Review of Steel Toes (2007) by David P — 04 Apr 2009

Steel Toes, based on the play 'Cherry Docs,' is a fantastic story of overcoming hatred. Strathairn is great, as usual, and Walker does a pretty good job convincing us of his hate. Perhaps not everything in the movie is entirely realistic, but it is done very powerfully and in such a way that we believe as much of it as possible.

The only other real quirk that bothered me was that Mike is Irish, and in the opening sequence has a bit of an Irish accent, but then loses it entirely for the rest of the film. He really doesn't need to have the accent, and perhaps that was shot before they realized that he couldn't pull it off for the whole movie and just forgot to reshoot it, but it was a small inconsistency (though it's likely only noticeable if you know that Mike is Irish, which is played down in the movie as compared to the play).

I wasn't a huge fan of the ending, as I found it dragged on a little longer than it needed to (it seems tailored well for a play, just not as much for a movie), but it was worth seeing it through. All in all, even though it isn't true, it's a story that's worth hearing, and more so worth listening to.