Profesión: El especialista (1980) Online

1980 Peter OToole Steve Railsback Barbara Hershey Richard Rush

Original Title :: The Stunt Man
Genre :: Movie / Action / Comedy / Drama / Romance / Thriller
Year :: 1980
Directror :: Richard Rush
Cast :: Peter O'Toole,Steve Railsback,Barbara Hershey
Writer :: Lawrence B. Marcus,Richard Rush
Budget :: $3,500,000
Type :: Movie
Time :: 2h 11min
Rating :: 7.2/10

Profesión: El especialista (1980) Online

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.

Cast overview, first billed only:
	Peter O'Toole	-	Eli Cross
	Steve Railsback	-	Cameron
	Barbara Hershey	-	Nina Franklin
	Allen Garfield	-	Sam (as Allen Goorwitz)
	Alex Rocco	-	Jake
	Sharon Farrell	-	Denise
	Adam Roarke	-	Raymond Bailey
	Philip Bruns	-	Ace
	Charles Bail	-	Chuck Barton
	John Garwood	-	Gabe / Eli's cameraman
	Jim Hess	-	Henry / Eli's camera assistant
	John Pearce	-	Garage Guard (as John B. Pearce)
	Michael Railsback	-	Burt
	George Wallace	-	Father (as George D. Wallace)
	Dee Carroll	-	Mother

Director Richard Rush has said of this movie in a 2001 interview with Paul Hupfield: "I was lecturing at a university film school to a bunch of potential film students and asked them if any of them had seen my films. I started with Color of Night (1994), and I'd say about 80 hands went up out of a room of about 200 kids. Then I asked if anyone had seen The Stunt Man (1980), the film I actually wanted to talk to them about, and only two hands went up. Two hands in a room of 200! I thought, 'Oh boy, my film is totally lost on this generation...'."

On the film's DVD audio-commentary, the picture's star Peter O'Toole said of the movie's distribution: "The film wasn't released, it escaped".

The film was a dream project for director Richard Rush. The film has frequently being publicized as taking nine years to get to the screen. However, Rush has said on the website for The Sinister Saga of Making 'The Stunt Man' (2000), that the picture took ten years to make from inception to release, seven years to finance it and then three years to release it. The script was first written in 1970 when the rights were first sold. The film was shot in 1978 with post-production conducted in 1979. The picture had trouble getting distributed until 20th Century Fox picked it up and released it in 1980.

While Eli Cross and others ride in a boom Crane Basket and Eli Cross talks about movie illusion, they entered the basket at the beach in La Jolla CA, and exit the basket 15 miles away at the Hotel del Coronado.

The name of the movie within a movie being filmed is never mentioned during the film. It's title though is "Devil's Squadron" as its name can be seen on the production t-shirts being worn by the crew.

During the long period of the making and release of this film director Richard Rush suffered two heart attacks.

The scene where the old car crashes off the bridge ("The Old Fair Oaks Bridge) into the river was filmed on the American River in Rancho Cordova and Fair Oaks, Sacramento County, California. When they first tried this the car actually jumped the track to lead it off the bridge and it continued down the bridge. The driver-less car was on a pulley system with a rail on the bridge road to guide it. The driver-less car chased down a few cameramen and crew and took out a camera before it came to rest.

Stunt coordinator Charles Bail, who is frequently known as Chuck Bail, worked as an actor in the film playing a character, Chuck, also a stunt coordinator, who had the same first name as his own. Bail also worked uncredited on stunts for the picture.

François Truffaut was an early contender to direct the film version of Paul Brodeur's novel. Truffaut borrowed elements from the story for La nuit américaine (1973) and Arthur Penn did the same for Night Moves (1975).

Although actors like Martin Sheen and Jeff Bridges were lobbying hard for the part of Cameron, Steve Railsback clinched the part after director Richard Rush saw his stirring performance as Charles Manson in Helter Skelter (1976). Once Rush decided on Peter O'Toole and Railsback as his leads, he waited a year and a half to make the picture with them, turning down chances to go forward with O'Toole and Bridges, Sean Connery and Railsback, and George C. Scott and Sheen.

The American Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) declined approval to allow director Richard Rush's production filming of an early 20th century bi-plane near the Hotel del Coronado shooting location. According to Paul Tatara at the TCMDb, "Eventually, Rush secured the right to land the plane at a nearby Naval base, then Bail, who volunteered to fly the antique aircraft, 'developed radio trouble' and lost contact with the closest control tower, at which point the plane mysteriously began to 'stall' directly over the hotel. Bail then performed a handful of diving runs and machine gun passes while Rush filmed him with five strategically located cameras".

The movie was part of a 1970s cycle of works which were about stunt-work and the stunt profession in movie-making. In his book "Cult Movies 3", Danny Peary says in his piece on The Stunt Man (1980) that "there had been a proliferation of theatrical and television films about stuntmen". The films include Hooper (1978), Animal (1977), Evel Knievel (1971) (1971), Stunt Rock (1979), Evel Knievel (1974) (1974), The Stuntmen (1973), Deathcheaters (1976), Kaskadöörid (1977), Viva Knievel! (1977), Superstunt (1977), Death Riders (1976) and The Stunt Man (1980).

The hiding out on a film set story element in this movie's story-line has a true real life parallel. A large number of members of the French Resistance worked on the film crew and/or as extras in crowd scenes on 'Marcel Carne''s Les enfants du paradis (1945) when Nazi power was at its peak in its occupation of France and these fighters needed concealing their identities from the Gestapo.

The film was made and released about a decade after its source novel of the same name by Paul Brodeur had been first published in 1970.

The 20th Century Fox film picked up the picture for distribution the same day the film won the Grand Prix at the Montreal Film Festival.

The old hotel complex seen in the film is the Hotel del Coronado. The hotel had been well known for its appearance in the earlier classic film Some Like It Hot (1959).

Peter O'Toole based his performance and characterization of film director Eli Cross on director David Lean who he had worked with on Araabia Lawrence (1962).

Publicity for this picture declared that the movie "defies categorization". The production notes stated that "while other films can be conveniently classified as comedies, westerns, thrillers or musicals" this film though is "a multi-layered experience". In the time since this picture debuted, the "multi-genre" Hollywood movie has become more commonplace.

Elia Kazan recommended actor Steve Railsback to director Richard Rush.

According to 'Movies on TV and Videocassette', "Director-producer 'Richard Rush' worked on the project for nine years and [then] had to wait two years after the film was completed in 1978 to get it released".

The movie's original running time was 150 minutes.

Co-screenwriter Richard Rush has said of the rejection of his first draft script by Columbia Pictures studio executives: "They couldn't figure out if it was a comedy, a drama, if it was a social satire, if it was an action adventure...and, of course, the answer was, 'Yes, it's all those things'. But that isn't a satisfactory answer to a studio executive".

Lead actor Peter O'Toole reportedly struggled to find a suitable outfit for his role as obsessive director Eli Cross. After several days trying to find a suitable wardrobe, director Richard Rush got him to wear clothes which were replicas of his own, complete with matching viewfinder. It's been said that Rush's personality influenced O'Toole's portrayal of a fictional movie director.

The picture was actor Peter O'Toole's previous cinema film made before My Favorite Year (1982). As such, it was back-to-back consecutive pictures about show-business for O'Toole as The Stunt Man (1980) was about movie-making whereas My Favorite Year (1982) was about 1950s live television. Moreover, O'Toole was Best Actor Oscar nominated for both films, but did not win the award for either.

