, he begins seeing her romantically after arranging a chance meeting on the street. This enables him to really play with her mind; as the relationship escalates, the bodies start piling up.

Even after he implicates himself to her during a demented revelation of sorts (that gun grabbing business will have film theorists drooling), his status makes him a very unlikely suspect, and his expensive lawyer is able to shield him from the cops. He even shoots Megan's best friend right in front of her, yet he still gets away with it. The man is clearly nuts, yet he's somehow untouchable.

There is practically no insight into Silver's character. Like how a successful trader (who readily describes his own job trading gold options as 'misanthropic') is just one stray gun away from becoming the next Son of Sam. Silver is a tremendous actor but he's given little to work with. Having Silver play a trader must be some comment on a male dominated industry (Wall Street, traditionally) and its relationship to other primal male instincts (killing?), only hinted at in some of Silver's wackier moments. It's not exactly subtle, and if you think about it, it's even slightly offensive.

The movie is rife with plot holes and jumps in logic that you dismiss until the end, when absurdity really takes over as a deserted Wall Street turns into the Wild West. Our two principles chase each other, exchange gunfire at close range, get shot, run some more, shoot each other again, etc. I kept thinking it was a dream sequence, but it wasn't. Silver turns into Michael Meyers; he just can't seem to die. He's shot, he's down, he's back up, he's shot again, etc. Don't worry, that wasn't a plot spoiler; you can see it coming from the opening titles.

Blue Steel could have been much better. Perhaps it was too early in director Kathryn Bigelow's career. The intense, confident visual style of Near Dark is here, but the film is mainly concerned with vindicating its androgynous star's character through (typically male) movie violence. The significance is that it's a female director. The film would probably make even less of splash were it released today.

There are worse ways to kill time. The DVD is not bad, it looks and sounds good enough. So nice of the studio to include nothing in the way of extras; everyone loves having to buy the same product yet again. Recommended for Bigelow and Curtis fans.

Description of Blue Steel (1990)