The Movie
I remember Richard Rush's The Stunt Man being one of those real "It" movies when I was in high school, attracting a plethora of rave reviews typically reserved for rare, potential Oscar-winning blockbusters. Its greatest strength--and its ultimate downfall--might have been its blatant smarts. Here was a movie that handed the audience nothing, that instead forced us to think for two hours and ten minutes and dared us to talk about it even after the final credits.
The story follows Cameron (Steve Railsback), a fugitive who, having just eluded the cops once again, wanders into the middle of a movie location. Almost immediately, our perceptions of what we see versus what is actually happening are challenged, keeping us off balance almost to the point of paranoia, which perfectly puts us into Cameron's state of mind. He is convinced by flamboyant, wicked director Eli (Peter O'Toole in a brilliant, underappreciated performance) to alter his appearance and take the place of a recently deceased stunt man.
Eli is consumed by the demands of completing his latest film, a World War I epic, but is he willing to sacrifice Cameron's life for the sake of a shot? The young recruit is strong, brave, a quick learner and has nothing to lose, until he becomes involved with the alluring, disarming starlet (Barbara Hershey). With production wrapping imminently, and the police breathing down their necks, Cameron's next and most dangerous stunt might just be his last.
The Picture
The new 1.85:1 HD master is a huge step up from all versions I have previously seen, ideally capturing the look of Southern California circa 1980 including much of the original grain, along with a lot of detailed picture information. The colors might go a little wonky here and there, and the extent of the visible grain (and noise) might increase drastically in some shots, but the biggest problem might be the blacks, which don't always reproduce well in films of this era. They can be a hard, flat mass in many scenes, distracting from how good most of this transfer looks.
The Sound
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack is also a welcome improvement, with a newfangled directionality in the remix that serves particularly well the swooping helicopters and screeching cars. There is a gentle phasing between the speakers at times but also discrete voices or gunshots behind us. Bass is surprisingly strong. Dominic Frontiere's often extremely lighthearted score has also been expanded around the high-resolution multichannel soundfield in a lovely fashion. My only complaint is minor, that the dialogue is sometimes difficult to understand, but the problem seems to lie in the original performance/recording, not the disc, although we are given no subtitles to engage.
The Extras
The archived audio commentary is a must-listen, reuniting writer/producer/director Richard Rush and stars O'Toole, Railsback, Hershey, Alex Rocco, Sharon Farrell and Chuck Bail. Also ported from Anchor Bay's 2001 DVD is the 114-minute "Sinister Saga of the Making of The Stunt Man," which now folds in Rush's on-camera introduction to his movie, updated to 1080i resolution. It is fairly bursting with insight, interviews, deleted scenes and more, all very artfully assembled.
Brand-new and in HD are a slew of featurettes. "The Maverick Career of Richard Rush" provides a 34-minute overview, while "Peter O'Toole Recounts The Stunt Man" (about 19 minutes) catches up with the esteemed actor. "Devil's Squadron: An Interview with Steve Railsback & Alex Rocco" (also 19 minutes) reveals their enduring best-friendship begun on the project, and in "Barbara Hershey on Nina Franklin," the actress reflects upon her character with humble grace (14 minutes). We are also there for the Rush/Railsback/Hershey Q&A for "The Stunt Man at the New Beverly" theater screening (17 minutes). Spoiler alerts appear as needed.
And kudos to all involved for taking the time and trouble to remaster the six minutes of deleted scenes (completely different from those in Sinister Saga) and the three trailers in 1080p/24 high definition.
Final Thoughts
True, Academy Award nominations were happily bestowed for Best Director, Actor (O'Toole) and Adapted Screenplay (Rush adapted the novel by Paul Brodeur and the script was written by Lawrence B. Marcus), but the meager $7M box office haul suggests that audiences weren't quite ready for this sophisticated film. No matter, that's what home video is for, a second chance to discover lost gems such as The Stunt Man. And Serverin's outstanding new Blu-ray is the best version yet, by far.
Product Details
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