THE STUNT MAN [1980 / 2011] [Blu-ray] [USA Release] A Virtuoso Piece Of Moviemaking! Peter O’Toole Gives A Peerless Comic Performance!
It defied all odds to become the most unexpected and acclaimed cult hit of the 80s, and it remains one of the most slyly subversive and thrillingly original action/comedy/drama motion pictures of all time. The legendary Peter O’Toole in his iconic Oscar® nominated performance stars as director Eli Cross, a deliciously megalomaniacal madman commanding a film-set circus where a paranoid young veteran [Steve Railsback] finds himself maybe replacing a dead stunt man, possibly falling for the beautiful leading lady [Barbara Hershey], and discovering that love, death and the mayhem of moviemaking can definitely be the wildest illusions of all. THE STUNT MAN now features a stunning High Definition transfer supervised by Oscar® nominated Producer/Director Richard Rush, plus new interviews and commentaries with Rush, Peter O’Toole, Steve Railsback and Alex Rocco, all in the ultimate edition of the classic that the Los Angeles Times calls as innovative today as Citizen Kane was in its time! "If God could do the tricks that we can do, he'd be a happy man."
FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1980 Montréal World Film Festival: Win: Grand Prix des Amériques for Richard Rush. 1980 National Board of Review, USA: Win: NBR Award for Top Ten Films. 1980 New York Film Critics Circle Awards: Nominated: Best Actor for Peter O'Toole. 1981 Academy Awards®: Nominated: Best Actor in a Leading Role for Peter O'Toole. Nominated: Best Director for Richard Rush. Nominated: Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium for Lawrence B. Marcus and Richard Rush. 1981 Golden Globes: Win: Best Original Score for a Motion Picture for Dominic Frontiere. Nominated: Best Motion Picture in a Drama. Nominated: Best Director in a Motion Picture for Richard Rush. Nominated: Best Actor in a Motion Picture in a Drama for Peter O'Toole. Nominated: New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture for a Male for Steve Railsback. Nominated: Best Screenplay in a Motion Picture for Lawrence B. Marcus. 1981 Directors Guild of America: Nominated: DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures for Richard Rush. 1981 National Society of Film Critics Awards, USA: Win: NSFC Award for Best Actor for Peter O'Toole. 1981 Writers Guild of America: Nominated: WGA Award (Screen) for Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium for Lawrence B. Marcus and Richard Rush.
FILM FACT No.2: Production took place in 1978. Opening scenes were filmed at Mary Etta's Cafe, Flinn Springs, California. Many scenes were filmed in and around the historic Hotel del Coronado in Coronado, California. Peter O’Toole mentions in his DVD commentary that he based his character on David Lean who directed him in ‘Lawrence of Arabia.’
Cast: 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 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, William Joseph Arno (uncredited), James Avery (uncredited), Frank Beetson (uncredited), Gregg Berger (uncredited), Chance Boyer (uncredited), Deanna Dae Coleman (uncredited), Larry Dunn (uncredited), Don Hayden (uncredited), Patricia McPherson (uncredited), Ross Reynolds (uncredited), Gordon Ross (uncredited), Marion Wayne (uncredited) and Leigh Webb (uncredited)
Director: Richard Rush
Producers: Melvin Simon, Paul Lewis and Richard Rush
Screenplay: Lawrence B. Marcus (screenplay), Richard Rush (screenplay) and Paul Brodeur (novel)
Composer: Dominic Frontiere
Cinematography: Mario Tosi (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Audio
Subtitles: None
Running Time: 131 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: 20th Century Fox / SEVERIN Films
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: Cameron [Steve Railsback] didn't exactly have stars in his eyes when he broke into the film industry. No, he was instead simply on the run from the cops. Why...? That's a story for later, seeing as how he's too busy darting through the woods to talk about that quite yet. Just when Cameron thinks he's in the clear, some sixty-something-year-old sedan car, a relic from World War One tries to run him down? In a fit of desperation, Cameron sends the car careening off the bridge, and both it and the driver trapped inside plummet deep, deep, deep into the water below. When a helicopter soars upward a fraction of a second later, Cameron fully expects that the police have caught up to him, but...no. Inside are a smartly dressed British director and a massive 35mm camera. Eli Cross [Peter O'Toole] is in town filming his WWI epic, and