Stunt Man
Amazon.co.uk Review
The “lost” sleeper hit of 1980 has since become one of the most revered cult movies of all time, largely due to its bawdy, irreverent story about the art and artifice of filmmaking and an outrageously clever performance by Peter O’Toole. As megalomaniacal film director Eli Cross, O’Toole plays a larger-than-life figure whose ability to manipulate reality is like a power-trip narcotic. The focus of his latest mind game is a fugitive (Steve Railsback) recruited to replace a stuntman killed during a recent on-set accident. In return for protective sanctuary, the fugitive takes a crash course in stunt work but soon discovers that he’s the paranoid player in a game he can’t control, with the dictatorial director making up the rules. Or is he? The Stunt Man is a game of its own, played through the fantasy of filmmaking, and half the fun of watching the movie comes from sharing the stuntman’s paranoid confusion. Barbara Hershey has a smart, sexy supporting role as a lead actress who won’t submit to her director’s seemingly devious behaviour; but it’s clearly O’Toole who steals the show. Director Richard Rush adds to the movie’s maverick appeal–in a career plagued by struggles against the mainstream studio system, Rush hasn’t made a better movie before or since. The Stunt Man clearly represents the potential of his neglected talent. –Jeff Shannon
Well will you look at these silly prices for a limited edition of 100,000 from 2001. I paid $11.58 Canadian new for mine only 18 months ago (12894/100,000 – where on earth did the other 77,000 go?) when it was absolutely brilliant value, not being released here in GB in this or any other decent format.
This Anchor Bay edition of the 1980 cult film comes with two discs, one with the newly transferred (from original negatives) widescreen version with 6.1 DTS ES surround, THX certified, commentaries (but no subtitles), deleted scenes, original production and advertising art, theatrical trailers and the screenplay and director’s notes in DVD ROM whilst the other disc features the full-screen version with a then-new 2 hour documentary “The Sinister Saga of Making The Stuntman”, written, narrated and directed by Richard Rush (for which you otherwise have to pay 8GBP for a Region 1 copy of it in its own right, ignoring any silly inflated prices). A couple of nice thick cards featuring some artwork and the chapters of the film and documentary complete the somewhat nice package but the lack of an informative booklet (or indeed any booklet at all) lets it down a little.
Peter O’Toole gives his usual sterling performance as a mad film director who takes on a paranoid Steve Railsback to replace a dead stuntman in his film. A rather lovely Barbara Hershey as the leading lady in the film O’Toole’s making provides the love interest for both and the eye-candy for red-blooded males. Is O’Toole trying to kill his new stuntman or is the stunt man’s paranoia taking him over?
Three Academy nominations resulted (O’Toole for best leading role actor, Rush for best director and Rush and Marcus for best screenplay).
A great film but not one for the faint-hearted who want their movies served up in a nice simple and easy to digest manner without complications. I don’t even think that you can really simply categorise this film.
Personally, if you want the documentary I think it’s well worth paying 21GBP for an immaculate used copy of this edition with the other extras rather than 14 or 15GBP for the film and documentary on separate DVDs but it’s certainly not worth paying grossly-inflated prices for this edition or the documentary DVD.
Rating: 4 / 5