The original stuntman 'Lucky' (the one who crashed and disappeared) was played by Steve Railsback's real life brother.

The film was nominated for three Academy Awards including Best Actor in a Leading Role - Peter O'Toole; Best Director - Richard Rush and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, but the film failed to win an Oscar in any of these categories.

The make and model of the vintage car is referred to in the film as being a Duesenberg. However, according to the IMCDb, the vehicle was a made for movie car, it resembling a 1932 Mercedes Benz 770, and appearing to be made of various manufacturer styles including the above as well as Rolls Royce.

Reportedly, when actor Peter O'Toole first read the movie's script a few years prior to the film getting made, O'Toole said to director Richard Rush "I am an articulate, intelligent man. I read the screenplay and if you don't give me the part I will kill you". A similar "I will kill you" line of dialogue is said by O'Toole's director character in the movie.

In a tie with Fontamara (1980), the film won the Grand Prix (Grand Prix des Amériques) Award at the Montreal Film Festival in 1980.

In an interview with 'American Film' magazine in 1981, director Richard Rush said the film "...had in it an irresistible metaphor for me. The idea of a fugitive hiding his identity by posing as a stuntman and falling under the dominance of a director seemed like a marvelous way to examine our universal panic and paranoia over controlling our own destinies. And it offered a chance to do it inside the structure of a big screen big action picture, which would be entertaining at the same time".

Funding for the picture came from Melvin Simon who had made a fortune in real estate.

Peter O'Toole always said that his portrayal of the obsessive director Eli Cross was a mixture of the equally obsessive David Lean, and his one -time fellow Galwegian, the rambunctious John Huston.

Ryan O'Neal originally was slated to play the lead, but dropped out and was eventually replaced by Steve Railsback.

The film is considered a cult movie and is listed in Danny Peary's "Cult Movies 3" book as such.

The Columbia Pictures studio in 1970 paid around US $300,000 for the film right's to Paul Brodeur's "The Stunt Man" novel whilst it was still in galley form. Later, the studio rejected the screenplay and put the picture into turnaround due to financial difficulties coupled with the perception that the picture would not be profitable. The studio then sold the rights to the movie to the film's writer-producer-director Richard Rush.

Co-scriptwriter Richard Rush has said of adapting this film's source Paul Brodeur novel: "There was an irresistible metaphor in the book that kept haunting me, and I kept going back to it in my head".

Columbia offered the film to Richard Rush on the strength of the success of his previous film, Getting Straight (1970). Columbia executives then rejected the script, saying it was difficult to find a genre to place it in. Said Rush: "They couldn't figure out if it was a comedy, a drama, if it was a social satire, if it was an action adventure...and, of course, the answer was, 'Yes, it's all those things.' But that isn't a satisfactory answer to a studio executive." Rush then bough the film rights to Columbia and shopped the film to other studios, to no avail.

Richard Rush initially declined do this movie in the very early 1970s.

The movie's main opening credits and promotional title logo were framed and billed in association with a design image of a movie set clapper-board.

Film critic Roger Ebert has said of this film's development and distribution: "Richard Rush . . . began preparing this film in 1971, and finally shot it in 1978. It was financed by Melvin Simon Productions, which couldn't find a distributor for it. It sat on the shelf for a year, finally got favorable attention at the USA (Dallas) and Montreal film festivals and was picked up by Twentieth Century-Fox . . . Its opening in New York was hailed by many critics, most notably the New Yorker's Pauline Kael, whose advice is that 'The Stunt Man' is one of the year's best films".

A made-for-DVD behind-the-scenes documentary, The Sinister Saga of Making 'The Stunt Man' (2000), was produced for the American Anchor Bay two-disc limited edition DVD set for the movie, released in 2000.

The Warner Brothers studio wanted to use "The Stuntman" title for the Burt Reynolds action-comedy movie Hooper (1978) which was about Hollywood stunt-work in movie-making. Director Richard Rush declined, the matter went to arbitration, and Rush won, as the title of the film had been sourced from Paul Brodeur's source novel which had the same title of "The Stunt Man". So Warners had to call the film something else which ended up being Hooper (1978). Previously, Warner Bros. had offered, prior to this film's financing and production, to allow Rush to make The Stunt Man (1980) if it was as a straight action movie and without all the artistic layering and illusions. Rush also turned down this offer.

Though nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for this movie, director Richard Rush's next film would not be until 1994's Color of Night (1994) around fourteen years later. Moreover, amazingly, that film has been Rush's only directorial outing of a cinema feature film since The Stunt Man (1980).

The name of Peter O'Toole's Eli Cross director character in the film's source novel by Paul Brodeur was Gottschalk which is meant to mean "God's Servant". The movie's character of the film director was an amalgam of two characters from the novel, the director and the cinematographer (representing evil) Bruno de Fe.

All the major American film distributors rejected to distribute this picture. The producers then sneak previewed the picture itself in Seattle, Washington; Phoenix, Arizona and Columbus, Ohio. It then played at the Dallas Film Festival, and had test runs in Seattle and a theater near the UCLA campus in Westwood. It then opened in ten Los Angeles theaters in California. After it won the big prize at the Montreal Film Festival, 20th Century Fox picked up the picture for distribution in the USA.

The opening scene with the dog licking its genitals was shot multiple time and after a while the dog in question refused to repeatedly lick its genitals so the trainer had to apply peanut butter to the dog's testicles and sheath by rubbing it on. This encouraged the dog to lick it off and allowed the scene to be shot multiple times.

The movie's main "Stunt Man" character (played by Steve Railsback) is described by his director character Eli Cross (Peter O'Toole) in the film as being "A stuntman. Who is an actor. Who is a character in a movie. Who is an enemy soldier". Similarly, on the Australian home video sleeve notes, the persona's many layers is further detailed by stating that 'The Stunt Man' character is a "fugitive [who] becomes a stunt man who doubles for an actor . . . who plays an American flyer posing as a German soldier . . . who is a fugitive".

According to a DVD review by Almar Haflidason of the BBC, "...this movie had problems getting screened [for Oscars consideration] to members of the [American] Film Academy [of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences] because the one theatre showing it kept getting shut down due to strange technicalities...".

This was director Richard Rush's first film he directed in six years. Rush's last had been 1974's Freebie and the Bean (1974).

Richard Rush performed a number of roles on this picture. Rush was a writer, producer and director.

Actress Barbara Hershey appears in the movie at times in age make-up where she is seen portraying a very elderly women.

When Columbia executive Peter Guber first announced this in August 1970, William Castle was to produce, and famed documentary maker Frederick Wiseman was intended to direct.

The only film that year to be Oscar nominated for Best Director, but not Best Picture.

The Hotel Del Coronado had previously been used as a location for the 1959 film Some Like It Hot. L Frank Baum wrote the original book The Wizard of Oz while staying there and legend has it that it was where Edward VIII met Wallis Simpson.

Actor Steve Railsback, for a time at the start of the picture, sports a beard in this movie.

Two of the names of the characters had double meanings. Steve Railsback)'s stuntman character Cameron was a play on words for "camera on" whilst Peter O'Toole's director character Eli Cross had a last name that was reference to being a God or Christ-like figure, something which O'Toole had previously examined in The Ruling Class (1972).

