The Stunt Man (1980)
Directed by Richard Rush
Written by Lawrence B. Marcus, Richard Rush
Starring Peter O'Toole, Steve Railsback, Barbara Hershey
Release Date June 27th, 1980
Published May 8th, 2024
The Stunt Man is a wildly inventive and entirely incoherent exercise in style and storytelling. Directed by Richard Rush, The Stunt Man has an intriguing premise that gets overshadowed by a director eager to experiment with film style and editing. I appreciate what Richard Rush is going for but it's a failed experiment as the stylistic touches and innovations leave us with a story that is impossible to follow because scenes are missing or truncated in service of Richard Rush's desire to play with the toys and tools of filmmaking.
The intriguing story of The Stunt Man finds a former Vietnam Veteran, played by Steve Railsback, on the run from the cops for an unknown crime. Cornered at a diner, the vet manages to sneak away. However, in the process of his getaway, the vet wanders into a movie scene as it is being shot. A stunt man is performing a car stunt and angrily drives right at the vet who is standing on a bridge that happens to be the location for this scene. In fear for his life, the vet throws a large rock at the car barreling towards him that causes the car to drive off the bridge.
The stunt driver is killed and the incident is witnessed and filmed by the film's director, Eli Cross (Peter O'Toole). Once again, our unnamed vet flees the scene. This time he winds up at a nearby resort where he once again sees the movie in production. A beach at the resort is being strafed by fake gunfire by a stunt plane. Smoke covers the area as bombs fall and when the smoke clears, the audience of resort patrons are shocked to see mangled bodies and corpses strewn across the beach. Their shock and horror becomes good natured laughter as the director calls cut and the stuntmen and extras lift themselves out of the and and remove their broken, burned and battered fake body parts and wounds.
As the vet surveys the scene, he watches as an elderly woman approaches the lead actor for an autograph. She wanders down the beach and the vet follows her curiously, wondering where she could be headed. It's a good thing that he does because the old women slips on some rocks and falls in the ocean, forcing the vet to leap in and save her. Soon after, the woman removes her makeup and reveals herself to be movie star Nina Franklin (Barbara Hershey). Nina was testing the believability and durability of her old lady makeup, which she claims to have done herself. Nevertheless, she allows the vet to rescue her to a standing ovation of the assembled crew, including the director.
Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal.
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