Comments on: The Stunt Man (1980)

By: Steve W

Steve W — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:10:28 +0000

Digging through your vaults, was sorry to see that you trashed this one–one of my very favorite movies, having seen it in my impressionable late teens. I’d say the film is much more playful, quick-witted, and self-deflating than you give it credit for (it moves too quickly and has too many satirical curlicues to be “bloated by its own genius”). Yes, it’s fanciful–stunt sequences are not really shot that way. (But really, actresses having affairs with bad-boy crew members is “laughable”? Happens all the time.) The whole movie pretty obviously takes place in a slightly skewed, deliberately disorienting, magical-realist movie-movie universe. It’s meant to be dizzying, and getting hung up on how much time Eli spends in a crane kind of misses the point. I guess you either give into the spell of this one or you don’t. I do think some of the high-flying action sequences are pretty wonderful, and O’Toole’s performance is for the ages.

By: Victor Vacendak

Victor Vacendak — Sat, 15 May 2010 19:20:01 +0000

Glad to know I wasn’t the only one who found this film obnoxious and poorly-aged.

By: Joe Valdez

Joe Valdez — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 04:21:29 +0000

I started blogging about movies so that in ten years, I’ll be able to remember all of these flicks I’m renting, the plots, and what I liked or didn’t like about them.

Repo Man was one I thought was incredibly dumb, but I have a feeling it might improve with age. Perhaps The Stunt Man will too. Some cult classics seem to have that effect.

Thanks for your comment, and the add, Moviezzz!

By: Moviezzz

Moviezzz — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 01:24:48 +0000

THE STUNT MAN is probably in my top 50 of all time. But, I can honestly say that I’m not surprised by your reaction. It takes a few viewings to really get into it, as it is a very different style of film.

Peter O’Toole’s performance is one of my favorites. And you didn’t like the score??? That is one of my favorites. I even have the record of it, and listen to it quite often.

Give it ten years, and watch it again.