Also, "Eli" in Hebrew means "God", as in "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" - "My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46), which were some of Christ's words on the cross.

In the scene Eli and his crew are about to film the scene when the Dusenberg goes off the bridge. Cameron is nervous because he's driving the last Dusenberg and they must get the scene right on this one take. Just before the scene is shot, a local police detective, Jake, is questioning Eli if he knows anything about an escaped convict. Cameron hears the discussion between Jake and Eli and is now really upset because he knows the police are looking for him and are there right now. So now the crew is ready to shoot the scene, and before starting the other cameras he wants to check that the camera inside the car is working so he shouts "Camera on". The detective is standing beside the Dusenberg and sees that Cameron has not heard Eli's command. So Jake taps on the window of the car and shouts "Camera on?" ("Camera on" sounds like "Cameron"). Cameron, thinking that the detective knows his real name and knows he is the escaped convict, throws the Dusenberg into gear and speeds off, before Eli shouts "Action".

User reviews

Ral

Peter O'Toole gives a marvellous performance as a film director in this film which looks (to an extent) behind the scenes of movie making. I originally saw this one Sunday afternoon at the cinema and I remember how enthralled I was. There were a few surprises when something turned out to be something else like a model maybe. But it wasn't until I got the DVD that I realised there were many layers to the film.

The director had great difficulty with the studios in various stages of making the movie and although it was originally intended as an anti-Vietnam film, that had to be changed as production got further away from the war years. So although it may have lost something along the way it gained other things in the process. To my mind this makes it a stronger and more intriguing film.

If you watch the documentary that accompanies the DVD a lot is explained which you don't actually realise whilst watching the movie. Watch the film again and you will probably have a renewed interest. You will probably see it a little differently. It's not an Academy Award winner (and I don't think it should have been). But it's a drama, a romance, a comedy and a lot more besides. It has its fans and friends as well as detractors. I liked it and still see it as good fun.

Celore

This is a very funny and entertaining movie that doesn't fit into any one category. It's about a slightly crazed movie director who is making a WW1 movie in Southern California who hires a fugitive to replace his top stuntman. Peter O'Toole gives perhaps his best performance ever as the egomaniacal filmmaker who will do anything, perhaps even murder someone, in order to protect his artistic vision. The underrated Steve Railsback is good also as the paranoid Vietnam vet turned fugitive from the law. The action scenes are very funny and well-done, especially the rooftop chase. The music score is appropriately clever and matches what's happening on screen. Real-life stunt man Chuck Bail has a good part as a stunt coordinator who shows Railsback the ropes. The editing techniques help blur the line between reality and make-believe. The film is a bit too long, though, and some key scenes go on longer than necessary. These are minor complaints, however, because a film like this doesn't get made very often anymore.

Moonshaper

When I first saw THE STUNT MAN, I was very enthusiastic about the film and raved about it to anyone who might be interested. I've watched it twice with some friends since, but they weren't very enthusiastic about it, so I can imagine that for many people it won't pay off. It's an ingeniously constructed film that takes some patience and attention to watch. Made by the erratic Richard Rush, this was his pet project for nine years. Although the direction is fine, it's mostly a virtuoso piece of scripting (credited to Rush and Lawrence B. Marcus, based on Paul Brodeur's novel) that makes this such a special film.

A short plot outline: Fugitive Cameron (Railsback) stumbles onto a movie set where megalomaniac director Eli Cross (O'Toole) promises to hide from the police if he replaces his ace stunt man, who got killed earlier on the set in a freak accident while filming a scene. Is Eli trying to capture Cameron's death on film while he is performing a stunt? Reality and imagination soon blur when Cameron grows increasingly paranoid because Eli Cross doesn't let anything or anybody get in the way of shooting his masterpiece the way he wants. He doesn't seem to care about human life, as long as his movie is shot in the way he wants it.

Railsback is an odd choice for the main role but apparently the makers wanted a "low-key" actor for the main part. Barbara Hershey gives a great performance but without Peter O'Toole's tour-de-force performance, I doubt if the film would have worked as well as it did, especially with such a challenging and multi-layered script. He delivers his lines with such vigor that you cannot look away, a grand performance by perhaps my favorite actor off all time. Such a pity that his (later) career mainly consisted of mediocre films at best and some disastrous ones, sadly... I cannot imagine this kind of film being made in Hollywood today and even back then it might be called a small miracle it got made in the first place, let alone released (in fact, it sat on the shelf for two years before release). Perhaps it's all a little too ambitious at times but with a cast like this and such a dazzling script, it's definitely worth the effort.

The DVD-release by Anchor Bay comes with an extra disc loaded with extra's. Lots of interviews, including one with O'Toole and a very peculiar - almost two-hour (!) - documentary about the making of the film, presented by Rush himself, almost worth seeing in itself.

Camera Obscura - 8/10

Nirad

It's called 'subjective reality', children. The fact that the truth depends on the angle you happen to be watching from gives us all our unique, if skewed and unfair, perception on life. We're all puppets in someone else's dastardly play and we never know when that person, that entity, that divine being will cut our strings.

This was director Richard Rush's dream project and it took him nine years to get it on the screen. And, of course, it would! It's multi-layered, original, funny and packed full of story and circumstance that makes you think. Why would any studio want to touch it? Fox even sat on it for two years before giving it a limited release. Even on its umpteenth viewing it delivers again and again, offering new angles and subtle clues.

The viewpoint of this metafictional masterpiece is Cameron (Steve Railsback), a Vietnam vet on the run from the law. He stumbles onto the set of a WWI movie and accidentally kills a stunt driver. The director of the movie is the eccentric and megalomaniacal Eli Cross (Peter O'Toole, in one of his best ever performances), who takes Cameron under his wing and protects him from John Law, as long as he keeps his mouth shut about the accident.

Cameron practices to be a stunt man and takes the place of the man he killed. But as the movie shoot becomes more elaborate and dangerous, he falls in love with the leading lady (Barbara Hershey) and starts to suspect that Eli is trying to capture his death on film.

Although it seems nasty, the movie is wonderfully light-hearted and the outrageous stunt scenes are backed up by an awesome score by Dominic Frontiere. I've been humming that theme since I was 12-years-old when I taped it off Channel 4 in December 1992. I didn't quite get it back then, but I nearly wore out that VHS watching it over and over. A long scene with Cameron running over a rooftop, as biplanes attack and enemy soldiers give chase, is pure joy. There is a great comic sense of humor in watching them trip over each other, fall off, and get blown up.

John Law do not back down on their suspicion of Eli and, through half-heard conversations and eavesdropping, Cameron's paranoia becomes increasingly justified. Because the movie is seen through his eyes we never quite know what is going on with Eli. Is he a madman, or just a crafty director? Would you believe that Peter O'Toole based his performance on his experiences with David Lean? Why he never won an Oscar (it went to Robert DeNiro for Raging Bull)- is beyond me. He truly gives the performance of his career, far exceeding even Laurence of Arabia. It also sucks that Rush never won for Director, or Adapted Screenplay. Had he been awarded the golden statuette, maybe he would have received more recognition. He's clearly a better filmmaker than most of today's hack artists.

