Stunt Man
This film (shot in 1978 but released in 1980) marked the return to major roles for the legendary Peter O’Toole after a nervous breakdown, and was seen as somewhat of a triumph, garnering a Best Actor Oscar nom for O’Toole as well as nominations for the screenplay and director Richard Rush, but was really so off kilter and screwy in its approach that it missed the realm of mainstream acceptance and has since been thought of as a top cult classic instead. O’Toole plays Eli Cross, a megalomaniacal director in the midst of shooting his latest epic, who crosses paths with Cameron (Steve Railsback), a shell-shocked, traumatized, psychotic Vietnam war veteran on the run from the law who has just stumbled onto his set. Fortunately for O’Toole, Railsback provides him an opportunity to replace and impersonate his top stunt man, who had just died in a stunt gone wrong and left the director in a position to be arrested and prosecuted for manslaughter and worse, see his precious production be shut down. So, while having his people give Railsback some on the job training, he goes merrily about his business which is not so much directing a film but rather lording over his cast and crew and generally playing God. In the meantime, Railsback meets and starts a relationship with the film’s leading lady (the eternally gorgeous Barbara Hershey), who in spite of his obvious edgy nature she still falls head over heels for him. Indeed, as the story is told from Railsback’s point of view, thus the film proceeds to confuse his reality with the illusion of the movie as he works on it, creating a tense, surreal effect for the viewer nearly from the getgo with the opening shot of a dog licking its balls. Railsback in his paranoid state ultimately becomes convinced that O’Toole as the director is literally trying to kill him by having him perform more and more elaborate stunts for the film, with the hilarious irony being that the star of the movie he’s doubling for (Adam Rourke) is almost always seen off to the side doing next to nothing. As one might suspect, a LOT of interesting ideas are thrown about here, such as O’Toole and Railsback finding in each other a kindred spirit because both are them are obviously completely insane, or maybe the way that instead of showing the tedious reality of shooting a movie take by take, what we get is Railsback going “into character” and taking part in a protracted action scene in the film-within-a-film which only ends when we hear O’Toole yell “cut!”. It can be said that as a twisted tribute to the magic of the filmmaking medium is where the movie works best, with certain moments, dialogue, and entire scenes coming off as spellbinding and hypnotic within the confused narrative, even as the tension builds while we learn more about the Railsback character’s past and the realization that O’Toole intends for him to perform the same stunt that killed his predecessor, leading to him (and the viewer) wondering if O’Toole does actually want to take him out in order to achieve that ultimate goal as a director: realism. Unfortunately, all that is destroyed by the admittedly limpdick ending, which erases all the edginess of the film and comes across as basically a wimpy copout instead of being daring and / or shocking. It can even be said that from what we see of the film being shot, O’Toole’s Eli Cross is not even a very good director, but rather a hack who puts on a good show for all in attendance, but the artistic integrity he strives for while searching for the deeper meaning within his war movie was already successfully attained in real life by directors like Kubrick (Paths Of Glory) and Coppola (Apocalypse Now). Overall, well worth seeing for any student of film, but it’s a toss-up as to whether it would be appreciated by modern audiences…
8/10