The Stunt Man

I loved this film even before I met and worked with the man behind it, writer-director Richard Rush. Then I liked it even more as he regaled me with stories of the making of, and about working with mercurial Peter O’Toole. It’s about illusion and reality, and uses the metaphor of film wonderfully. Things happen that could never happen on a real film shoot, but it doesn’t matter. Richard is playing with your head, just like Eli Cross, the director of the film being made, is playing with Steve Railsback. It’s great fun, most of it shot in and around the fabulous Del Coronado hotel across the bay from San Diego, the same place where Some Like it Hot was filmed. O’Toole has a camera crane that he can use to drop in and out of a scene at will, and follow characters as they are walking. Godlike, indeed. In fact, as he says: “If God could do the tricks that we can do he’d be a happy man!”