This tense, realistic, masterfully acted and written drama of what life is like in a country under Soviet domination (though the Soviet Union is never named), is well-worth seeing. Roddy McDowall, best-known for playing Cornelius in "Planet of the Apes", and for being a bon vivant who threw fabulous parties in decadent Hollyweird, shows what he can do when given a script that actually demands something of him. He was so naturally gifted, so instinctive of an actor, that he often appeared to be coasting in his performances. The stakes are too high in this brilliant expose to allow McDowall to do that. He has to dig down as deep as he can, trying to reach an emotional truth that is worthy of the material, and he succeeds beautifully. He is ably assisted by the other actors, who also rise to the occasion, particularly, Kristine Miller, Harry Lauter, and Glen Vernon.
What makes the film so effective is its focus on the characters, and its refusal to oversimplify what is a complex world with many moving parts. By immersing us in the lives of people about whom we care, we see the personal costs of living under a totalitarian regime and the courage required to resist it. It is not a preachy, didactic, cold exercise; it is a living and breathing work of art.
Some reviewers here have used the term, "Red Scare", to pigeonhole this film, a term that is usually used to imply that the fear or "scare" is baseless, a figment of the imagination. In truth, the devastation caused by Stalin and his successors was, sadly, anything but a fantasy, as the millions of lives that were destroyed makes obvious. There actually WAS something of which to be afraid, and "The Steel Fist" powerfully conveys what that something was.
