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Plot: A fugitive stumbles on a movie set just when they need a new stunt man, takes the job as a way to hide out, and falls for the leading lady.
Meet Other Fans
Recent Reviews
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MCT:September 23, 2008The perfect blurring of the real and the film world. A great head game throughout and a wonderful reminder of what film can be.
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MCT:May 29, 2008
Do we really lead our own lives, or are we just characters in a movie? And who's in control? Here we have a man whose life becomes intertwined with the film within the film. It's a rough, crazy, darkly comedic thriller that is overall rather brilliant. Peter O'Toole is stunning as the larger-than-life director who enjoys playing god with his cast, crew, and especially the title character.
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MCT:April 15, 2008
Really good film with Peter O'Toole as the ruthless director. Great film within a film. Highly recommended.
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MCT:April 11, 2008A totally under-appreciated classic, and one of my all-time favorite films. A sly movie-insider flick, disguised as a love story, disguised as a thriller, this movie has more layers than a Walla Walla sweet onion, and they're all just as delicious. Feauturing a breathtaking performance by Peter o'Toole, if you haven't seen it, you should. Seriously, now! I'll wait...
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MCT:January 24, 2008
Laregly overlooked today, this is one of the greatest mind-fuck films of all time. This is one of Peter O'Toole's greatest achievements and, although the film does come off as a bit amateurish in other areas, its O'Toole's scene chewing that make this film worth watching. I sum my feelings for this film up in the words of Director Eli Cross (played by Peter O'Toole): "If God could do the things we could do, he'd be a happy man."
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MCT:September 21, 2007
Richard Rush's 1980 masterpiece could have become the thinking-man's blockbuster if 20th Century Fox could have marketed it properly and knew what to do with it. As it stands now, it is a film that is as relevant now as it was then, mainly because it is a one-of-a-kind movie that looks at movie making in a whole new light. As the movie opens, Cameron (Steve Railsback) is a Vietnam veteran on the run for a unknown crime who stumbles onto a movie set, accidently killing off the stunt man. This gets the attention of megalomaniac filmmaker Eli Cross (Peter O'Toole, in the performance that should have won him the Oscar), who is making the movie. He realizes Cameron's plight and offers him a hiding place by making him the stunt man. He accepts the offer, but at the same time, while he does the stunts, he begins to develop a chronic paranoia that Eli might be trying to kill him and might possibly want to capture his death on film. Things are complicated even further by his relationship with the film's leading lady Nina Franklin (Barbara Hershey), who he begins to respect more and more. It's funny, insightful, strange, and very much an existential trip based off a wonderful book by Paul Brodeur, with an ending that will not only leave you confused, but will also leaving you wanting more. One of the best things about this film is the wonderful music score by Dominic Frontiere, which includes a main theme that is as whimsical as it is weird, finally morphing into its true form at the end of the film, that being the Grand Waltz. Another great thing about this film is that nothing is what it seems and that what makes it all the more interesting. It has everything you could ask for in a movie, and although it might overwhelm and confuse you, that is the intention of the movie and that is what makes it so great to watch.
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MCT:September 15, 2007
"If God could do the tricks that we can do, he'd be a happy man."
The tagline of the film is a direct quote of Eli Cross, director of "Devil's Squadron" the made-up film within The Stunt Man. He's played by Peter O'Toole, who apparently based his portrayal on David Lean. I've seen a few films with O'Toole before, but rarely at a point where I'd identify him or make note of performances on anything more than a subconscious level. Here, though, he definitely made an impression as the egomaniacal, charming and magnetic director of an anti-war film, or an "anti-disease-of-which-war-is-a-sympton" film, anyway.
Steve Railsback, who Richard Rush (director of the film) apparently hired for his performance as Charles Manson in Helter Skelter, gives a passionate, if odd, performance as the title character--whose name is Cameron. He looks uncomfortable and unsure throughout the entire film, which is only natural when all we know about him through most of the film is that he is on the run from the police and has been hired by a director to be a stunt man in exchange for sealed lips on Cameron's identity--thenceforth he becomes "Lucky Burt."
Most of the film deals with a favourite subject of mine--perception. Constantly we are shown and pushed into viewing things one way, only to find the fourth wall break away, yet still leave us looking through--the ceiling? a fifth wall? We aren't directly addressed, but there's a clear reveal for our purposes. We're decieved consistently though, as we see most things through the eyes of Cameron and those around him--or occasionally him alone. When things shift in focus, and we realize the truth of any situation, there is no jolt, except of realization. Things shift naturally to reveal the truth, and the preceding lie loses none of its 'truth' in the moment or potency; it does not feel as though there has been some cheat, even though we've been decieved.
By far, this is the most interesting part of the film as a whole, but in particular, I was absolutely entranced by the nonchalant yet driven "genius" of Eli Cross--but, more accurately, I mean of course O'Toole's fantastic performance as the manipulative director. It was stunning in one scene when he unexpectedly dropped from the sky ("Deus ex machina...?" I thought) in a camera crane, attempting to direct real people into using their actions for his movie. It's difficult to explain that or any other scene without ruining the magic and surprise of any of them, though, so that will have to suffice. In the same vein, all of the stunts Cameron is put through are ridiculous; we see them and they feel dangerous as stunts, but we're seeing stunts through stunts--this is a film within a film, and it's well enough directed and edited that that is repeatedly hidden from us, that knowledge repeatedly taken away from us, even as we're consistently told--"Gotcha!"
The reputation of the film overall is that of a strong cult film, one of the "first" of them, or at least one of the first to achieve this status successfully. It definitely lives up to those expectations--and that's all it needs to do, really. -
MCT:February 5, 2007
One of the best movies about movies; the line between fact and fiction blurs, constantly bewildering the audience.
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MCT:October 27, 2006
Would you tell the chief of police that Burt here was so busy being brilliant that he wouldn't have noticed sweet Jesus Christ walking across the water.
This is a really good film which verges on greatness; O'Toole is a god almost literally.
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