Peter O'Toole

Steve Railsback

Barbara Hershey

Allen Garfield

Alex Rocco

Sharon Farrell

Adam Roarke

Philip Bruns

Charles Bail

John Garwood

Jim Hess

John Pearce

Michael Railsback

George D. Wallace

Dee Carroll

Leslie Winograde

Don Kennedy

Whitey Hughes

Walter Robles

A.J. Bakunas

Roberto Caruso

Frank Avila

Stafford Morgan

John Alderman

Jack Palinkas

James Garrett

Garrett McPherson

Nelson Tyler

Louis Gartner

James Avery

Gregg Berger

Patricia McPherson

Richard Rush

Kenny Endoso

Paul Brodeur

Mario Tosi

Lawrence B. Marcus

Deanna Dae Coleman

Erik Cord

Dominic Frontiere

Gray Johnson

Phil Adams

Mike Johnson

Gary Baxley

Al Jones

Norman Blankenship

Tom Morga

Hank Calia

Regis Parton

Don Pulford

Ted Duncan

Dick Warlock

Larry Dunn

James Winburn

Frank Beetson

Paula Marcus

Terry Terrill

Michel Levesque

Douglas T. Madison

Roger Irvin

Gary Paulsen

Joel King

Ronald Vidor

Barry Oiffer

Tim Griffith

Bob Fillis

James M. Tanenbaum

Cal Marks

Peter J. Breen

Tad Harrier

Donald Krafft

Gary Fettis

Joe Harada

Robin Krause

Susan Title

Robert Leader

Andy Blumenthal

John Carnochan

Dolly Fendel Gordon

Vicki Hiatt

Frank M. Holgate

Jeff Bushelman

Dessie Markovsky

Emile Razpopov

Diego Alex Borghello

Gregory J. Barnett

Dan Perri

Paul Lewis

Melvin Simon

Caroline Biggerstaff

Jack Hofstra

Richard Spero

James L. Schoppe

Rosanna Norton

Ken Chase

Tom Lucas

Marina Pedraza

Les Fresholtz

Michael Minkler

Arthur Piantadosi

Milt Rice

Ross Reynolds

Action

Comedy

Drama

Thriller

The Stunt Man

20th Century Fox

Melvin Simon Productions

United States of America

English

stuntman

movie set

film director

This incredible movie took me by surprise in the fall of 1980. The Stunt Man replaced The Empire Strikes Back at the theater where I worked. I was prepared to hate this film. To my complete surprise, it became my favorite film from the 1980s.
If you haven't seen it, strap yourself in and go for the ride. It's worth every second. Peter O'Toole has Never been better as Cross, the demented and brilliant director. Is he out to kill Cameron just to get a good scene or two from him? Or is he actually a caring person who would never hurt a fly? You won't know until the film is just about over.
Basically, Cameron is on the run from the Law. He stumbles into a film set and (perhaps) causes the death of the film's stunt man. Ely Cross, the director, offers Cameron a place to hide from the Law if he'll replace the stunt man until the film is done shooting. Cameron agrees.
From that point, nothing is what it seems. The film blends the real with the surreal world of filmmaking that will have you smiling throughout.
High Points are the Soundtrack and Barbara Hershey. Barbara has never been more beautiful here, and she gives the performance of a lifetime. Location filming was at the Del Coronado Hotel in San Diego. The same hotel was used for Some Like It Hot.

I'd like to embellish the previous review... CaptNemo did a good job summing up the movie, but there are a few other interesting things that can be said about it. My short summary is that this is probably the best "meta" movie, or movie about making movies you'll find. I discovered the film on cable TV, and immediately fell in love with it. A short time later I came across the Brodeur novel in a used bookstore, and bought and read it immediately. The novel is quite dark, and has a number of plot issues. In several ways the movie is more fun and better than the book. But it's a *quite* different story.
 
One area I disagree with CaptNemo is where he said that you find out everything at the end of the movie... I don't find the end of the movie completely illuminating -- some things are fairly clear, but there is much that's still open to interpretation... which is one of the things that makes it so fun to watch again!

I only owned the laser disc edition of this movie for many years. I only recently acquired the DVD to have it in a more modern format to show to friends. And so then I discovered the commentary, and only as a result of that commentary I found out about the documentary film about the movie, "The Sinister Saga of Making The Stunt Man." If you're a fan of this movie, the documentary is a must-have!

Regarding the movie-within-a-movie, it's difficult to say if it would have been a good movie or not. Is Eli Cross a good director? We don't really know. We're only offered tantalizing glimpses of his work. It would have been nice if the DVD special features included the screenplay of the movie-within-a-movie, or maybe even stitched some of the scenes together, like was done for the DVD of the movie-within-the-movie in Joe Dante's "Matinee."

The Stunt Man (1980) ORIGINAL TRAILER [HD 1080p]

The Stunt Man( 1980)

"If God could do the tricks that we can do, he'd be a happy man..."

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A review by CaptNemo

Written by CaptNemo on Mon Apr 05 2021

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