Steve Railsback, Peter O’Toole and Barbara Hershey headline the genre-defying film, The Stuntman, that sees a fugitive finding a place to hide… on a film set.

Railsback is Cameron who is on the run from the police, seen in a wonderfully extended opening sequence that lays out a whole bunch of narrative threads before tying them together. He stumbles across a film set run by the tyrannical and manipulative Eli Cross (O’Toole).

When he’s accidentally involved in the death of a stuntman, Cross agrees to keep it quiet (which allows his film to keep going) if Cameron takes on the role of stuntman. Under the coaching of Chuck (real life stunt coordinator Charles Bail), he learns some of the ropes, but things get complicated really fast.

The local police, led by Jake (Alex Rocco), are helping to run down leads, and getting in Cross’ way, and Cameron finds himself falling for the film’s leading lady, Nina (Hershey).

The film, within the film, is a World War I picture, and Cameron soon finds himself in a number of troubling situations, falls, planes, explosions, reshoots, edits, and a number of twisted behaviors permeating the set.

Filled with lots of movie magic, the film is satirical, smart, and features wonderful performances, as the story rockets along, and Cameron begins to feel he’s trapped all over again. A Vietnam vet, he’s haunted by his past, a part that ties into his crime, and though not explored is definitely a commentary on how America treated its vets from that war.

The film found itself nominated for three Academy Awards, Best Picture, Best Actor (O’Toole) and Best Adapted Screenplay. It didn’t take any of them, but it’s amazing that a film is so smart, so expansive, and with such a keen eye on filmmaking seems to have kind of disappeared.

I loved all the behind the scenes stuff, the crane work, the big lights, the set-ups, the work involved to bring the illusion that is film to life. And wow that ending!!

I only found it by chance, and remembered seeing the poster for it when I was a kid, so I figured why not? And what a ride! And again, it reminds us that yes, the Oscars need a stunt category. It’s ridiculous that they aren’t given the credit they deserve.

I love movies about movie-making and stunts are just to much fun to watch, not just the actual event, but the prep that goes into making them look dangerous, but keeping things as safe as possible.

This one was great. And O’Toole – amazing.