The Stunt Man **** (1980, Peter O’Toole, Steve Railsback, Barbara Hershey, Allen Garfield, Alex Rocco, Sharon Farrell, Adam Roarke, Philip Bruns) – Classic Movie Review 7747

Co-writer/ director Richard Rush’s 1980 The Stunt Man is a good fun parody on the movies, with terrific stunts, in which Vietnam veteran on the run Cameron (Steve Railsback) accidentally kills sinister film director Eli Cross (Peter O’Toole)’s top stuntman and is blackmailed into taking his place on the set of the anti-war movie. Cameron then falls for the film’s leading lady Nina Franklin (Barbara Hershey).

The Stunt Man is a bit too long at 131 minutes, and sometimes the jokes and point become elusive, while director Rush gets lost entirely for a stretch in the middle of the movie. But the oddball good humour, the stunts and a sympathetically outrageous O’Toole performance make it well worth the effort.

A popular ‘sleeper’ of a movie, it did well at the box office and was rewarded with three Oscar nominations – for Best Actor, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay (though there were no wins). It helped to revive O’Toole’s career. On a $3,500,000 budget, it took twice that back in the US alone. O’Toole complained on a DVD audio commentary ‘The film wasn’t released, it escaped’, yet it still found its audience. He said that he based his character on David Lean, his director on Lawrence of Arabia.

The screenplay by Lawrence B Marcus and Richard Rush is based on Paul Brodeur’s novel, written in 1970.

Also in the cast are Allen Garfield (as Allen Goorwitz), Alex Rocco, Sharon Farrell, Adam Roarke, Philip Bruns, Charles Bail, John Garwood, Jim Hess, John Pearce, Michael Railsback, George Wallace, Dee Carroll, Leslie Winograde, Don Kennedy, Whitey Hughes, Walter Robles, A J Bakunas, Roberto Caruso, Frank Avila, Stafford Morgan and John Alderman.

The Stunt Man is directed by Richard Rush, runs 131 minutes, is made by Melvin Simon Productions and released by 20th Century Fox, is written by Lawrence B Marcus and Richard Rush, is shot in Metrocolor by Mario Tosi, produced by Melvin Simon and Richard Rush, based on Paul Brodeur’s novel, is scored by Dominic Frontière and designed by James L Schoppe.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7747

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