Steel Toes is basically a play that has been filmed - not usually my cup of tea - but the filmmakers have provided enough visual action to change it from a dry play put before a motionless camera into an engrossing character study driven by two extraordinary actors.

The story of one of brutality and redemption revolving around self-examinations by the two major characters.

Mike is a hateful neo-Nazi who beats an Indian man so badly that he eventually dies. The attack was basically unprovoked which caused it to be even more horrendous. Because of his skinhead ties, it has been necessary for the authorities to place him in isolation while awaiting trial.

Enter Danny who will be serving as Mike's defense attorney. Danny is a middle-aged Jewish man who somehow sees something beyond hate in his young client, and he makes it his goal to reach the human being buried deep within indoctrination and prejudice.

The interplay between the actors playing these two men - actually a man and a boy - is the meat of this film, and their time on screen is a luxury to the viewer.

David Strathairn portrays Danny. He is a consummate actor and, as Danny, he entitles us a view of a good, strong-willed man who, through his interaction with a young man lost to society, is able to reexamine his own life and goals. He is such a strong performer that the viewer never doubts the accomplishment of his gargantuan task of bringing about the reformation of a man filled with hate.

Andrew W. Walker plays Mike. Most of his credits are in television and in programs that are of no interest to me, so I did not recognize him. Actually, I think this heightened my enjoyment of his portrayal. He is astounding as a raw young man completely given over to hate, prejudice, and testosterone - a deadly combination.

There is a third extremely moving performance given in the film, and that is the one given by Ivan Smith as the Indian man beaten to death by Mike. The scene is that of Smith's character giving his victim impact statement in the hospital before his death. It is heartbreaking.

This film, in spite of its subject matter, actually has somewhat of an upbeat ending in which the triumph of knowledge and character overcome baser human emotions. Steel Toes is a delicacy for anyone who enjoys a film saturated with superior acting.

One night after a concert in Montreal after a lot of boozing Andrew Walker skinhead is feeling in a real bad mood because he's a mean drunk. When Ivan Smith playing an East Indian immigrant accidentally spills some garbage he was tossing out from the restaurant he works at Walker feels this act of dissing deserves retaliation. So Walker knocks Smith down and proceeds to stomp him to death. He's wearing black steel toed combat boots and they are certainly equipped to stomp.

I had some mixed emotions about Steel Toes. The performances have David Strathairn as a liberal Jewish defense attorney and Walker on screen together for about 80% of the film and the two of them turn in some powerful performances. The best comparison that I can give is that of Sidney Poitier and Bobby Darin in that minor classic Pressure Point from the 60s. Instead of a lawyer Poitier is a psychiatrist and one rare black one from those times who gets Bundist member Darin as a client in a prison setting. He breaks him down in much the same way that Strathairn does with Walker.

But Strathairn's goal as a lawyer is get him the best sentence possible and possibly back then he would have had more maneuverability without hate crimes laws. I know Canada is far more advanced than we are on that subject.

Still this is a very powerful Canadian film shot on a shoestring budget with a pair of great performances from its two leads. Not to be missed if possible.

Mike Downey (Andrew Walker) is a white supremacist skinhead. He is arrested for beating up an immigrant as a hate crime. Liberal Jew Danny Dunkelman (David Strathairn) is assigned as his defense lawyer. Mike is a young angry man. Danny is confronted by family and friends. Both struggle to come to terms with their beliefs.

This is mostly a two person play. Strathairn is a class act and his greatness is expected. Andrew Walker is equally amazing. As for the play, some parts of it is poignant while other parts feel overwrought. It's walking on a knife's edge. The movie has both types of moments. It can be powerful one moment and fake the next. It's definitely pushing its agenda very hard and it can feel preachy. Some of it feel fake and rubs me the wrong way.