There are certain elements we’ve all come to expect from low-budget, DIY action films: amateur karate, workout montages, bad haircuts, amped up dialogue delivered in a strong regional accent, a foot chase through a park, a guy with a knife, a guy with a gun, another guy with a knife. The villain is dealing drugs and/or running a gang and/or leading an evil multi-billion dollar corporation. Everyone wants revenge. There are flying kicks, flying punches, broken arms, and more than a few twisted necks. The show-stopping climactic karate battle is almost certainly modeled after Fist of Fury, only the fists are a bit less furious. And of course, at no point will the hero wear a shirt with sleeves. When you’ve got guns like these, it’s illegal to conceal them.
You’ve seen these same scenes play out over and over again across different films with meager budgets, and that’s OK because these movies have a warm familiarity to them. You know what to expect, but that doesn’t hinder your enjoyment. And sure, sometimes you zone out and start online shopping for something you definitely don’t need but fully deserve. Still, you always come back to this genre and take a chance on an unknown title filmed in someone’s backyard because you hope to find another Miami Connection, even though the likelihood is higher that you find. . . not that.
Blood and Steel combines everything you’ve ever wanted from a DIY action film, plus more–a lot more. Martial arts? Check. Foot chases? Check. Buffalo accents? Check. Nunchucks? Check. Bowl haircuts and the tiniest, cutest gun you’ve ever seen? Check. Written, directed, produced, and choreographed by Mark Swetland, who is also the star, Blood and Steel goes beyond expectations and punches us in the face with dizzying ambition.
The plot is straightforward: Mark Swetland, played by Mark Swetland, is out for revenge. His sister has been killed while taking a swim in her above-ground pool, and his girlfriend has been kidnapped. Now he must take down the evil, beer-bellied boss, but first he must go through a hired assassin, who has a black belt in ass-kicking. Well, it should come to no surprise that Mark Swetland is also professionally trained in breaking bones and this is what people call a standoff.
This movie is less about what happens and more about how it happens. What we actually get to see unfold gloriously on screen is an incredible amount of stunt work. There are high-speed dirt bike chases, some of which are done without a helmet, which seems like a stupid way to die, and there are car chases where Mark Swetland clings to the side of a careening car. Then, impossibly, there’s a helicopter scene. I don’t know what kind of budget Mark Swetland had but clearly all his money went to paying the pilot for a few minutes of footage. This is ambition. But there is also execution. And not just murders happening on screen. I mean the execution of the film: cinematography and editing. Blood and Steel has a wide variety of shots which is in no way typical for a backyard action film shot on 16mm. Fights explode from different angles, stunts are captured in medium and wide shots, and edits come fast and quick which keeps the momentum up all the way through the conclusion where Mark Swetland breaks necks while wearing Bruce Lee’s iconic yellow jumpsuit.
And if this isn’t enough to love Blood and Steel (and believe me, there’s a lot to love, especially the Buffalo accents), the women characters are strong. They aren’t just damsels in distress; they’re martial artists who deliver an endless string of traumatic dick kicks. If anything, the real victims of this film are testicles.