completely fascinated by this wild young man, he sees an opportunity. Eli knows this fugitive wants to keep out of sight, and what better place to hide than among a sprawling film crew? A quick shave, a job title, and the word of an authoritarian director ought to silence any suspicions. Of course, Cameron's going to have to earn his keep. The shoot is down one stunt man, thanks to him, so who better to fill the vacancy than Cam? At first, everything appears to be going swimmingly. Cameron ducked tracer fire in Vietnam for two years straight, so squibs and jumps and rolls don't have him breaking a sweat. Cameron is clearly the teacher's pet, he has a gorgeous starlet by the name of Nina Franklin [Barbara Hershey] writhing all over him, and he gets $600 a pop for every stunt he pulls off. The only thing is that he starts to feel less like a stunt man on the set of a multimillion motion picture and more like a guinea pig being nudged through some deranged scientist's maze. As the lines between reality and illusion continue to blur, Cameron can't quite shake the feeling that Eli Cross is trying to capture his death on film.
‘THE STUNT MAN’ [1980] defies description. Like so many of the greatest films hailing from the 1970s, it's a collision of the commercial and wildly artistic. Someone who was only halfway paying attention could still take ‘THE STUNT MAN’ as a popcorn film, with soldiers frantically exchanging gunfire, dogfights mid-air, dizzyingly acrobatic leaps, cars careening off bridges, a couple of sex scenes, even more explosions, and an honest-to-God love interest for good measure. It's a film at least in part about the stuntmen who risk life and limb to make movies feel like such an adrenaline rush and jumping open drawbridges, Tarzan like swinging from a vine...you know the song, so of course it's thrilling in its own right. ‘THE STUNT MAN’ is infused with a manic energy that never relents, propelled further by an outstanding score, a wicked sense of humour, a brilliant cast led by the legendary Peter O'Toole, and endlessly quotable dialogue. Nothing about ‘THE STUNT MAN’ fits cleanly into any prefabricated box. Is it a comedy? A drama? An action flick? Well...yes and all that and more.
Virtually every moment throughout ‘THE STUNT MAN’ unfolds through Cameron's eyes, someone from the outside whose thrust in the middle of this insanity and the audience is right there with him, every bit as disoriented as he is. There is no clear distinction between illusion and reality. Cameron never knows if his life is truly in danger or if it's all part of the show. Perspectives shift wildly. One moment, Cameron may be doing the Charleston however many thousands of feet in the air on the wing of a biplane, with the full ascent documented and Eli Cross following close behind in a helicopter, and then the camera will pull back to show he's on a carefully wired rig a dozen or so feet off the ground. Reality is so fluid throughout ‘THE STUNT MAN’ film that is not possible to get a firm grasp on it, and that's one of the most incredible things about the film. You're never ahead of the movie. You, the audience, are also at the mercy of a masterfully manipulative storyteller. Richard Rush bombards the screen with one strange, surreal, hyperkinetic, explosive set piece after another, and the many allusions drawn to Alice in Wonderland throughout are wholly deserved. Simply put, THE STUNT MAN’ stands strong as one of the most ambitious, uncompromising, and devilishly clever films ever made.
‘THE STUNT MAN’ approaches a career best for Peter O'Toole, which, for an actor of his stature, is saying something. He portrays Eli Cross as a god of sorts. The film set is a world of his creation, and to the cast and crew that march in lockstep with his every command, Eli Cross's word is Holy Scripture. Peter O'Toole is often in a different plane than the rest of the cast of ‘THE STUNT MAN,’ often descending from the heavens in a crane that doesn't appear to be attached to anything. Every utterance of Peter O'Toole's is unforgettable, and the balance he strikes between impishly charming and understatedly terrifying is outstanding. Steve Railsback is inspired casting in the part of a man being driven mad by Eli Cross's machinations. Just a couple years before cameras rolled, Steve Railsback had starred as Charles Manson in ‘Helter Skelter,’ and few actors can play raving and unhinged as skilfully as he can. Barbara Hershey is alluring and elusive as an actress who's spent so much of her young life pretending to be other people that she doesn't know who she is or what she wants. The list goes on from there.
