Sons of Steel

A sci-fi camp comedy musical set in Sydney of the future. The cast is well suited to comedy-Dasha Blahova (who has since returned to Czechia) & Ralph Cotterill and Jeff Duff & Machs Colombani make memorable duos. Trivia:Blahova and Cotterill both appeared in The Howling III.

It was interesting to read the IMDb comments from director Gary L.Keady about the underground locations used. The director has stated that in some of the locations he saw graffiti from the 19th century! I wonder if people can still go there? The soundtrack was great, it was very uplifting music in particular "Fighting for You". An enjoyable movie and my favourite Aussie film of the 80's.

I had never seen this movie before, but I love home-grown Aussie films... so when I saw Umbrella were releasing it on blu-ray, I quickly parted with the cash and bought it. Is it a great movie, as in the classics of modern cinema? No. But it's certainly good fun. I also thought it had a great visual flair, reflecting the era in which it was made. I also thought the soundtrack was fantastic! It came with the blu-ray, so I have been listening to it ever since I watched the movie. I got the impression the actors enjoyed making the film as it looks like they're deliberately camping it up and having fun. Definitely worth a watch.

It was a had film to make. I had to rewrite the original script only six weeks prior to principal photography due to budgetary changes. In a lot of ways the film paid the price for being a first in Australia. It was the first film to be shot employing digital live sync sound and thus pathed the way for others. Sons of Steel was shot at night, at times a mile or more underground Sydney in World War II bunkers (Gen. McArthur's). It was a tough eight week shoot and in retrospect an difficult task for a first time director. I'm proud of what we tried to do with as little funding as we had. We put a lot of quality up on the screen. Those who I was fortunate enough to work with gave the film a first class look and me first class experience. Some find the story hard to follow and that would be because so much of it wasn't shot because of bad scheduling and plenty ended up on the edit floor for one reason or another. I'm sure that's generally taken as a directors excuse for a flawed film, perhaps so, but then again maybe I'm right. I did live through the experience of not only writing it a number of times but raising the finance, writing much of the music, directing it and selling it around the world. And for that experience I am eternally thankful.. I hope I can improve with the next picture and I hope those who see Sons of Steel are entertained enough to appreciate it and perhaps look out for my next film.

This movie is kind of awesome. The whole thing is done in a very confident manner, which, for this sort of thing, is the most important element of production. Watching Black Alice walk around and menace society is kind of mesmerizing. The grimy, dimly lit sets are excellent. The costumes are peak '80s madhouse (especially the hair; oh, gods, the hair).

What's it about? It's a dystopian rock opera that goes off and does whatever the hell it feels like doing whenever the hell it feels like doing it. It's leagues ahead of most exploitation movies, both of and not of its time. I can see why the short film this is based on played before David Lynch's Dune; the whole thing feels like it takes place on Giedi Prime. And it's awesome.

I get what they were going for, the creators obviously took a lot of time and effort into the production design and look of the film, and the world building, which was pretty decent.

But the script and the acting left a lot to be desired. A sort of cross between Mad Max and 12 Monkeys but both those films are many, many levels above this effort.

Some great ideas that just weren't properly thought out or realised to their full potential are there. The songs that are in the film are also pretty lacklustre and amateurish even for an 80s film.

I dunno, maybe I just need to watch this on as many "mind altering" substances as the screenwriters and director were.. lol.