Steven Seagal apparently studied a filmmaking master before plunging into his directing debut with "On Deadly Ground."

John Ford's "The Searchers," perhaps? Don Siegel's "Dirty Harry"? Or maybe the Oscar-winning effort of another actor-turned-director, Kevin Costner's "Dances With Wolves."

"On Deadly Ground" does provide moments, however brief, that echo all of them (did I mention "Rambo"?), but there is one filmmaker whose influence is greater and more obvious: Tom Laughlin.

For those who have forgotten, Laughlin was the writer-director-producer and star of those 1970s peace-through-violence "Billy Jack" movies. If someone wasn't gentle and caring, Billy would pummel him with karate chops until he saw the error of his ways.

Seagal's motivation here is environmentalism instead of peace . . . this is the '90s, after all. And his methods go a bit farther than merely doling out karate chops to evil oil riggers who despoil the Alaskan wilderness. He also uses camouflaged torture devices, a hidden arsenal that will be the envy of end-of-the-world survivalists and an array of explosive devices.

In fact, Seagal's character — whose name is Forrest! — blows up so much of the Alaskan ecology, one wonders why he's so concerned about oil spills.

The plot, such as it is, has evil oil mogul Michael Caine setting up the world's biggest oil refinery with substandard equipment. But if he waits for new parts and misses his on-line date, the oil rights revert back to an Alaskan tribe.

Seagal can't believe his boss, Caine, is an evil robber baron. But Caine's performance is so sinister and over the top, the audience will be convinced in 30 seconds.

It's no surprise, of course, that Seagal's directing ability is crude and occasionally downright silly. But it is surprising that the tone is so sadistic and mean-spirited, with far too many racial epithets.

And, yes, at the end, Seagal does deliver a speech calculated to make Greenpeace proud, complete with slides. Mercifully, its reported original 10-minute length has been trimmed to less than half that — although it still goes on forever.

Caine is slumming, of course (he must have been offered a ton of money), and Joan Chen just carries Seagal's explosives around.

The location scenery is beautifully captured by cinematographer Ric Waite, though it fails to mute the plethora of unintentional laughs.