FILM REVIEWS

“The Stunt Man” opened to rave reviews for its wily, inventive, totally unpredictable movie-within-movie narrative and for Peter O’Toole’s performance as a diabolical, messianic director.

Adapted from Paul Brodeur’s novel, Richard Rush’s story of a Machiavellian movie director and his accidental employee takes a darkly humorous look at movie reality vs. factual reality.

Rush and O’Toole poke fun at the likes of such narcissistic, megalomaniac, and legendary Hollywood directors as Eric Von Stroheim, Cecil B. DeMille, John Ford, and Orson Welles.

It begins on a high note: Running from the law, handsome Vietnam vet Cameron (Steve Railsback) stumbles on a movie set just in time to interfere with a staged accident, causing (perhaps) the stunt man’s death.

Rather than turn Cameron in, director Eli Cross (Oscar nominee O’Toole) decides to punish him in his own eccentric way by making him an offer he can’t refuse (to paraphrase Brando’s Don Vito Corleone from “The Godfather”): replace the dead stunt man in return for safe harbor.

Despite objections about Cameron’s inexperience, Eli keeps him on, figuring that a vet will add an extra charge of realism to the World War I epic-adventure he’s shooting.

Further complications ensue, when leading lady Nina (Barbara Hershey, at her most beautiful) returns Cameron’s affections, which makes the obsessive and possessive Eli all the more inscrutably mercurial and nastier.

For his part, the tough-yet-vulnerable Cameron begins to wonder and worry how far Eli will go to get the stunning screen effects he wants, and if he would think twice about killing the stunt man.

Placing a Vietnam vet in the midst of movie-making chaos, Rush adds a pointedly contemporary ironic spin to Cameron’s confusion; the war experience that makes Cameron a good stunt man wreaks havoc on his life.

Rush disorients the audience by seamlessly interweaving scenes from Eli’s movie with scenes of its being made. This ingenious, vastly entertaining movie was made independently two years before Rush found a studio to release it. When Fox opened the film theatrically, it became a commercial flop, never finding the audience it deserves.  The studio simply did not know how to market such an original, offbeat, darkly humorous picture.

Nonetheless, “The Stunt Man” became a cult movie later on, when it was released on VCR and DVD.

The film’s sly commentary on the blurred line between movies and real-life became all the more striking in the 1980s, when former B actor Ronald Reagan became president.

Oscar Nominations: 3

Director: Richard Rush

Actor: Peter O’Toole

Screenplay (Adapted): Lawrence B. Marcus and Richard Rush

Oscar Awards: None

Oscar Context:

This was O’Toole’s sixth Best Actor nomination, but he lost to Robert De Niro, who won for “Raging Bull.”

The winner of Best Actor was Robert Redford, who won for Ördinary People,” a feature that also won Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay for Alvin Sargent.

Running time: 135 Minutes

Directed by Richard Rush

Released: June 27, 1980.

DVD: August 6, 2002

20th Century Fox Film.

Cast

Peter O’Toole as Eli Cross

Steve Railsbach  as Cameron

Barbara Hershey as Nina Franklin

Allen Garfield as Sam

Alex Rocco as Jake

Sharon Farrell as Denise

Adam Roarke as Raymond Bailey

Philip Bruns as Ace

Chuck Bail as Chuck Barton

John Alderman as Carlbinarri