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A deranged mix of THE TERMINATOR, THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, and the Trucker Action sub-region gives us a dismembered war veteran who gets bionic prosthetics and is used to carry out torture assassinations. After his retirement from the service, he relocates to a deadbeat diner on the side of the highway, where he competes as an arm wrestler, waiting for the corporate killers to find him. The idea is outrageously entertaining but is very poorly realized, with Martino limited to resources scant enough that they never allowed for a model big rig to be blown up at the end. Worst of all, Claudio Cassinelli’s death during filming cast a dark sphere over the picture that will never fade away. It is sometimes pleasurable but utterly insane, and never really coming alive till the last 20 minutes. By and large HANDS OF STEEL is a weak handshake. With that 20 minutes are incomprehensible.
The remaining 30% of humanity left in the human cyborg prevents him from killing a blind and paralyzed leader of environmentalists. As part of his plan to embark on an arms wrestling tour, he ends up being chased by big government hitmen armed to the teeth and a lady cyborg with an awful Southern accent. He finds refuge in an Arizona diner where he takes on the local truckers and the government assassins.
First off, we must say that HANDS OF STEEL is the most hilarious and hair-raising tear out of all the combat cyborg and arm-wrestling films (there can be only one!). The riot-inducing HANDS in a nutshell is basically if THE TERMINATOR (1984) falls in love with Sarah Conner instead of killing her and becomes hunted down by sweat-clad truckers forming a makeshift hitman unit.
Always overly ambitious, 80s Action Hero tropes are packed into the movie. The film’s star, Daniel Greene, if one can request him for any low-budget film, does as well as anyone could envision for such a low-budget picture that is way too high on their hopes. If the film’s crew could have realized their restrictions, we could be calling this sad masterpiece a classic of exploitation. Not to be rude, but if we are, to be honest, for a “muscle-bound cyborg” with 70% of his body engulfed in metal, with five thousand pounds of pressure per square inch, how do you expect him to restrain from doing damage?
People think he has the physique to punch through walls, crush heads like melons, and beat up 18-wheelers but they are wrong. Arm wrestling is what truly captures his abilities.
HANDS is, in essence, an even more deranged set of an OVER THE TOP (1987) and set in a world that hasn’t seen that particular mess of a movie Stallone arm wrestling action drama, quasi-trucker drama. Daniels Greene claims the first encounter with Stallone dates back to 1984 when both of them went to the same gym. He, Stallone, took him to a RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II (1985) screening which led to Daniel meeting some Italian producers. They offered him the lead in the first of five films he did for Sergio Martino. Perhaps in parallel, Greene invited Stalone to a HANDS OF STEEL screening.
We never got any arm wrestling movies that came out prior to this. For an Italian film, this arms the movie with an element of being an innovator. A considerable part of the movie is dedicated to arm-wrestling. Tough Guy talk and etiquette are very much engaged with it. The sport is mostly similar to Professional Wrestling, and it was never surprising to witness wrestlers trying to aid some of the ring theatrics with overly aggressive arm wrestling.
Although it may come off as funny, the Arizona diner in which the majority of the movie was set, still gets cool points for its diverse collection of arm-wrestling champion photos. To my surprise, all the pictures featured renowned pro wrestlers including Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, Magnum TA, Terry Funk, and Hillbilly Jim.
During the fall count and anywhere final scene, which takes around 20 minutes, HANDS grabs the audience by the throat until the last second. From what it appears, Martino saved a chunk of his minuscule budget for the helicopter-big rig chase, pump action shotgun spectacles, the jaw-dropping moment when John Saxon carried a huge laser gun and the wild left field karate showdown between Greene and the saran wrap skirting female cyborg. Even though the energy-gushing bigotry is evident throughout the movie, it is most clear during the final scene when John Saxon blows a truck into bits. For a short glimpse after it has been destroyed, stock footage is displayed. There are no models around to be found like in Martino’s previous genre work, which is most likely another sign of the limp-wristed budget at play. Without a doubt, the stunt of HANDS OF STEEL is the unfortunate death of the famous Italian actor Claudio Cassinelli.
It is hard to ignore Cassinelli’s prowess as the cold-blooded killer, of Peter Howell. With a clean-shaven face and back hair, he is a doppelganger of Antonio Banderas. He is so versatile that he can play the leading role of a villain, who for a change, never smiles during his action scenes. After his death, Roberto Bisacco was brought in to finish the remaining scenes. This was after having been cast into a different role at the beginning, but already Bisacco favors him (see insert). The depressing narratives that surround all of this differ (the interviews on the Blu differ), but for all the gory details, he was an excellent actor. One of the darker chapters in the movie world is when he dies.
