{2jtab: Movie Review}

A movie about making movies always has a sort of bizarre allure to it and Richard Rush’s The Stunt Man, first appearing in 1980, is not a stranger to either quality.  Praised and, in fact, buoyed by print critics back in the day, the film didn’t entirely disappear from America’s consciousness as quickly as it could have.  That being said, the film is a bit of a letdown as it presents a fascinating idea – perception as uncertainty inside the movie industry – yet can’t quite deliver the satisfying tale it thinks it has told.

When escaped prisoner Cameron (Steve Railsback) inadvertently causes (or does he?) a stunt man to lose his life, he – cherry-picked by the dictatorial and often hysterical director, Eli Cross (Peter O'Toole) – finds himself as the new stunt man.  Cross agrees to keep Cameron safe from the heat, if he can complete each and every stunt and keep his sanity under Cross’s rule.  Cameron, after falling in love with the leading lady - Nina Franklin (Barbara Hershey) – becomes quite convinced that Cross is trying to kill him out of sheer jealousy.

You can see the potential that this idea has.  It screams masterpiece and, on one level, it certainly is a masterpiece.  Its fatal flaw is that its director actually believes his film is a masterpiece so Rush – whose career is a bit of an interesting story in itself – doesn’t really feel the need to explain exactly what the hell is going on at times.  Too much is left for us to ponder over and it is quite distracting to the meaning and pacing of the film; lots of spacey filler and lots of inconsequential material to wade through.

Yet when the The Stunt Man – through rapid fire edits and surreal moments of escapism – merges the real life with the movie they are filming, cinematic magic becomes palpable.  It’s certainly very rich and powerful with moments that rival material from Christopher Nolan and the like.  And what more can be said of O’Toole’s brilliant performance as the tyrannical director?  He was nominated for the performance and he certainly earns that nomination with moments of pure demonic delight.  Unfortunately, the demonic side of Cross isn’t explored as fully as it could have been and merely registers as a minor hiccup in the character.  This results in another of the film’s flaws; its characters betray their own intelligence in that they remain rather flat … when we know they are round.

With too much getting nudged away by ‘whatever’ moments (judged so by the characters), the perception of The Stunt Man is a bit skewed in favor of Cameron (who we care the least about) and his drama as a convict-turned-hapless-stuntman-who-might-or-might-not-be-killed-by-the-director.  The movie suffers from a bit of bi-polar what-to-do.  For every exciting moment, there’s an equally ho-hum moment to balance the euphoric sense it so obviously wishes to share with its audience.  The result?

Don’t look at the hands too closely.  We won’t fall for the illusion.

{pgomakase}

{2jtab: Film Info}

MPAA Rating: R.
Director: Richard Rush
Writer: Lawrence B. Marcus
Cast: Peter O'Toole; Steve Railsback; Barbara Hershey; Allen Garfield; Alex Rocco
Genre: Action | Drama | Thriller
Tagline: If God could do the things that we can do, he'd be a happy man...
Memorable Movie Quote: "If you cooperate, you'll receive a first-class ticket to Amsterdam where you can stick your finger in a dike."
Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Official Site:
Release Date: June 27, 1980
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: June 7, 2011

Synopsis: While on the run from the police, Steve Railsback hides in a group of moviemakers where he pretends to be a stunt man. Both aided and endangered by the director (Peter O'Toole) he avoids both the police and sudden death as a stuntman. The mixture of real danger and fantasy of the movie is an interesting twist for the viewer as the two blend in individual scenes

{pgomakase}

{2jtab: Blu-ray Details}

Component Grades Movie Blu-ray Disc Blu-ray Experience

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - June 7, 2011
Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles: None
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1; English: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Original)
Discs: 50GB Blu-ray Disc; Single disc (1 BD)
Playback: Region A

The film’s new AVC encoded 1080p transfer - presented in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio – is still a rough affair.  Grainy and full of blotches, there’s not much that can be done for its look…even on blu-ray.  It’s a low-budget affair and, obviously, never handled as the masterpiece print critics once hailed it as. The color is stronger than before and some of the detail pops, but the transfer also falls victim to edge enhancement.  The inclusion of a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is a nice surprise, though.  Sometimes the sound effects are quite shocking…and real.

Supplements:

Commentary:

• Here you have a commentary that is actually more interesting than the feature film.  Featuring writer-director Richard Rush, Peter O'Toole, Steve Railsback, Barbara Hershey, Alex Rocco, Sharon Farrell and Chuck Bail, the commentary – while crowded – is informative and addictive.

Special Features:

There’s a lot to enjoy about the supplemental material loaded onto this disc.  Rich with a wealth of background information about the struggles to get this film made, there are several documentaries highlighting Rush and his career as well as the movie itself.  Well worth a viewing, even if you aren’t a fan of the movie.

The breakdown is as follows:

• The Sinister Saga: The Making of ‘The Stunt Man’ (120 min)
• Two Deleted Scenes
• The Maverick Career of Richard Rush (34 min)
• Peter O'Toole Recounts ‘The Stunt Man’ (19 min)
• Devil's Squadron: An Interview with Steve Railsback and Alex Rocco (19 min)
• Barbara Hershey on Nina Franklin (14 min)
• The Stunt Man at the New Beverly (17 min)
• Trailers

{2jtab: Trailer}

{pgomakase}

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