Stunt Man

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Overview

Adapted from Paul Brodeur's novel, Richard Rush's story of a Machiavellian movie director and his accidental employee takes a darkly comic look at movie reality vs. "real" reality. Running from the law, Vietnam vet Cameron Steve Railsback stumbles on a movie shoot just in time to interfere with a staged accident, causing perhaps the stunt man's death. Rather than turn Cameron in, director Eli Cross Oscar nominee Peter O'Toole makes him an offer he can't refuse: replace the dead stunt man in return for safe ...
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Overview

Adapted from Paul Brodeur's novel, Richard Rush's story of a Machiavellian movie director and his accidental employee takes a darkly comic look at movie reality vs. "real" reality. Running from the law, Vietnam vet Cameron Steve Railsback stumbles on a movie shoot just in time to interfere with a staged accident, causing perhaps the stunt man's death. Rather than turn Cameron in, director Eli Cross Oscar nominee Peter O'Toole makes him an offer he can't refuse: replace the dead stunt man in return for safe harbor. Despite objections about Cameron's inexperience, Eli keeps him on, figuring that a vet will add an extra charge of realism to the World War I opus that he's filming. As leading lady Nina Barbara Hershey returns Cameron's affections, and Eli becomes ever more inscrutably mercurial, Cameron begins to wonder how far Eli will go to get the screen effects he wants, and if he would think twice about killing the stunt man. Placing a Vietnam vet in the midst of movie-making chaos, Rush adds a pointedly contemporary spin to Cameron's confusion; the war experience that makes Cameron a good stunt man wreaks havoc on his life. Rush in turn disorients the audience by seamlessly interweaving scenes from Eli's movie with scenes of its being made. Made two years before Rush found a studio to release it, The Stunt Man opened to raves for its wily narrative and O'Toole's messianic director. Its sly commentary on the blurred boundaries between movies and life became all the more striking at the dawn of the Reagan '80s.
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Special Features

Audio commentary with writer/director Richard Rush, and stars Peter O'Toole, Steve Railsback, Barbara Hershey, Alex Rocco, Sharon Farrell, and Chuck Bail ; The Maverick Career of Richard Rush - exclusive new featurette ; Peter O'Toole recounts The Stunt Man - exclusive new featurette ; Devil's Squadron - exclusive new featurette with Steve Railsback & Alex Rocco ; Barbara Hershey On Nina Franklin - exclusive new featurette ; The Sinister Saga of the making of The Stunt Man - feature length documentary by Richard Rush ; The Stunt Man at the New Beverly; Theatrical trailers ; Deleted scenes
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Editorial Reviews

All Movie Guide - Dan Jardine
Vibrating with energy, the incessantly entertaining The Stunt Man is puzzle-master's delight. The clever script and ambiguous direction toy with the audience, almost in the same way that Peter O'Toole's directorial maestro (who anticipates The Truman Show's Christof by nearly two decades) plays with Steve Railsback's baffled fugitive. Not exactly subtle in its confrontation of the captivating nature of movie machinations versus the questionable quality of real life, The Stunt Man is nonetheless a wonder of sound, light and magic. Movie-making as a metaphor for life is a bit of a stretch (though many may identify with the paranoid and confounded Cameron), but O'Toole as a capricious and slightly malevolent God is a constant delight. Railsback's trademark intensity serves his Vietnam veteran character's confusion well, while Barbara Hershey is brimming with sensuality as the love interest. A crackerjack combination of action, comedy and romance, it is interesting that Twentieth-Century Fox Studios, sensing that the film wouldn't be able to find an audience, held the film back from release for two years before slipping it out with little fanfare. While not a great box office success, it certainly was a critical one, and it has quietly built a cult status among movie fans.
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Product Details

  • Release Date: 6/7/2011
  • UPC: 030306701493
  • Original Release: 1980

    • Rating:

  • Source: Severin
  • Region Code: 0
  • Time: 2:11:00
  • Format: Blu-ray
  • Sales rank: 32,820

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits
Peter O'Toole Eli Cross
Steve Railsback Cameron
Barbara Hershey Nina Franklin
Allen Garfield Sam
Alex Rocco Jake
Sharon Farrell Denise
Adam Roarke Raymond Bailey
Philip Bruns Ace
Chuck Bail Chuck Barton
John Alderman Carlbinarri
James Avery
Gregg Berger
Dee Carroll Mother
John Garwood Gabe
Allen Goorwitz
Whitey Hughes Eli's A.D.
Don Kennedy Lineman
Stafford Morgan Thompson F.B.I.
John Pearce Garage Guard
Michael Railsback Burt
Walter Robles Eli's A.D.
Nelson Tyler Eli's Crane Cameraman
George D. Wallace Father
Technical Credits
Richard Rush Director, Producer, Screenwriter
Frank Beetson Asst. Director
C. Frank Beetson Jr. Production Designer
Caroline Biggerstaff Editor
Caroline Ferriol Editor
Dominic Frontiere Score Composer, Songwriter
Norman Gimbel Songwriter
Jack Hofstra Editor
Gray Johnson Stunts
Joel King Cinematographer
Paul Lewis Associate Producer
Lawrence B. Marcus Screenwriter
Rosanna Norton Costumes/Costume Designer
Milt Rice Special Effects
James L. Schoppe Art Director
Melvin Simon Executive Producer
Richard Spero Set Decoration/Design
Jim Tanenbaum Sound/Sound Designer
Mario Tosi Cinematographer
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