In the same way that the character Cameron is never really sure he can trust what he's seeing, I'm having a hard time believing that ‘THE STUNT MAN’ truly has found its way to Blu-ray. For a film with three key Academy Awards® nominations, endless critical praise, and a rabidly fierce fan base, ‘THE STUNT MAN’ isn’t the easiest film to wrap one’s hands around. It never escaped into more than a handful of cinemas in America. Even close to a full decade after the film finally hit the Anchor Bay DVD, and that’s with a hundred thousand copies in circulation. SEVERIN Films knows how much hunger there is for ‘THE STUNT MAN’ and not only have they brought this brilliant film to the awesome Blu-ray format, but they’ve put together a definitive release to go along with it. Essentially all of the extras from the limited edition Anchor Bay DVD set have been carried over; including an audio commentary and a feature-length documentary and SEVERIN Films has also assembled close to two hours’ worth of new extras as well. Very highly recommended!
THE STUNT MAN MUSIC TRACK LIST
BITS & PIECES (Music by Dominic Frontiere) (Lyrics by Norman Gimbel) [Sung by Dusty Springfield]
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Blu-ray Image Quality – ‘THE STUNT MAN’ isn't glossy, gleaming high definition eye candy, but if it were, that would mean something went terribly wrong. This Blu-ray disc is gloriously grainy, just as it should be. Aside from a few scattered soft shots that date back to the original photography, the presentation is so much sharper and more teeming with detail than I waltzed in expecting to see. There's some speckling, sure, but its light enough not to distract all that much. There's no trace of edge enhancement or excessive noise reduction. Its palette is much punchier than that faded inferior DVD from a decade back, and contrast is more robust as well, not looking quite so soupy and thin. SEVERIN Films Blu-ray disc also exposes a little bit more information. Instead of me just talking about how much better the ‘THE STUNT MAN’ looks in high definition compared to Anchor Bay's limited edition DVD, then you must purchase the Blu-ray disc to find out for yourself. The significant change in colour timing could be a little controversial, but for whatever my vote's worth, the saturation on the Blu-ray disc looks better to my eyes. The disc's packaging confirms that the transfer was supervised by Richard Rush as well, so clearly it has the director's thumbs-up. If there's one misstep that SEVERIN Films has made here, it's up converting a couple hours’ worth of standard definition extras to 1080i. That needlessly gobbles up a lot of space that a film this gritty and grainy really needs. To make room for the pointlessly up converted extras, the 131 minute film is rendering of the film grain suffers as a result. I can't help but think more adept compression may have brought out at least a little more detail as well. For a case-in-point, look at how the grain clumps together and looks so excessively digital in the screenshot below.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Though the only soundtrack on this Blu-ray disc is a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio remix, it's respectful to the original sound design. The mix is weighted towards the front speakers, with effects like police sirens, whirring helicopter blades, biplanes soaring overhead, a sudden rush of water, and why not? Nazi-era chanting spilling into the surrounds. The pans across the soundstage aren't completely silky smooth, but they're effective enough. Bass response is solid when called for, such as the rumble of a motorcade and more than a couple of explosions. The score by Dominic Frontiere sounds particularly impressive, rendered with a fidelity and robustness that I never would've expected to hear. Dialogue and other sound effects don't pack quite as much of a wallop, but they emerge well enough. It does seem that the dialogue is dialled a touch lower in the mix than I would've liked, although I can't say I ever missed a line. This is a worthy remix and a strong showing overall.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Audio Commentary with writer-director Richard Rush, along with stars Peter O'Toole, Steve Railsback, Barbara Hershey, Alex Rocco, Sharon Farrell and Chuck Bail: This ‘THE STUNT MAN’ audio commentary track is a little easy to miss since it's only listed under "Audio Setup" and isn't mentioned at all under "Extras." It is well-worth those extra couple of clicks, though, showcasing a massive array of talent: Richard Rush, Peter O'Toole, Steve Railsback, Barbara Hershey, Alex Rocco, Sharon Farrell, and Chuck Bail. The audio commentary is pieced together from several different sessions, but there's still a good bit of interaction between the different speakers. There are no shortage of highlights here, including why the bookending classic car footage is sped up, Rush filming other people filming, unbeknown to them, which of the many directors Peter O'Toole has worked with over the years bears the greatest similarity to Eli Cross, director Richard Rush doubling as a hairdresser, the title of the film-within-a-film, and paying guests staying at the resort where planes were swooping down from overhead and WWI soldiers were shooting everything to holy hell. This audio commentary is overflowing with personality, and it's such an infectiously fun listen and well-worth setting aside the time to hear this superb audio commentary.