On July 12, 1985, actor Claudio Cassinelli died in a helicopter crash in Arizona, where he was filming a movie with pilot Dennis Nasca. During the filming, a scene was shot with a helicopter where Cassinelli’s character was shooting a machine gun at Greene’s character. The plan was to fly a helicopter beneath the Navajo Bridge while crossing the Colorado River. It is reported that the stunt was successfully rehearsed. Unfortunately, on the day of the shooting, the helicopter was too close to the bridge. The rotor blades hit the bridge and the chopper split into pieces, causing a truly shocking incident. The helicopter went into free fall for 500 feet into the Colorado River. The body of Cassinelli was found by divers three hours later still strapped to his seat. The shocking aspect of this incident is that the pilot Nasca was never found at all. It is reported that a bottle of Ionamin was discovered in his hotel room. This drug has been shown to have severe side effects such as nervousness and unusual behavior, and it was a rule not to use it within a 24-hour timeframe before flying. Cassinelli was not supposed to be in the helicopter for these scenes, but some accounts claim that he did it for the sake of his son while others say he was tense about doing the sequence. He was 46 then and was married to the journalist Irene Bignardi.
The helicopter was a Bell 206B and it is the one John Saxon is shown in at the end. From what I am told, Cassinelli was absent and some of his scenes were either re-shot or cut and pasted elsewhere. The chopper can be spotted flying beneath the Navajo Bridge after it follows Greene’s character for a short while. The stories regarding the crash are somewhat different. Some claim that a wind gust lifted the chopper towards the bridge, that the pilot was trying to “display” skills but got distracted, or some other witness-acclaimed excuse. At any rate, later that year in 85, Cassinelli’s widow filed a 10 million dollar wrongful death claim against Nasca’s widow and 3 other companies.
Starting off positively, big George Eastman stands out as having fun while playing the Mexican bully Raul Morales, who is, by the by, amoral. According to Greene’s comments, he enjoyed not just the film but also all the experiences together with Eastman or Luigi Montefiori, who, by the way, gave us some of the most entertaining moments of the movie: constant mugging and violent humor. In his interview, Eastman says he had little motivation towards being involved in the shoot since he regarded the script as idiotic. You would have a tough time perceiving some of these things because Eastman pours his heart and soul into the character of the greasy truck driver.
As I said above, Daniel Greene looks great in his role as Paco. He, like Ferrigno, is seen taking Adelante the semi-sentimental cyborg character which is quite reminiscent of ‘80s action films. Greene’s first scene with the cyborg’s arms functions not only recalls the famous scene with Arnie in ‘The Terminator’ but serves to remind viewers that he is indeed 70% machine. Whenever he is not on screen, you may find yourself forgetting this fun fact, since his hand grapplers aren’t used to much advantage. With guys like Stallone, Bronson, and Norris dominating Tough Guy cinema, Greene had a lot of potential as an American action hero in the DTV market where he got to shine in several such pictures both here and abroad.
Completing the rest of the cast, Swedish actress Janet Agren is convincing as an Arizonan running an out-of-the-way motel. Doctor Butcher himself, Donald O’Brien has a minor role as Paco’s programmer, followed by John Saxon, who appears for a few scenes and complains about only getting a paycheck. He completely disengages from the project at the very end. If you have already seen it, you understand.
To dwell more on the image, the set looks like something out of a low-budget movie Removing the walls or the cars reveals ducting from the machine dryers. The script makes an attempt at an environmental focus portraying the typical pseudo-dystopian future found in every movie of this genre, depicting the big corporations as the reason for the collapse of society. This segment of the script is foolishly ignored against the budget and the extreme madness the film later delves into.
With great regulars, it is the very epitome of a ‘big dumb action movie’. Martino’s outlandish, poorly funded mix of SciFi-Action-Macho has some appealing aspects of this genre yet one wishes the team had more cash to make the HANDS more believable and fully crush the audience into the ground in a good way. To some extent, this is more of a grievous loss, HANDS OF STEEL starts off on a dull note but somehow has a somewhat pleasant conclusion that makes it more enjoyable.
This review is for the Code Red Blu-ray edition. Specifications and extras: New High definition scan exclusive to this release; 1080p 1.78:1 Unedited interview footage of Daniel Greene, John Saxon, Sergio Martino, George Eastman, and Roberto Bisacco; the original trailer and duration: 01:33:08.
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