Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1965
High Steel
Buy High Steel now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'High Steel' is a 1965 short National Film Board of Canada documentary film directed by Don Owen about Mohawk Ironworkers from Kahnawake building New York City skycrapers.
Synopsis
Featuring breathtaking sequences of workers walking along narrow steel beams high above street level, 'High Steel' is based largely on the experiences of one Mohawk ironworker working in Manhattan, Harold McComber. The film contrasts the daring work of McComber and his coworkers in the skies above New York with life back home in Kahnawake. It also explains how the Mohawk people living across the Saint Lawrence River from Montreal first gained their reputation for high steel work in the late 19th century, working on a railway bridge that ran through their land. However, as the film recounts through narration and archival photos, such a reputation came at a terrible cost: while working on the Quebec Bridge further down river near Quebec City, dozens of Mohawks were among the 75 men killed during its 1907 construction collapsewith a devastating impact on the small community. While celebrating their courage and skill, the film also makes plain how Mohawks are forced to leave home in order to make a living, with McComber regretting that his sons have had to grow up without their father.
Production
The film's director of photography was John Spotton, with Don Francks as narrator, Julian Biggs as producer, and with a song by Bruce Mackay, "Mountains of Iron and Steel" (replacing Gordon Lightfoot, who was originally supposed to have provided music). The film was shot using 35 mm cameras, with film crews having to gain access to the construction site high above the ground by traversing a ladder from an adjacent building.
Reception
'High Steel' received the Canadian Film Award for Best Editing. It also received a Special Youth Prize
from the Berlin International Film Festival.
Further reading
*
References
Buy High Steel now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1965