You simply have to see The Stunt Man. It's an overlooked gem and, despite the wide praise it received, it has never really reached a large audience. Now is definitely the time to rediscover this forgotten classic.

Cel

One of my favorite movies of all time. Must admit that I'm a bit biased since Peter O'Toole's one of my favorite actors of all time. This movie has NEVER gotten the attention that it deserves. Maybe that's, in part, due to the difficulties involved in categorizing it. I don't even know in which section of the video store I'd start looking.

Peter O'Toole is so swell in it. I love that enigmatic character, movie director Eli Cross! Like the movie (and O'Toole, for that matter), he's so hard to cubbyhole. You like him, but you don't trust him. Like Cameron/Lucky (Steve Railsback's escaped convict character) does, you NEED to know exactly where his motives lie ... all in good time. You know Cross'll do whatever's necessary to get "the shot", but he's still got a conscience ... right? Would Cameron have been better off (read safer) just staying in jail ... hmmm?

All the action in the film circles around this question and while the viewer (and Cameron) decide what to make of Eli, it's a fun trip through the world of filmmaking (how realistic a trip, I've no idea). Great performances by O'Toole and Railsback, along with Barbara Hershey, Allen Garfield, Alex Rocco and Sharon Ferrell add so much to the suspense.

See this movie. You can feel how much fun it was for the cast to make. Look at Eli's devilish grin as he tries to soothe Lucky's worries. Try to imagine how many other movies have you sympathizing for an escaped convict. And don't worry if you don't know what to make of mad genius filmmaker Eli Cross because nobody else does either, and if they do, they ain't talkin' ... that might spoil the movie!

Androlhala

I won't carry on about the plot of this marvelous flick since it's already been adequately limned, but do let me emphasize a few points that have been kind of grayed out in other comments. The score by Frontiere is outstanding, from the up-tempo opening blast to the final credits. It's not only unnerving but vertigo inducing, so it supplements the plot perfectly. The photography is outstanding as well, the colors appallingly vivid, as in an MGM cartoon, which in this context is most apt. (It is a mystery/comedy/thriller/philosophical disquisition, after all.) The Hotel Coronado in San Diego has never looked quite so palatial, not even in "Some Like it Hot."

Rush's direction boggles the mind, to coin a phrase. The film begins with a helicopter. A hand pops out of the helicopter and drops a half-eaten apple. The apple bounces on the hood of a parked car. We follow without comment the apple, the line of events, and it turns out to be what gets the story moving.

There are multiple very strange touches throughout. As a movie star myself, having been a faceless extra in half a dozen films, I have to add that movies are simply not shot this way. An expensive and dangerous (and ultimately lethal) stunt is performed as we enter the actual narrative and there is only one camera rolling -- and that in a helicopter so far away that its engine can't be heard? But it doesn't really matter. The movie plays tricks all along with the difference between "reality" and "illusion," an old game into which it's difficult to inject more life, as this movie manages to do.

At one point, Railsback is told to perform a short if dangerous stunt, leaping from one roof to another. He does so, but the stunt escalates. Not only escalates but goes on and on, with Railsback unexpectedly crashing through ceilings and floors in a shower of glass before winding up in the midst of drunken, partying enemies who shout at him and laughingly lift his body above their heads and pass him around the room. It will shock you almost as much as it shocked him. O'Toole asks him after this long gag what it is he wants. Says Railsback: "Not to think I'm going crazy."

The smallest parts are done well. A very authentic-looking German soldier with a cheery old face and big white mustache is loading his rifle for a scene in which he and his comrades are going to fire at Railsback. "I hope those are blanks," Railsback tells him. "It doesn't say so on the box," replies the soldier with a friendly tone and a big smile.

Let me mention Eli Cross, the director, played by O'Toole. At one level this movie is made, through his character, into an examination of God, and his whimsical sense of responsibility towards the human beings whose lives he controls. "Eli Cross"? I mean -- okay -- Elihu, the crucifixion -- the whole JudeoChristian tradition is embodied in that cognomen. Cross has a habit of riding around the sky in a giant crane whose seat drops unexpectedly out of space and into the middle of peoples' conversations. Before the shooting of the final stunt, Cross raises his hand, looking at the horizon, and says something like, "I hereby decree that no cloud shall pass before that sun." And while shooting another scene, the cameraman calls "Cut." Cross pauses, then asks, "WHO called cut?" The cameraman explains that there were only a few seconds of film left on the reel so they had to cut at that point. Cross, like the angry God of the Old Testament, shouts that, "NOBODY cuts a scene except ME!" After chewing the cameraman out thoroughly, he fires him on the spot. You see, if a movie is supposed to resemble life, then ending a scene suddenly ends the filmic exposure of the two human conversants and only -- well, you get the picture. A lot of this rather obvious theological stuff seems to have gotten by unrecognized or at any rate uncommented upon. It doesn't need to be dwelt on.

There are already so many layers to this film that the viewer can afford to be only half aware of any one of them at a given moment. It stands by itself as a kind of very strange comedy. I didn't find Railsback's background as a Vietnam vet put on very thickly, by the way. It would be nice if God really were as accessible as Peter O'Toole is in this movie. All you would have to do to find salvation is jump through some well-defined hoops. As it is, though, I for one find myself muddling through from one day to the next simply hoping not to step on too many toes. Gimme a fiery hoop or a dive off a bridge any day. Just as long as my scene isn't cut too quickly.

LiTTLe_NiGGa_in_THE_СribE

I was prepared to dislike this film when I heard that it was going to replace the incredible "Empire Strikes Back." What I got was shock. Here was something different, something innovative in style and technique, something amazing. Vader and his gang were soon forgotten as I got caught up in the suspense (Will Cameron survive?), the comedy, the incredible dialogue, and one of the best soundtracks ever put on film. I fell in love with Barbara Hershey all over again after too long an absence. O'Toole was Oscar-worthy, and robbed of one. Richard Rush pulled a one-of-a-kind out of his hat, ala "Citizen Kane." He has never been near this level before or since. This must be watched several times in order to see and hear everything. There are so many subtle touches that are brilliant that I still find them 20 years and 30+ viewings later. A must for anyone who wants to know good film great. No doubt about this one. A "10" out of "10." No film was better(or as good) in the 1980's (or 90's for that matter.)

Ylonean

This movie is a slightly surreal comedy about moviemaking. It's told with the perspective (if not always from the point of view) of a young fugitive who wanders onto the set and gets hired due to various complications. The movie people all seem larger than life to the fugitive, and since he's a little paranoid anyway, their motives seem complex and suspect. Peter O'Toole gives his usual performance, and he's perfect here as the flamboyant director (he must have had a great time sending up some blowhards of his past with this role). Steven Railsback does his usual disoriented guy on the edge, and he does it with a rather touchingly naive quality this time. Barbara Hershey is the leading lady love interest, delivers an intelligent and understated performance, and is appropriately bewitchingly beautiful.

Roger Ebert didn't like this movie, but he got confused into thinking that it was something deeper than a comedy. It's about as deep as "Get Shorty", but with a completely different feel.

The movie holds up pretty well, although the special effects look a little clunky sometimes, and I remember thinking they were pretty good when I saw the movie in its initial release. But the clunkiness isn't really distracting, and since the movie's attempts to "deceive" are all firmly tongue-in-cheek, it doesn't hurt.

The_NiGGa

SOME SPOILERS AHEAD!

