This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Growing Up
Plot Overview
"Steel City" starts in the aftermath of an "accident." There are accidents and there are accidents. Take this one from the writings of Russell Banks:
a story about a man who left his beautiful wife and young son and went to work in Cuba where the United States Marines taught him to be a welder in a school they ran there in Guantanamo Bay. The man worked in Cuba for seven years, and when it came time for him to return to Jamaica, he drew out all his savings from the bank, over three thousand dollars, and packed his suitcase. On his way to the airport for his ride home to Jamaica, he stopped into a bar for a last drink with a friend, and his friend, an old and wise Cuban man, told him about a dream he'd had the night before. In his dream the Jamaican man went home to discover that his wife had a new boyfriend living with her and that she and her new boy friend got together and killed the man and kept the money he had been saving all these seven years in Cuba.
The Jamaican man laughed and said good-bye and went on his way. But when he got back to Jamaica, he started to remember his friend's dream, and by the time he got to his village way up in the hills, he was a very worried man. It was early in the morning when he arrived at his house, for he had been traveling all night, and when he opened the door of his old house and walked in, no one was up yet. Very quietly, he looked into the room where their bed had always been, and he saw his wife, as beautiful as before, lying asleep. One of her large breasts had fallen from her dress, and he looked at her with all his old feelings. Then he realized with horror that lying next to her was a handsome young man, and he knew that the Cuban's dream had been right about everything. To save his money from them, he pulled out his knife and stabbed first the young man and then his wife. And then with shock, as he looked down at the bloody bed, he realized that the young man was his own son, probably the same age … as boys … who … sometimes sleep with their Mommies when they have no other place to go to sleep. (255–6)
Suppose in the story the friend had accompanied the man home. Then it might have gone as in the movie with the wise friend saying: “This woman, she's dead and we're sorry, but someone has to take responsibility, and believe me, they don't care who, they just need someone to blame.” He considers his full life and his history with the man and concludes, “Maybe I owe you a little bit.” He takes full responsibility himself and adjures the man to keep quiet about it. Still, the man P.J. Lee (Tom Guiry) has suffered trauma, and this is where the movie begins.
His local family has problems of their own, so he has to steel himself to deal with it alone. They ask him about his girlfriend, but he hasn't got one (“Lauren broke up with me.”) Isn't there anyone? “Just a girl from work.” Amy (America Ferrera) has “a cute face, good values, and a big ass.” Unfortunately, she's fat, by which is meant she has a fulsome figure favoring her Latina body type. All the married gringos in his family have slender women. He thinks about her a little and she thinks about him a lot. He's too messed up to take on a girlfriend right now, but she engages him in a game of addition and subtraction. Although he won't spring for a girlfriend outright, maybe he can be persuaded to take her piecemeal, which can add up to the whole enchilada.
She spends the night with him—not recommended.
His place is a mess (“Your kitchen is filthy,”) and she
hints she may help clean it, not as a maid but if he has his way,
naked. She helps dress him in his work uniform (tie.) He defends her
to her boss, so gets himself fired. Over pie in a diner he apologizes
for not returning her phone calls. She joins him in his (fractured)
family Christmas dinner. While learning Spanish from her, he
precipitously answers “Sí” to her (Spanish) query, is she his
girlfriend? “You tricked me,” he says. Yes, but it counts.
After PJ loses his job as a busboy, his
uncle Vic (Raymond J. Barry) finds him one on a demolition crew. He hated
it and quit. His mom's new husband Randal is a cop who takes him on a
ride-along where PJ observes him breaking up a domestic dispute, possibly
saving a woman's life. PJ gets Randal to sponsor him in the Academy.
Ideology
My dad grew up in a steel mill town called Leetsdale, Steel City spelled backwards. Iron is steel's main constituent, and the “friend” early in the story had an iron will to do the time. Carbon is the usual additive used to make a hardened steel alloy. Randal was living in Carbondale. One needs fire to smelt it, and PJ's older brother Ben (Clayne Crawford) kept complaining to the bartender loose Lucy Jones that she took it. Voilà, we've got a metaphorical steel, and various couples, married, been married, or about to by and by, will know of the steel it takes to make it work in the long run.
Marital conflicts arise
in the regular way per, (Prov. 30:33)
“Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the
wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood: so the forcing of wrath
bringeth forth strife.” The idea in the proverb is that a state of peace and
conciliation can change to one of war just as a liquid (milk) can
change to solid (butter) through constant agitation (churning.) Or
hit a critical area (nose) and it bleeds. The former is illustrated
in this movie with a pickup truck having busted front paneling. “The
main engine belt's busted,” PJ tells his mom, It will take $300
to fix it. His mom would rather spend it on something
“practical.” The truck runs around town just fine, but
eventually it has to be abandoned in a venting of steam. The latter,
bloody, half of the
proverb is illustrated by the shiner Ben gives PJ in their
juvenile fight.
Life is tough enough, and so is marriage,
but here we get a glimpse of what a racially mixed marriage will add
to that over time. Amy is not so easy on PJ's gringo eyes. She might
complain over her Latina maid work in the home. They might have different
tastes in food. Her spirited style of fighting with her Latino boss
was different from a Yank's. Christmas was presented in its giving
of gifts, and expectations may be different for someone from
the cold north than they are for one with a warm Mexican origin.
SC gets into how mixed marriage may affect its children offspring. Randal's boy is shy and wears a full-head monster mask all the time. The mask is black and he is black, so he doesn't mind his color per se, just the exposure of his Negroid features when he takes it off. The expletive “crazy nigger” is heard around town, just once except for in the Deleted Scenes. His father uses the M word Monster Man to describe him, and he doesn't mind that.
As for a critical area instantaneously causing marital strife, when (married) Ben fools around with loose Lucy, that does it.
This indie film is not required to adhere to happy-ever-after, Hollywood standards, so it ends with one couple not yet completing the course to marriage, Lucy hitting on its hapless male, and the miscegenation pair having just started. We wish them the best, but the truck still needs a belt.
Production Values
“” (2006) was written and directed by Brian Jun. It stars Raymond J. Barry, Clayne Crawford, and Tom Guiry. Superior performances were had by Guiry, Barry, Crawford, John Heard, Laurie Metcalf and America Ferreira.
MPA rated it R for language and brief drug use. It's a low-budget movie that received some attention in the art world. It was filmed in Granite City, Illinois, USA. Runtime is 1 hour 35 minutes.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
PJ (Peter Joseph) retrieved his medal
of Saint Joseph—an excellent example of husband &
father,—and Ben wore a crucifix. Randal prayed sincerely at
Christmas dinner. After having messed up his first marriage, he seems
to be an excellent example of a husband and father in his second.
This is especially noteworthy in a society where black dads have
deserted their families wholesale after President Johnson instigated
a war on poverty.
The movie itself is pretty blah but adequately made on a low budget. If you don't mind being bored, this one's for you.
Movie Ratings
Action Factor: Weak action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well, at least you can't see the strings. Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day. Suspense: Predictable. Overall movie rating: Three stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture cited from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Banks, Russell. “Obi.” The Book Of Jamaica. Copyright © 1980 by Russell Banks. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1980. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org