A fugitive stumbles onto a movie set just when they need a new stunt man, takes the job as a way to hide out and falls for the leading lady while facing off with his manipulative 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."