Though I saw this film--which I highly recommend--projected with its 'Making of' documentary and enjoyed an in-person Q&A with director Richard Rush (at San Diego's marvelous Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park) a year or so ago, it didn't occur to me till last night that this brilliant entertainment bears striking resemblance to William Shakespeare's last great play, 'The Tempest'. Consider:

Eli Cross (Peter O'Toole in a masterly memorable performance) is Prospero, the victimized yet himself rather cruel sorcerer who commands the spirits, fairies and pixies of a remote island, updated as a flamboyant, eccentric, royal-mannered movie director in charge of many cast and crew members, craftspeople, stuntmen, etc. as they shoot a film on and near Coronado Island. Whereas Prospero was embittered by betrayal and losing his Dukedom, Eli is embattled by studio investors who would squelch his artistic vision. Both Prospero and Eli can be tender or sadistic, by turns. Both can seem to appear from nowhere, Prospero using his magic to become invisible at will and Eli popping in and out on his ubiquitous crane chair (director Richard Rush's most fabulous contrivance).

Nina Franklin (gorgeous Barbara Hershey in perhaps her best role) is Miranda, Prospero's innocent, wide-eyed daughter, updated as an up-and-coming movie actress who is Eli's protégé and former lover. Like Miranda to Prospero, Nina is torn in her relationship to the mercurial director as he vacillates between the behavior of a loving father and that of a treacherous tyrant.

Cameron, the titular stunt man (Steve Railsback, whose performance one can't quite decide is canny underplaying or merely vacuous and weird), is Ferdinand to Nina's Miranda, the handsome mystery man who captivates her imagination, and Caliban to Eli's Prospero, the subhuman slave who is grateful for his master's protection and resentful of his abuse. Like Caliban, Cameron's past is haunted; but we later discover that he's actually much more an innocent like Ferdinand. As Caliban escaped a painful life to arrive at a less painful but more confusing scenario, so does the army deserter Cameron escape the authorities and probable imprisonment only to find himself in Eli's kaleidoscopic clutches.

Chuck Barton, the stunt coordinator (Chuck Bail, an actual stunt coordinator), would seem to be Ariel, the foreperson of spirits and Prospero's right hand, updated as the 'go-to guy' who can arrange for Eli's every whim. As Ariel will be set free of service at the end of Prospero's scheme, Chuck will further his career elsewhere when this production wraps.

Sam, the screenwriter (Allen Garfield as one of his signature sensitive 'everyman' roles) could, I suppose, be seen as Stephano, the comic-relief character who befriended Caliban in hopes of exploiting him, updated as an insecure fellow who knows his contribution is considered to be bottom-of-the-totem-pole by Hollywood tradition and yearns for greater income and respect. Yet, as a salient observer of human nature, he can be Gonzalo also, the wise and well intentioned but ponderous and powerless adviser.

Jake, the smiling studio representative (Alex Rocco in another small part requiring someone with a memorable look to make some impression) is, I think, the castaway King of Naples, a figure of power who is out of his realm and consequently clueless.

Just as 'The Tempest' began with an ostensibly ship-wrecking storm called forth by Prospero to deposit the balance of the dramatis personae on his island, 'The Stunt Man' begins with a harrowing wartime conflagration on a rocky shore except that it's really a movie scene created by Eli and observed by Cameron. But, ironically, as Prospero called forth more wind, rain, thunder and lighting later on, Eli mounts a bridge to brashly proclaim that the elements shall not dare to interfere with their day's shooting schedule.

Just as Shakespeare's play cluttered the stage with colorful pixies flitting about, Rush's compositions are filled with visual invention, like the gloriously tumbling roof-top stunt sequence, his famous 'rack focus', and Hershey's beauty framed in an ornate glass window (which Rush had installed for that purpose and is still at the Hotel Del Coronado today).

Both Shakespeare and Rush are concerned with a preoccupying question: What is real? And, therefore, what can one trust? Miranda is unsure if Ferdinand is a man, Stephano and Trinculo suspect Caliban is a fish, and on this mysterious island, a mystical being may be a tree one moment and quasi-human the next. Eli likes to keep his actors and new stunt man guessing so as to goose their performances (and probably to savor his manipulative power), creating an atmosphere wherein Nina must question her loyalty and Cameron his own sanity.

Some may say I'm being deterministic in my analysis, but certain dramatic templates are indeed endlessly recycled and reconfigured. We know that 'Forbidden Planet' is a direct lift of 'The Tempest', but we can see the prototypical eccentric, exiled, visionary in Jules Verne's Captain Nemo and H.G. Wells' Dr. Moreau as well. Television's original 'Dr. Who', as portrayed by William Hartnell (1963-1966), was somewhat Prospero-like himself: brilliant and powerful but self-interested and dismissive (not the bold hero of later incarnations). His time machine was a treasure trove of sci-fi wonders, and he even had a sweet granddaughter in his charge.

Interestingly, whereas the harsh and oppressive Prospero restores himself to the nobility, ending Shakespeare's tale 'happily' for an early 17th-century audience devoted to a social hierarchy and the Christian injunction that they subjugate all things of nature (one imagines), most of his 'mad scientist' progeny must meet bad ends. It offends our modern egalitarian sense that such a martinet should achieve rewards while his slave Caliban suffered so. So Dr. Morbius perishes while his slave, Robby the Robot, lands a new gig on the Earth-bound spaceship. In progressive times, the aristocrat may still be offended, but the commonweal is soothed. But where does Eli Cross fit into this spectrum of just/unjust desserts? The darkly comic 'Stunt Man' ends with the movie director--indeed a Duke-like figure of artistic, social and financial reverence in our day--flying high above worldly concerns in a helicopter as his star stunt man--a literal underling in that shot--shouts epithets to the sky. Rush's complex, layered exploration of reality doesn't cop out-and in contrast perhaps Shakespeare's play does. Cameron, like Caliban, survives and may advance. But Eli, unlike Prospero ('this rough magic I here abjure'), will likely carry on creating emotional chaos throughout his sphere of influence. Simply stated, 20th-century reality hadn't fully changed: fairness is still fleeting and s*** continues to roll downhill. The modern twist is that it's harder to know when you're getting screwed.

Well, I wished I'd thought of this when I had Rush in front of me. Anyone know how to contact the guy so I can ask him if my take is at all warm?

Umge

At the time Peter O'Toole was Academy Award nominated as Best Actor, for his portrayal of one-step-above-God-himself, Eli Cross in The Stunt Man, my movie going experience was limited to The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, Mary Poppins, and some post pubescent indulgences into the realm of Flint, Matt Helm, and James Bond.

Through the magic of video I was able to see Richard Rush's wonderful black comedy- And have never tired of it.

Had Mr. O'Toole and The Stunt Man not run headlong into the likes of Raging Bull, and Robert De Niro, I venture to say it would have garnered WINS, not just NOMINATIONS from the Academy that year.

Rent itand while you're at it reach for `My Favorite Year' and make it a Peter O'Toole double feature.

You will not be disappointed.

Vareyma

I will right off admit that this film is not my type of thing. I watched it because I'm a huge fan of Peter O'Toole's. I found it difficult to follow and disjointed despite some really fascinating scenes and some very good acting.