Special Feature: The Sinister Saga: The Making of ‘THE STUNT MAN’ [2000] [1080p] [1.78:1] [114:00] Don't think of “The Sinister Saga” as an extra; instead, look at this special feature as a double feature. A lot of making-of documentaries are content to just aim cameras at talking heads, but Richard Rush is too visually inventive and has far too keen a sense of humour to settle for that. Rush is very much the star of his own film this time around, and he's constantly on the move as he tells the story of how ‘THE STUNT MAN’ came together, be it zooming up a towering glass elevator, running 35mm film through the projector in his screening room, revisiting the resort where so much of the film was shot, or soaring however many tens of thousands of feet up in the air. The Documentary is teeming with crackling clever transitions, and rather than just cut away to an excerpt from ‘THE STUNT MAN,’ he'll...oh, I don't know, overlay it on the wing of an airplane. The Sinister Saga is just such a blast to watch, and it's made even better by the fact that the story that the documentary tells is every bit as fascinating. Richard Rush does a tremendous job setting the stage: an era where the concept of making a film about a stunt man was unfathomable, and where no studio in town wanted to bite on a project as uncommercial as that novel ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ he'd also gotten the rights to produce. Screenwriting, financing, casting, and the score are all explored in great detail...and always with several intriguingly insane stories to go along with them. Those walls being knocked down by the WWI-era tank...? That's the M-G-M back lot as it was prepped for demolition. All of the key members of the cast get a chance to contribute too, including Peter O'Toole who notes that a madman like Eli Cross wouldn't last a minute in this industry. Rush delves into how he pioneered what'd go on to be known as rack focus, his struggles with producers hell-bent on sabotaging ‘THE STUNT MAN,’ and how changes in the business made lining up a distributor so nightmarish, and how he ultimately had to shoulder so much of the film's promotion himself. “The Sinister Saga” might have been the first feature-length making-of documentary I'd ever watched when I first saw it ten years ago, and even with the thousand or so reviews I've churned out in the decade since, I don't think I've ever come across another one that can touch it as this is totally essential viewing. Contributors include: Richard Rush, Peter O'Toole, Steve Railsback, Barbara Hershey, Charles Bail, Sharon Farrell, Mario Tosi, Rona Barrett (archive footage), Lance Guest, Yang Lin and Regis Philbin (archive footage).
Special Feature: The Maverick Career of Richard Rush [2011] [1080p] [1.78:1] [34:00] Director Richard Rush delves in impressive detail into every one of the movies in his filmography, including making his debut with the teen abortion film ‘Too Soon to Love,’ calling in the Hell's Angels to fend off vengeful San Franciscan hippies during the production of ‘Psych-Out,’ mashing together a biker flick and cowboys-and-Indians with ‘The Savage Seven,’ and his press war that spun out of the debacle with ‘The Color of Night.’ It's not a straight ahead career retrospective, and Rush has a knack for finding at least one fascinating, completely unexpected story to tell about each of the films he's helmed over the years.
