Richard Rush's blackly comedic, behind-the-scenes drama always keeps the viewer on the hop with its ever-changing character focus, plot-shifts and meta-references.
It all kicks off when two worlds collide, the fantasy world of movie-making with Peter O'Toole as the megalomaniacal director out on location making an anti-war film, which nonetheless seems to have an awful lot of shooting and explosions in it, with the real-life situation of an on-the-run young man, Steve Railsback, being pursued by the police. When he accidentally blunders his way onto the movie set, he's concealed from the inquisitive police by O'Toole who then adopts him as the film's new stunt man, his predecessor having apparently come a cropper in a stunt gone wrong which O'Toole is also keen to cover up. Apparently a natural dare-devil, Railsback quickly makes himself indispensable to the movie throwing himself into his new job, but did he himself witness the demise of the original stunt man as he coincidentally crash-landed into the dead man's shoes? Is O'Toole so obsessed with his movie that he would suppress the actual death of one of his crew? Not only that, he's effectively concealing a fugitive from justice in not turning Railsback over to the cops who come snooping around looking for him.
A chance encounter brings Railsback together with the leading lady of the feature, Barbara Hershey with whom he starts an affair but again there are wheels within wheels as he learns that O'Toole and Hershey previously had a fling. Feeling confused, jealous and manipulated, the new stunt man wants out, just before he's required to complete the climactic big set-piece of the film, unsurprisingly the dangerous underwater car-escape which claimed Eddy, his predecessor.
I must admit to bring confused for much of the time by the changing narrative even as I appreciate it was probably deliberate on the part of the director. I was certainly afforded some interesting insights into movie-making and especially the setting up of action sequences although I was less taken by the human stories played out in the backdrop.
O'Toole is suitably grandiose as the over-the-top , and here I'm guessing, Kubrick-esque director and I liked Hershey too as the love-interest but must admit I was rather underwhelned by the gauche performance of comparative newcomer Railsback in the title role.
A tricky film to follow, perhaps a little too smart and knowing for its own good but redeemed to some extent by O'Toole's Oscar-nominated performance plus I did enjoy the viewing experience which probably got me as close to being on the set of an actual movie as I'm ever going to get.
It all kicks off when two worlds collide, the fantasy world of movie-making with Peter O'Toole as the megalomaniacal director out on location making an anti-war film, which nonetheless seems to have an awful lot of shooting and explosions in it, with the real-life situation of an on-the-run young man, Steve Railsback, being pursued by the police. When he accidentally blunders his way onto the movie set, he's concealed from the inquisitive police by O'Toole who then adopts him as the film's new stunt man, his predecessor having apparently come a cropper in a stunt gone wrong which O'Toole is also keen to cover up. Apparently a natural dare-devil, Railsback quickly makes himself indispensable to the movie throwing himself into his new job, but did he himself witness the demise of the original stunt man as he coincidentally crash-landed into the dead man's shoes? Is O'Toole so obsessed with his movie that he would suppress the actual death of one of his crew? Not only that, he's effectively concealing a fugitive from justice in not turning Railsback over to the cops who come snooping around looking for him.
A chance encounter brings Railsback together with the leading lady of the feature, Barbara Hershey with whom he starts an affair but again there are wheels within wheels as he learns that O'Toole and Hershey previously had a fling. Feeling confused, jealous and manipulated, the new stunt man wants out, just before he's required to complete the climactic big set-piece of the film, unsurprisingly the dangerous underwater car-escape which claimed Eddy, his predecessor.
I must admit to bring confused for much of the time by the changing narrative even as I appreciate it was probably deliberate on the part of the director. I was certainly afforded some interesting insights into movie-making and especially the setting up of action sequences although I was less taken by the human stories played out in the backdrop.
O'Toole is suitably grandiose as the over-the-top , and here I'm guessing, Kubrick-esque director and I liked Hershey too as the love-interest but must admit I was rather underwhelned by the gauche performance of comparative newcomer Railsback in the title role.
A tricky film to follow, perhaps a little too smart and knowing for its own good but redeemed to some extent by O'Toole's Oscar-nominated performance plus I did enjoy the viewing experience which probably got me as close to being on the set of an actual movie as I'm ever going to get.