Steve Railsback plays a Vietnam vet named Cameron who escapes the police after he is caught for attempted murder. He crosses a bridge and dodges away from an old car that is out of control. The car disappears. Later on, he encounters a film about World War I being shot on the beach. The director is Eli Cross (O'Toole) who offers Cameron a job as a stunt man. It turns out that the stunt man was in the old car and drove the car off of the bridge as part of a scene being filmed, and drowned. The police are sniffing around, so O'Toole introduces Cameron as Burt, the missing stunt man, and the rest of the cast and crew play along.

Cameron learns a lot about stunts (as do we) and he falls for the film's leading lady (Barbara Hershey) who at one time was involved with Eli. Cameron over time becomes increasingly paranoid and believes that the manipulative, kind of crazy Eli wants to kill him.

O'Toole, Railsback, and Hershey are all excellent -- we first see Hershey in an old lady mask and clothing. Throughout the film, she is beautiful, silly, and flighty as Nina Franklin, and intense and committed as the character Nina plays. O'Toole is madcap, and doesn't seem to care what happens to anyone as long as he gets the shot he wants, and one can see how Cameron would be unclear about his motives.

The print I saw didn't look particularly good - I wonder about the budget for this film. I think a good deal of the budget went to O'Toole and some of those amazing stunts, as the film has a lot of TV actors in it -- all good, but TV actors nevertheless: Alex Rocco, Sharon Farrell, Allen Garfield.

This film is a little hard to follow, but it's a good one about the value of perception and how it can change from person to person. Also, the ending is very satisfying.

Heraly

When Eli Cross (played by Peter O'Toole) invites Cameron (Played by Steve Railsback) to, "...Step into my looking glass, Alice" I knew that this motion picture was no ordinary movie. Like in so many anti-war films of the 1970's and 1980's, we find a Vietnam Vet struggling to cope with the diametrically opposed realities between peace and war. Only in this film the hero is thrown into the shell shocked fantasy world of a Hollywood Movie Production. "The Stunt Man" offers a look into a world where different hells collide in a Dantean journey of realization and reconciliation.

Though the narrative does seems to suffer occasionally, smart dialog and captivating performances by O'Toole and Railsback outshine most of the films obvious flaws.

Following in the trail of "Hooper" (a 1978 cheesy Burt Reynolds action film about an aging stunt man) may have hurt "The Stunt Man" more than its inconsistent editing, even before it was ever released. Audiences didn't want another car/beer movie. However, The early 1980's saw the dawn of the Home VCR and "The Stunt Man" became the first film to outgross in video rentals and sales over its theatrical release.

This film is a MUST SEE.

Vutaur

This film cannot be isolated in one genre, which makes it a modern classic by definition. It also made most film executives not want to distribute it. It has always been my feeling that if you are working with an original idea, you are not highly thought of by Hollywood standards. I tend to scoff at big-budget Hollywood productions, tending to lean towards the "sleeper" films with individual stellar performances, and this film has quite a few. Steve Railsback is in every scene in the film, but his presence as the central character is not the only plot point. Peter O'Toole and Barbara Hershey are equally effective in their roles, but director-screenwriter Richard Rush is the driving force behind this movie, and the entire production was dedicated to Rush and his vision. This is one of a few films which I can say is a visual joyride from beginning to end, and Rush's need to get his "product" out to as many viewers as possible shows his love for the story. Many things are happening in "The Stunt Man". Yes, it is a film about the making of a film, but it is also a comedy, war drama, love story, action-adventure, and yes, even audience participation. If you haven't seen it yet, rent it or buy it, take a nice two-and-a-half-hour break and enjoy!!! And, if you can still find the deluxe two-DVD set with "The Sinister Saga Of The Making Of The Stunt Man" take an additional two hours and enjoy this fascinating behind-the-scenes story which has as many plot turns as the film itself!

Xig

Pros: Script, humor, acting, directing, score.

Cons: Cinematography.

The Stunt Man is a cult classic that for the most part has been generally ignored or unheared by the public. It deals with illusions vs reality in the movie business. Steve Railsback plays a vietnam veteran who is on the run from the police. In other to escape them, he becomes a stuntman under a maniacal director, played by Peter O' Toole. Barbara Hershey is the star of the war epic Toole is making and Railsback falls in love with her. Illusions are aplenty in this film. For example, we think Railsback commits a heinous crime only to find out that he really didn't commit anything. Also Peter O' Toole isn't as manical as he seems. The Stuntman is a character study on Railsback and the effects the war had on him. This is one of the top ten movies of the eighties and gets better with repeated viewing.

Premise: A vietnam veteran becomes a stuntman to escape the police.

The Stunt man was nominated for three Academy awards

Grade: 10/10 (Cult classic)

Natety

The original King Kong was 3'6" and the central gimmick of The Stunt Man is blurring the distinction between reality and the illusion created by film. Steve Railsback (the main character) is on the run for a silly crime and finds his way to a beach resort. As he enters the resort a song begins playing on the soundtrack: 'Out of nowhere, out of darkness into lightand you watch and wonder where you belong, and the crowd it moves and takes you along.you ask yourself what good are your dreams, in a world where nothing is as it seems'. The song sums up the title character's situation and its melody will replay several times later in the film.

He joins a crowd watching the film production of a WWI battle sequence. The crowd politely applauds at the end of each take. Then during a new scene there are huge explosions and smoke obscures much of where the action is being staged. The onlookers (and we viewers) look on with horror as the smoke clears and reveals a beach saturated with blood and dismembered bodies. The onlookers scream, the director yells cut, and the stunt men pull themselves out of the sand unhurt. The crowd goes wild with applause, far more appreciative about being fooled by the 'fabricated reality' than they were by their glimpse behind the scenes of the movie-making action. And this is the structure with The Stunt Man, viewers (like those in the crowd) are supposed to be kept off balance by this movie within a movie.

Yet this is merely a device to advance the storyline, which involves a complex theme about paranoia and trust. Railsback likens his relationship with the movie company's director-Peter O'Toole, and by analogy everyone's situation at some point of their life, to an incident he witnessed in Viet Nam. Someone stepped on a 'Bouncing Betty Mine', an anti-personnel device that while triggered by a person's weight, does not actually detonate until the person steps off the device. At this point there is no choice but to remain standing on the mine, trusting that something will happen to favorably change the situation. Just as in life there are times in the 'free will vs destiny' interplay when there is nothing you can do but place your trust a higher authority. Like 'The Ninth Configuration' (a film made about the same time and highly recommended for those interested in this theme); an authority figure works to redeem someone in his care by teaching them to trust someone or something, even when everything screams for them to step off the mine.

While The Stunt Man is an excellent movie, which tells a valuable story in an interesting multi-layered fashion; it is not really the masterpiece that Director Richard Rush and its biggest fans claim. A lot of effort was made to portray Eli Cross (the O'Toole character) as an omniscient 'Godlike' figure and a genius filmmaker; a necessary characterization if the film's theme is to be sold to the viewing audience. Unfortunately these efforts are largely undermined by the moronic nature of the film within the film. The artistic picture this eccentric genius is making is not even on the intellectual level of Laurel and Hardy's 'Flying Deuces', and it has about the same level of slapstick with none of the humor. So there is a major credibility disconnect. You have to sympathize with Wells as he had huge obstacles to overcome getting this film into production and he simply did not have the resources to stage a credible action-adventure tale. But a better approach would have been to stage small things well rather than grand things cheaply; so the painfully on-the-cheap production design is ultimately his fault.

