The Stunt Man (1980)

We’re back again to continue our journey through the featured Letterboxd Lists. This time we take a look at Edgar Wright’s 1,000 Favorite Movies. I have only seen 234 of those 1,000 movies, so that leaves us with plenty to choose from. Well, I scrolled at random and wound up stopping on…The Stunt Man (1980).

Title: The Stunt Man

Director: Richard Rush

Runtime: 2 hours 11 minutes

Released: June 27, 1980 (United States)

Available to stream on: Kanopy, Peacock, and Tubi

Cameron (Steve Railsback) is a combat veteran wanted for attempted murder. Cameron, still handcuffed, manages to successfully escape after the authorities apprehend him. Now on the run, he finds himself on a bridge when all of a sudden, a car appears to be running him down. Cameron avoids the car and when he turns back to look at where it came from, the car is gone.

Did it go over the bridge? Who was driving? And where are they now?

As Cameron continues on, he winds up stumbling onto a movie set. Not knowing where he is, he jumps in to save a drowning old woman. However, the woman he saved isn’t an old woman, it is Nina, (Barbara Hershey) the lead actress of the film in makeup and prosthetics.

Eli (Peter O’Toole), the film’s director, walks in and approaches Cameron. He explains to him that their last stunt man just drove a car off a bridge. They can’t find the body, but they also can’t afford to slow down production. So, Eli offers Cameron the role of stunt man on the film. Not only will this help Eli keep the film on schedule, but it also helps Cameron stay hidden from the authorities.

While grateful for an opportunity to avoid law enforcement, as Cameron learns the ropes as a stuntman, he begins to wonder what Eli’s true intentions are. The stunts seem to be getting more intense and increasingly more dangerous.

Just how much risk is Cameron willing to take in order to remain a free man?

Sometimes what you expect to get out of a movie and what you actually get are two completely different things. Such is the case with The Stunt Man (1980).

What I expected was an action movie about stunt men. What I got was a frustrating jumbled mess with a standout performance.

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, Peter O’Toole demands your attention as Eli. He is phenomenal in the role and really manages to get you to hate the character while also leaving you questioning his intentions.

While I enjoyed O’Toole’s performance overall, the portrayal isn’t quite as clever as it wants to be. Yes, blurring the lines between what is being done for the movie and what is being done for Eli’s own pleasure is effective…to an extent. However, it unfortunately reaches a point where there is no longer any cohesiveness, and it becomes frustratingly repetitive rather than cleverly deceiving.

A good portion of the stunts performed look great. Although, as the movie progresses, the stunts begin to become less and less believable. As the stunts became more impossible, unfortunately, they took me out of the movie, despite the committed performance from Steve Railsback.

While worthy of a watch, I don’t believe that The Stunt Man (1980) is one I’ll be frequently returning to.

Now it’s your turn!

If you’ve seen The Stunt Man (1980), tell me what you thought of it in the comments below or by reaching out to me on social media!

As always, you can keep up with everything else that I’ve been watching over on Letterboxd.