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The Stunt Man (1980)
Rate:
2
Viewed:
5/14
5/14:
When I saw The Stunt Man, it felt like a bad Robert Altman picture.
This one has it all: awful acting, nonsensical lines, fake characters, "avant garde" camera techniques, slow pace,
gimmicky scenes, and a nowhere plot. Everybody is either putrid or pretentious when it comes to acting.
Peter O'Toole's character is full of himself. Steve Railsback is too spooky to look at and has the worst acting
skills I've seen since Brad Dourif. Barbara Hershey is so bad that she eventually did
Frogs for Snakes.
Don't be fooled by the adulation on the DVD cover. Honestly, what were the critics thinking in 1980? At least, the
movie within the movie is worse because it makes no sense whatsoever. The following is illuminating which is
according to IMDb:
"Director Richard Rush has said of this movie in a 2001 interview with Paul Hupfield: 'I was lecturing at a university
film school to a bunch of potential film students and asked them if any of them had seen my films. I started with
Color of Night, and I'd say about 80 hands went up out of a room of about 200 kids. Then I asked if anyone had seen
The Stunt Man, the film I actually wanted to talk to them about, and only two hands went up. Two hands in a room of
200! I thought, 'Oh boy, my film is totally lost on this generation...'"
Absolutely. Why would they know about it? I seriously had no idea this movie existed until spotting it on a lonely shelf
at the library. By the way, Richard Rush has a scanty oeuvre, directing only two(!) films since 1980 but none after 1994.
All in all, The Stunt Man...count me out.