The Stunt Man | | Cast : | Peter O'Toole, Steve Railsback, Barbara Hershey | | Director : | Richard Rush | | Studio : | Anchor Bay Entertainment | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, DTS Surround Sound, THX, Widescreen, Box set, Dolby | | Released Date : | January 01, 1980 | | DVD Released Date : | February 25, 2003 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), English (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 03, 2005 | | Summary | How Tall Is King Kong? | Content
 | 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 light...and 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. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 28, 2005 | | Summary | Bad Cult Classic | Content
| A cheesy movie. Characters are shallow and underdeveloped. Stunts and editing both were amateurish. The only redeeming quality was that Peter O'Toole was as crazy as ever. It may be a cult classic, but is a poorly made film. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 30, 2005 | | Summary | Oh dear.... I guess theres no accounting for taste. | Content
| I bought this movie for 2 reasons, the first being Peter O'Toole (god of acting), and the second being that other reviewers claimed it was a mind trip. On the first point my money was well spent. O'Toole gives a virtuoso performance, with all of his characteristic dry wit and style. His performance was in fact very nearly the only reason I gave the film 2 stars instead of zero. The stunts were also remarkable. In nearly all other aspects however, this film fails miserably. The female lead is alluring, but Railsback is truly a pathetic excuse for an actor. His Veitnam vet was emotionally dead and a ridiculous stereotype. The film's script is sloppy and overlong, and I'd like to point out the wisdom of an earlier reviewer who commented ot the hypocrisy of the story and its characters. As for this being a mind trip which changes the way we look at cinema, the film was behind its mask of intellectualism without any interesting comments to be made. Not even the most neanderthal-like of film-goers doesn't know that hollywood is full of cutthroat executives and that cinema plays with our sense of reality. I was extremely dissapointed in this film, its excellent premise and the presence of O'Toole getting my hopes up. Anyone who worships this film, as I'm aware many do, than I pity their ignorance of the far better films out their.
I would reccomend to anyone who likes this film John Fowles novel "The Magus", to which it owes much, as well as Terry Gilliam's film Brazil, another cult favorite mind trp, but a far better one |
| Rating | | | Date | February 01, 2005 | | Summary | A (dream) world of its own | Content
| The Stunt Man is a delight for the senses. From the police chase at the beginning of the film, to the freak-out by Steve Ralisback about his past crimes, this movie will put your emotions on a whimsical wirlt-o-tilt. Richard Rush directs a flawless first half-hour; filled with seamless movement from Ralisback's flight from the police into the movie set. Rush makes sure to film some parts of his own film as if he was shooting for the movie within. It makes for some great tension and humor in the beginning. Then we come to find out it is the incredibly handsome O'Toole that is the conductor of the film that our hero has stumbled upon. The first exchange between the two is wonderful; O'Toole does all the talking, the only intellegent and sensible talking he does all movie. He immediately sets the tone by manipulating the young man into covering for the last stunt man who has died. The two never develop a trusting relationship, with O'Toole using the stunt man as a body double, and Ralisback using O'Toole as an alibi. If you haven't guessed already, the stunt man falls for the leading lady, and of course vice versa, which allows for a subplot about a love that never was between o'Toole and the movie's leading lady (Barbara Hershey) that just complicates things without improving the depth of the characters. O'Toole's character is ridiculous, and downright annoying at times. When we finally find out about the stunt man's past crimes, its through a tantrum that brought me to my knees in tears, laughing. The best scene in the movie is near the end, when the Stunt man looks back through his car's rear window during his final stunt. This movie at times is a very good satire on over-dramatic, poorly-written, action movies. At other times it is a poorly-written and over-dramatic action movie. Its schizo nature both intrigued me, and made me angry. The movie was so stereotypical in its depiction of not only hollywood personalities, but also the characters that are supposedly from the 'real world', that its tough to distinguish caricatures from characters. At one point in the film, a member of O'Toole's film crew complains studios cut out too many scenes. It would have been a good idea in this one. |
| Rating | | | Date | October 24, 2004 | | Summary | Excellent acting, plot make for an engrossing film. | Content
| Peter O'Toole, Barbara Hershey and Steve Railsback are superb in this movie. Railsback is a Vietnam vet who accidently kills a copy and stumble upon a WW I movie being shot by O'Toole, who plays the director. After his stunt man is killed, O'Toole blackmails Railsback into becoming his stunt man, and Railsback thinks O'Toole is trying to kill him.
Barbara Hershey as Railsback love interest looks gorgeous. O'Toole is amazing. Not your usual, predictable Hollywood plot. A very special movie worth owning for repeat viewing. |
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