A director bent on misdirection has a huge arsenal for manufacturing illusion; look at the widely different techniques successfully employed in 'Pulp Fiction', 'The Sixth Sense', and 'State & Main' for viewer misdirection. It is easy because the viewer only knows what the director chooses to reveal, yet the director must be careful that the viewer does not feel cheated. As Roger Ebbert said, some of the stunts are staged so that they're not only deceiving to Railsback (as intended), but plainly impossible. And the stunts are sneaky, at one point Railsback is on a tower that's blown up in flames. There is no plausible way he could have escaped alive-but the movie merely cuts to another shot of him, without explaining his escape. A film that depends on deceiving us has got to play by its own rules. Deceiving the audience is the magic of movies, but they can't be cheated on particulars.

Overall the degree of misdirection was rather spartan and not particularly clever (that darn low budget) , meaning that they did not begin to create the degree of suspense that was necessary.

That said there were some interesting little details to look for when watching this film: A tight two-shot of Railsback and O'Toole on the beach, they step onto a platform which turns out to be attached to an unseen crane and are lifted into the air, the actors do not betray that this is happening-their conversation continues as the background changes. O'Toole compares Railsback to Alice about to enter Wonderland, he asks him to close his eyes and then the scene cuts to a hairdresser telling Railsback to open his eyes and see his physical transformation. Watch for the many deep focal transitions (particularly at the dinner scene) and the literal framing (like a painting with a frame)of many shots-which is used to promote the everything is a fabricated illusion message. Watch for the piglets spilling out of the baby carriage during one of the battle scenes-another Alice element. Watch for the very inventive shot of Railsback looking into the rolled down car window, shot through the rolled up window on the other side, with Barbara Hershey's face reflected in the frame.

Inerrace

This is a most fascinating piece of work that has not critically dimmed with age. I'd like to join the other reviewers here in lauding Peter O'Toole in particular for one of the finest performances of his distinguished career. Although I don't disagree with DeNiro winning best actor that year, it doesn't dim the quality of O'Toole's portrayal of Eli Cross.

As to the famously convoluted Chinese puzzle of a plot that enraptures some and seems to bore others to tears: I would suggest watching this more than once. Like "Chinatown", this is such a multidimensional experience that one viewing will likely not do justice (it certainly didn't for me....the first time I saw it I came away convinced that the film had no point to make....boy, was I wrong). Whatever you think the characters' motivations may be, the opposite could also be true....right up until the end. One of the best analyses of the artifice (and artificial power) of filmmaking ever committed to celluloid. If that sounds like a contradiction in terms, welcome to this movie's twisted little world.

Although I've seen nothing else by director Rush that I could even remotely call a good film, this one was quite obviously his labor of love. He worked on this film for nearly ten years and had to wait until two years after its completion (in 1978) to see it released. Do him a favor and show that the effort was (and is) appreciated.

Stoneshaper

Spoilers herein.

There are quite a few movies like this, films that reference films and that also aver that the drama within can bend the reality without. The kernel of this idea was `Citizen Kane' but it seemed to flower after John Fowles published `The Magus' and the Beatles followed his lead.

This one has O'Toole who had done something similar in `Lion in Winter.' It uses the third dimension better than anything of the time. It is steeped in paranoia and antiVietnam sentiments. This last dates it, oddly; American culture and imagination seems to have flopped the other way. The closest we come to filmed paranoia these days is `Requiem for a Dream' and `Trainspotting,' both of which set a distance between us and them who are cursed.

For these kinds of films to work, the film within needs to overlap with the film without, and ideally the additional layer of reality. `The French Lieutenant's Woman' is the gold standard in this respect. You also need actors who can shift realities and often play simultaneous levels. These actors actually play it straight, even the energetic O'Toole who was layered in `Lion,' as mentioned and later in `Favorite Year.'

What we end up with here is a collection of intelligent ideas wrangled by less people less intelligent. Only twice does this thing thrill:

-when the stunt man unexpectedly falls through the skylight into the whorehouse. That scene is not only great, it is doubly great because it is pivotal for the film within.

-Hersey's much-celebrated scene when the scenery turns and she moves from the film (as an old lady) into the film within. This one scene must be the peak of her professional life, and possibly makes it all worthwhile.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Ielonere

I saw this movie last night at my husband's insistence - he saw it years ago and bought it online. 30 minutes into the movie, I was still asking, "So what's going on here?" "Huh?" "Whaa...?" "I don't get it." My bathroom break didn't even require putting the DVD on "pause." It takes about the first hour of the movie to figure out the plot, and by that point, I just didn't care. I'm not sure what the writers were thinking, but it couldn't have been anything about making a coherent story that viewers could follow, and invest themselves in.

Peter O'Toole is wasted in this movie. I wonder what he was thinking; maybe he needed some cash.

Barbara Hershey was in about every third movie during this time period, and plays about the same character in each one.

I last saw "Helter Skelter" starring Steve Railsback 15-20 years ago, and the moment I saw him the "The Stunt Man," he was immediately recognizable. Apparently he has only the one facial expression: freaky. Even during love scenes, he looks freaked out. There is no tenderness; when he smiles, it never reaches his eyes. That was apropos for "Helter Skelter," but perhaps not for this movie.

During the first few minutes, I wondered if I wasn't seeing some odd re-tread of "First Blood." Where's Rambo when you need him?

In short, don't waste your time. If you want to see freaked-out Railsback, watch "Helter Skelter" - it's a better movie, and is actually based on a true story. If you're looking for a misunderstood Vietnam Vet, "First Blood" has a coherent message, and besides, Stallone is a lot cuter (just my opinion). If you want to see O'Toole's acting chops, there are many great films to choose from. Just not this one.

fightnight

You want to see Peter O'Toole channeling David Lean as the megalomaniac director trying to make a WWI epic against all odds who will stop at nothing to "get the shot"? He goes berserk at his AD ("no one yells cut at my set!"), he often descends from the top of the frame in his crane like a deus ex machina, he insists that his cameraman keep shooting even though his stunt man is drowning. His WWI film is a long string of big action pieces woven together with slapstick shenanigans, people dancing Charleston on the wings of planes and gatecrashing German bordellos.

No, scratch that. You want to see Steve Railsback with a Charles Mansonesque gleam in his eye playing the 'Nam veteran who finds himself chased by the police into the set of said WWI movie where he is turned in the spur of the moment into the stunt man who he accidentally helped kill a few minutes earlier? No one knows what he's guilty of but O'Toole takes him under his wing because he carries that same madness he's looking for in his movie, 600 bucks at a time.

No? How about a million movies rolled into one, a chaotic, rampant, insane smorsgabord that is at once a comedy about the trappings of big budget film-making, a romance between a famous actress and a halfmad Vietnam veteran, a drama about an emotionally scarred man with no future that finds himself betrayed again and can do nothing but laugh crazily about it and yell after a helicopter for his thousand bucks? All this filled with cinematic references (King Kong, Wings) and constant games with the viewer's perception of what is real and what is fiction, the lines separating real world from film-making wizardry becoming dangerously blurred.

