STEELYARD BLUES

US, 1972, 93 minutes, Colour.
Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Peter Boyle, Gary Goodrow, Howard Hesseman.
Directed by Alan Myerson.

The plans for this film must have been a producer's delight: a zany comedy with an anti-establishment flavour starring Donald Sutherland and Jane Fonda (a. fashionable team) with Peter Boyle added in, humorous characterisations, some throwaway laughs and a robbery caper to finish with. I fear many audiences will get the blues because it doesn't all gel. Donald Sutherland is excellent, a funny comedian, and keeps it all going as well as possible, and Boyle has some funny things to do. If you're in the mood, it could be quite good. If you are not, the humour is intermittent and the whole thing becomes a bit tiresome.

1. How enjoyable was this film? The mood and meaning of the title? The mood and meaning of the film? Was it too esoteric for most audiences? Why? How valuable a film was it?

2. How interesting a picture of America did the film give? A way-out treatment but insight into the real America? Wacky jokes giving clues as to real behaviour and attitudes? The steelyard and the junkyard - what really was it? A criticism of prevailing standards in America, dissatisfaction with them, the realities of 'opting out'? How real were the criticisms this film made of American society and expectations? How trenchant the criticisms? However, was the film too American for overseas audiences? Would overseas audiences appreciate the points made and their feeling? Why?

3. What is the value of criticism by laughter, satire and parody? How high does this film rate in these regards? Why?

4. Were the characters really characters and personalities? Were they too eccentric or were they eccentric personalities? Were they really 'humours'? Representing the represent attitudes, types?

5. How much did the film rely on funny situations, eccentric situations, and audience expectations about types of character and their ways of behaviour? (and then flouting these expectations?) How successful is this in jolting audience response? Where was this done best in the film?

6. How did the songs and commentary contribute to the mood and meaning of the film?

7. How successful was the film visually in creating parodies of other films and American expectations?

8. How heroic a hero was Jesse? An outlaw not a criminal? The meaning of outlaw in America? The acceptability of being an outlaw? Jesse as a victim, in prison, relationship with negroes, his boyish joy in things, was he a kind of a prophet in modern America? His contrast with his bureaucratic and hypocritical brother? What values did Jesse stand for? His eccentric behaviour but his real values?

9. How ironic a heroine was Iris? The poor girl with the heart of gold? The American victim? Her being a victim of American violence etc.? The quality of her relationship with Jesse?

10. How enjoyable a comic figure was Eagle? Joking about 'the American dream'? His parodies of Dr. Kildare, Robin Hood, the British 'Tommy', Fantomas and the extraordinary siege of the hangar, and the parody of Marlon Brando in The Wild One? What was the point of this? How enjoyable? American folk heroes and film heroes? Then John Wayne at the end?

11. How enjoyable were the other helpers of Jesse, Iris and Eagle? The fascination with machines, cars, planes, the ability of Jesse to put things together?

12. The humour of the ending and its exaggeration? The cavalry to the rescue in modern America? The parody of the West - who were heroes, villains?

13. How successful can humour be for making social comment?