If there is anyone out there that saw this movie, please let me know...I am trying to figure out a movie I saw at the Drive-In around 1973 or so, about a guy who did 'jumps' over cars....he had a girlfriend that begged him not to keep living this dangerous lifestyle...In one scene, some guy goes, "Lets get some beer"...I don't know why I remember that line, but I just do. I believe he made bigger and longer jumps as time went on...and near the end, he made a jump over some cars and was killed. The last scene shows the girlfriend flying back home in silent thought....I have spent years trying to figure out what movie this is...and I think 'Steel Arena' may be it!!!! Mark Ewing ([email protected])

The film is "stunningly plotless" (© Rod Lott) as it tells the story of a group of stunt drivers who perform as themselves as "Circus of Death" in thrill shows. That's it. Man, what a different era. You know, simpler times where you could pay off your whiskey debt by taking some moonshine over county lines. Where dudes who look like '70s Don Lake with Powers Boothe's mustache from Tombstone (1993) could get chicks. Where you could make a 50/50 partnership with someone you just met in a bar brawl. Where a guy in his 60s earns his living under the moniker Mr. Atom by being blown up with dynamite. Where personal politics in stunt shows drive a performer over the edge when he loses the coveted "Dive Bomber" stunt to a greenhorn. Director Mark Lester tells some amazing stories in his 20-minute interview on the disc, including that he ran into the COD guys randomly and liked their story for a film. And he also says it is a time capsule of an era of Americana that has disappeared and that is totally true. The car stunts are insane, with lots of automobiles ending up looking like soda cans in your recycle bin. A great film to double feature with Death Riders (1976).

Thanks again to my friend Hoss for finding this one - early Mark Lester is not easy at all to track down!

Lester was able to get a bunch of stunt drivers - Dusty Russell, Buddy Love, Gene Drew, Dutch Schnitzer, Speed Stearns, Ed Ryan, Big Tim Welch and Dan Carter - and instead of making just a clip collection of stunts, he created a narrative around all the car damage.

Lester told The Pink Smoke, "I was at the Sacramento River on vacation, just river rafting. I ran into a group of guys there who looked like Hell's Angels. And I said 'What do you do?' They said "We're the Circus of Death." They traveled the circuit putting on shows. So I went to some of those and just thought, "Wow." Originally I wanted to make it as a documentary, then I realized "I know all the real people, I'll just write a narrative around it.""

He also called this movie a post-Vietnam parable, with gladiators in cars. Kind of like Knightriders, except eight years earlier and no one holds Lester in the same esteem as George Romero. Well, you know. Except me.

I really dug the rambling nature of this film, as well as the open ending. If you can find it, take the time to enjoy it.