Well, if you answered yes to one of the above, there's only one movie for you, Richard Rush's THE STUNT MAN. Nine years in the making, this is for all intents and purposes his APOCALYPSE NOW, the sprawling film that signalled the pinacle and decline of its director's career. The logistics of the production must've been a nightmare yet perfectly reflect the chaotic nature of the film. This is the kind of movie that deserves praise for just getting made. It's one of the only films I can think of that can afford soaring melodrama, political critique, black comedy and plain absurdism in the same scene and magically pull it off.

LØV€ YØỮ

This is definitely one of my favorite films of its time. I can't understand why this film is not more highly rated by just about anyone -- the critics or the public. It's not really a cult film so much as a seemingly chaotic black comedy. One is never quite sure if Eli Cross is totally insane, or has taken measures to prevent the killing of his on-the-lam stunt man. The case is definitely made that Cross is desperate, and resorting to desperate measures. The "killer crane" is a wonderful device, since it helps in the overall feel of vertigo that Rush is looking for.

There's obviously the motif of trying to tell reality from false perceptions, and what better way than to have cinema as the setting? We share Cameron's bewilderment at what is happening to him, and there is non-stop tension in every scene -- you just don't know what lunacy may arise at any time. Can he trust anyone? The special edition of the DVD has interviews that really do enlighten. The difficulty in Rush having this film realized is a gripping story in itself -- obviously Rush was as obsessive as his antagonist Cross! I confess to falling for Barbara Hershey -- it's not so much her performance than how Rush photographs her -- she seems to represent not just the Most Desirable Woman but also Comfort. (Or is she just acting? Has Cross put her up to this? What are her true feelings?) And Cameron needs a lot of comfort. They filmed this in San Diego at the Hotel Coronado, but I can't seem to remember reading anything about it at the time! (I was certainly living here at the time.) Of course, Some Like It Hot was also filmed at the Coronado.

Xellerlu

The Stunt Man finds Steve Railsback on the run from some police and stumbling into a movie set where Director Peter O'Toole is filming a World War I epic. A stunt involving the suicide of the leading man in an old Deusenberg goes awry with the stunt man actually getting killed in the process. Never fear, O'Toole hires young Railsback as the new stunt double. I mean it's either that or the law. Afterwards Railsback ain't so sure.

Especially after he woos and beds leading lady Barbara Hershey. Is O'Toole setting him up. He's certainly megalomaniacal enough to think along those lines.

He's also enough of a megalomaniac to let nothing including physical safety of anyone on his set interfere in the film he's trying to create. O'Toole in his Oscar nominated performance borrowed from any number of film directors, past and present, some of whom he must have worked for to create a very fascinating portrait.

Railsback and Hershey are good too and I also liked Alex Rocco as the sheriff and Allen Garfield as O'Toole's best friend and screenwriter for this epic.

The Stunt Man is a real tour de force for Peter O'Toole, a film none of his fans should miss.

Kare

Odd and a little eccentric are the first things that come to mind regarding the film. Then come the words "me want Barbara Hershey".

The film is perhaps a bit too long, but remains interesting throughout. The only drawback is the mumbling by all the cast members; either everyone was instructed to mumble - for whatever bizarre reason - or they placed the microphones five kilometers away from the actors.

The film has a very original premise.

The funniest scene is when Hershey (easy to mistake for a "Hershey" bar on account of her just begging to be eaten) lectures Railsback about how sweet and nice and what-not O'Toole is, right after which O'Toole tells her to leave the screening room (for being a disturbance), the way a teacher would to a misbehaving pupil. Another clever comedic moment is when Hershey's parents and her little sister were shown rushes from her upcoming film and by mistake showed a "nude" bed scene with Hershey.

Eyalanev

I loved this movie when I saw it in the theater (or rented it in the very early eighties - I honestly can't remember which), but then didn't see it again until quite recently, when I bought the double DVD with the "Sinister Saga Of..." movie and the commentary. I watched the movie at least three times in the first weekend I got it. Obviously, I consider it a terrific film - one of the rare times when I disagree entirely with Ebert.

O'Toole is magnificent, as he was a couple of years later in My Favorite Year. The roles both call for a person who absolutely is Larger Than Life, who dominates the screen every moment he's on it. O'Toole personifies that quality. (I've often thought that's why The Lion in Winter could work - Hepburn was the same kind of woman, especially as she got older, and they were the only two who COULD have stood up to one another on screen, although at that time there were still a few people around who could have managed: Richard Burton comes to mind - when he was on, he was ON).

Some of the comments have stated that they thought Railsback was just muddling through. According to O'Toole's comments, the two of them would spend hours after filming each day was over sitting around talking about the roles and interpretations and acting in general - whether you liked Railsback's performance or not (I did), it had to have been VERY deliberate. That Helter-Skelter had come out before The Stunt Man was a lucky coincidence, since The Stunt Man was filmed first, but it was great in convincing you subconsciously that this guy might be a serious wacko from the start. But there were little throw-aways Rush stuck in that helped you in that way, like a little overheard remark the pretty and slutty hairdresser makes about "that guy who killed all those campers" as she's getting out of the car after dinner. These all combine to make the denouement when Cameron's crime is finally revealed especially exciting (and hysterically funny).

Hershey is remarkable. In one scene, they are filming the film within the film and she is made up and dressed like an old woman at the grave of her long dead lover. You KNOW she is really a young and beautiful actress (not an old woman), you KNOW that this is a fictional script within a fictional script, the scene lasts all of three minutes, and her performance never fails to bring me to tears. Interestingly, what immediately follows the prop-man knocking over a light and her bursting into tears was not scripted at all. Rush, in a rather Eli Cross-like move, told O'Toole to wait until Hershey really got the scene right (that kind of emotional work-up apparently can take several takes to really hit the spot), at which point he (Rush) would signal O'Toole to go out and speak to Hershey. O'Toole, being the experienced actor he was, didn't need the signal; he just walked over to her and hugged her, whispering "You were brilliant" in her ear, at which point HERSHEY, not the character, burst into tears and jumped into a full body hug on O'Toole (legs around the body, I mean). The whisper was later over-voiced by O'Toole for the movie as "Thank you, my baby." which was more appropriate for the director (I'd never really thought about it, but doing that kind of scene well has GOT to really take it out of you!). A brilliant idea on Rush's part, superbly executed by O'Toole. But Hershey, whose character was loosely called by the cast "The Dream Girl" (obviously from Cameron's viewpoint), gave an excellent performance all the way around of a complex woman, neither totally good nor totally bad. She's egotistical, self-centered, a bit spoiled, but not to the point of losing her humanity or general niceness. And she's SO damned beautiful!

I hate movies where you have no idea what's going on, or where there are simply no characters you can stand. I am not an intellectual film buff who infinitely prefers Indies and Foreign films to mainstream American stuff. But I LOVED this movie. You know that you're not sure exactly what's real at any given moment, but that's fine, because eventually you FIND OUT. You're not left at the end of the movie going "huh?" And in the meantime, there's a real, honest-to-God plot happening that you CAN follow, and a lot of humor and wit to enjoy.

This is and I expect will remain on my top ten movie list for life. Part of that is a major love of Peter O'Toole, but most of it is that the movie itself is just plain great, if you don't mind being jerked around when you know you're being jerked around (this seemed to be Ebert's major gripe - once it became obvious early on that the movie was going to be jerking you around, he no longer gave a darn). It was very clever, and I LIKE clever movies.

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