The Stunt Man (1980) on Netflix
Wanted for attempted murder, Cameron stumbles onto a World War I film set, where the director Eli Cross hires him as a stunt double. He falls for the leading lady.
- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb6.9/1011,829 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes90%
Trailer
Plot summary
Cameron, a Vietnam veteran out of police custody and wanted for attempted murder, crosses a bridge where a car nearly runs him down and a helicopter passes low overhead. He comes upon a movie crew staging a World War I battle, and when a woman in the water goes under, he dives in and pulls her out; she is the leading actress, Nina Franklin. Eli Cross, the director, descends on a camera crane and offers Cameron work. The production's stunt man, Burt, drove a car off a bridge and no body has been found, and Eli wants to keep the police from halting the shoot. Cameron takes the job, and Denise, the hair stylist, dyes his hair to look like the leading man, Raymond Bailey. The stunt coordinator Chuck trains him, and Cameron and Nina grow close.
Cast
- Jim Hessas Henry / Eli's camera assistant
- John Pearceas Garage Guard (as John B. Pearce)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Stunt Man (1980)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Warner Bros. was developing its own similarly titled film, The Stuntman, in 1976, so Richard Rush took the studio to Motion Picture Association of America arbitration; the ruling delayed The Stunt Man for years and forced Warner Bros. to rename its film Hooper (1978).
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer critic William Arnold saw The Stunt Man at Richard Rush's house, lobbied Pauline Kael and Gene Siskel on its behalf and wrote a feature to pack a Seattle test screening; the response won the film a forty-three week run at the Guild 45th Theater.
- Peter O'Toole said in his DVD commentary that he modeled his Stunt Man director, Eli Cross, on David Lean, the director who had put him in Lawrence of Arabia.
- Trans World Entertainment agreed to finance The Stunt Man with principal photography set to start in San Diego on October 17, 1977, but the production was canceled at the last minute when Richard Rush and Ely Landau could not agree on casting.
- After winning the Grand Prize at the 1980 Montreal World Film Festival, The Stunt Man was picked up for distribution by 20th Century Fox on November 3, 1980.
- Columbia Pictures held the rights to the novel behind The Stunt Man and considered Arthur Penn or François Truffaut to direct; both declined, but went on to fold elements of it into Day for Night (1973) and Night Moves (1975).