Special Feature: Peter O'Toole Recounts ‘THE STUNT MAN’ [2011] [1080p] [1.78:1] [19:00] I'm sure it goes without saying that by far the highlight of the newly-produced extras is this interview with Peter O'Toole. He weaves a number of tremendous stories while looking back on ‘THE STUNT MAN,’ including how getting the boot from his girlfriend put him on the path to starring in Richard Rush's film, the crossroads he was at as a middle-aged actor, mimicking an oblivious Richard Rush on the set while bringing the character of Eli Cross to life, pulling a prank on an actor who dozed off in the middle of the shoot, and how torrential rain and impatient producers threatened the filming of the films bookending sequences.
Special Feature: Devil's Squadron: An Interview with Steve Railsback and Alex Rocco [2011] [1080p] [1.78:1] [19:00] Real-life best friends Steve Railsback and Alex Rocco met on the set of The Stunt Man, and the two of them tell stories of Peter O'Toole reciting hyper vulgar renditions of Shakespeare to ducks, a symphony of dicks that once caught Steve Railsback off-guard on the other side of the camera, the huge names that Richard Rush turned down in favour of his preferred cast, a prank Rush pulled on the producers to show how serious he was about keeping his final cut, and the incredible critical reception of the film. Being such close friends and all, Steve Railsback and Alex Rocco also poke a lot of good-hearted fun at each other and talk about what their friendship has meant over the years.
Special Feature: Barbara Hershey on Nina Franklin [2011] [1080p] [1.78:1] [14:00] This terrific conversation with Barbara Hershey begins with a discussion about what makes ‘THE STUNT MAN’ in general and the character of Nina Franklin in particular so uniquely intriguing. Barbara Hershey dissects Nina Franklin as best anyone can for a character that in so many ways is elusive, and Barbara Hershey also marvels about working alongside Peter O'Toole, particularly a genuine burst of emotion that was captured on film.
Special Feature: ‘THE STUNT MAN’ at the New Beverly [2011] [1080p] [1.78:1] [17:00] Following a screening of the film, Richard Rush, Steve Railsback, and Barbara Hershey field questions from the audience. The three of them speak about how faithful the finished film is to the original screenplay, whether or not Richard Rush and Eli Cross have all that much in common, the excruciatingly long process of lining up a distributor, what it's like to work alongside a living legend like Peter O'Toole, and how warmly European audiences received the film. The casting of 'THE STUNT MAN’ and the structure of its story are also discussed.
Special Feature: Deleted Scenes [1980] [1080p] [1.78:1] [6:00] The first of The Stunt Man's two deleted scenes sees Eli slumping down on a pile of sand, his thumb in his mouth, while Sam gabs about how the once-brilliant screenplay he'd penned is losing its relevancy over time. The second scene has a gaggle of the film's crew turning a police station into a horn ball version of the Keystone Kops. It's worth noting that a third deleted scene is included exclusively as a part of “The Sinister Saga of Making The Stunt Man.”
Theatrical Trailers: Here included are the Teaser Trailer, Theatrical Trailer and Spanish Trailer of the Original Theatrical Trailers for the ‘THE STUNT MAN.’
SEVERIN Films Trailers: ‘Inglorious Bastards,’ ‘Shopping’ and ‘Santa Sangre’ [sadly they are all of such terrible quality].
Finally, in the end, ‘THE STUNT MAN’ is a totally amazing entertaining examination of perception and paranoia of the film industry. To me it is the essential classic film of its genre and is definitely well worth purchasing. There is so much to enjoy. This film has extensive layers and seems to have been overlooked by some of the major critics as the delightful cornucopia of adventure/love/escape that it offers viewers. The movie-within-a-movie themes are explored in kind of an abstract way that end up being both amusing and addictive. It has 'cult status' written all over it. The Blu-ray is an impressive package. A lot of love went into this edition and it makes for a very desirable purchase. We endorse! That is why it has gone in pride of place in my Blu-ray Collection and is totally awesome for any collector of brilliant intelligent character driven films and has been a massive favourite of mine ever since I had the Anchor Bay Special Edition DVD and now having it in the Blu-ray format, has given me the ultimate edition and will always give me many hours of entertaining viewing. Very Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
