Don't Believe the Hype

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Movies about movies have a special fascination, and, despite some flaws, "The Stunt Man" is no exception. Arrested for an unnamed offense, Cameron, a crazy-eyed young man played by Steve Railsback, escapes custody and encounters a film company on location. The crew is on a beach shooting a World War I battle that involves dozens of extras, vintage biplanes, and explosions. Aided by the film's director, who does not want to admit that he has lost a stunt man in a tragic car stunt, Cameron becomes the stunt man and is goaded into performing daring and dangerous stunts of his own. In an Academy Award nominated performance, Peter O'Toole plays the determined Eli Cross, the movie-in-the-movie's ruthless manipulative director. Cross stops at nothing to get footage in the can, irregardless of the consequences, even the death of a stunt man. When not jumping from buildings or hanging from ledges, Cameron becomes involved with the film's female star, Nina Franklin, played by Barbara Hershey, whose history with Cross further complicates things.The screenplay by Lawrence B. Marcus and Richard Rush was adapted from a novel by Paul Brodeur, and both the screenplay and Richard Rush's direction, like O'Toole, received Oscar nominations. While much of the film's fun comes from the action and the stunts performed for the movie within the movie, O'Toole's delicious performance as the flamboyant philosophical director is also a major draw, although the supporting cast is also fine, with Alan Garfield and Alex Rocco deserving mention.The mystery of Cameron's crime and the cause of the stunt man's death plunge into a river are slowly revealed, but character is emphasized over plot and the romance consumes much screen time. Thus, the film is often slow, overlong, and not as clever as Rush wanted it to be. Judicious editing could have tightened the film and improved the pace. However, while "The Stunt Man" is fairly entertaining, O'Toole's star performance remains the film's major asset and chief draw.

There's questioning one's reality and then there's bending it through a prism six ways from Sunday. "The Stuntman" is the latter, which shrouds itself in questions and stymies you at every turn. Mostly, this is a well-constructed film and the mystery keeps you actively involved. It's fascinating how many layers this thing has. But even if you're not game for this sort of side-winding, it does have Peter O'Toole, which is a joyride unto himself. His megalomaniacal director is larger than life and might just be an evil genius. But he absolutely owns this movie, and it's a ferocious performance to beat them all. Amazing stuff.7/10

"The Stunt Man" was released in 1980 to apparently universal praise and earned three Oscar nominations including: Best Actor (Peter O'Toole), Best Director (Richard Rush) and Best Adapted Screenplay. (As a result of those nominations, I saw it on TCM as part of that channel's annual "30 Days of Oscar" scheduling.) Now that I've seen it, I'm scratching my head over what critics and Oscar voters saw in this utterly forgettable and rather tacky tale about a Hollywood film production.Whatever its merits were thirty-four years ago have been seemingly lost to time. This is one very dated and cheap-looking film. If it wasn't for its nudity, foul language, and Peter O'Toole it has all the appearances of a late 1970's made-for-TV movie with its cheap looking sets and bargain-bin actors. Steve Railsback (who?) as the star?!?! Really? The plot: fugitive from the law and troubled Vietnam vet (a major cliché of 1970's TV shows and movies was that all Vietnam vets were borderline nuts)"Cameron" (Railsback) flees the police and stumbles upon a movie set. The film's temperamental director, "Eli Cross" (O'Toole), despite being aware of Cameron's fugitive status, immediately hires him as a replacement stuntman. That leads to Cameron, now renamed "Lucky," performing complex and dangerous stunts without a hitch. He's also able to instantly bed several of the film's female cast and crew including its lead actress, "Nina" (Barbara Hershey). (I guess it's because he's just so studly?!?! Steve Railsback? Really?) Meanwhile, Cross and his script writer argue over the meaning of their film and its alleged "poignancy" as an anti-war statement despite filming it at a beach resort. To put it bluntly, the plot was contrived, paper-thin, and just plain unbelievable.I'm flabbergasted that this film was nominated for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay because neither the direction nor the screenplay rise above the level of Movie-of-the-Week. Yes, it was criminal Peter O'Toole never won a Best Actor Oscar and one can think of numerous roles for which he was robbed of that honor, but his role as "Eli Cross" in this stinker is not one of them.This is a bad movie. It's cheap looking. It has a cardboard cut-out for a leading-man. (Steve Railsback? Really?) Richard Rush was a non-entity of a director before "The Stunt Man" and quickly returned to obscurity afterwards as did this grossly overrated film which has been forgotten. My guess is Hollywood's self-absorbed, narcissistic infatuation with movies about the film business led to the false praise. However, time has certainly not been kind to it.

Poor film and though Peter O'Toole received another best actor nomination, Steve Railsback was just as good here.O'Toole always did splendidly especially in parts where there is some sort of homosexual mania behind him.He is quite a character in this one as he portrays a director on the set of a movie about World War 1. Railsback, running from the police, comes upon the set and as a stunt man was killed earlier in an accident, O'Toole takes a liking to our run away and hires him for the part.The picture goes awry after this with Railsback thinking that O'Toole has set him up to be killed. There is a wild scene with Railsback going berserk as he had fallen for the leading lady of the film. Her actions and their plans are most absurd. You don't even know if the end were contrived or not. However, by the end, O'Toole is reduced to the typical movie mogul man, fighting over salaries. Believe me, there was nothing to fight about over this film.