The Stunt Man

Twentieth Century Fox | Release Date: June 27, 1980

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

75	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Watch Now

Buy on

Stream On

Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

100

Jay Scott

The Stunt Man, which is scary and sorrowful and stirring and sexy - in other words, everything a big Hollywood popcorn-cruncher of a movie should be - is the best movie about making a movie ever made. [11 Oct 1980]

100

Mike Clark

Director Richard Rush's unique moviemaking saga is one of the consummate screen treats of its day, though its offbeat subject matter and tone caused it some problems. [23 Nov 2001, p.8E]

Michael Sragow

The Stunt Man is a bravura piece of moviemaking — a true popular work of modernist art. It makes the audience experience the uncertainty of the contemporary world in a visceral, often hilarious way. Read full review

David Ansen

It may be the most original American movie of the year. It's funny, fast literate and audacious. [01 Sep 1980, p.45]

Pauline Kael

A virtuoso piece of kinetic moviemaking. Working with material that could, with a few false steps, have turned into a tony reality-and-illusion puzzle, the director, Richard Rush, has kept it all rowdy and funny -- it's slapstick metaphysics.

Jason Henderson

O'Toole plays his seductive, grand, and dangerous director part as if this might be the role he wants to be remembered for. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

Lawrence B. Marcus's script, which pits real life against reel life, offers plenty of wit, with most of the bons mots handed to O'Toole. Read full review

Noel Murray

The Stunt Man still thrills as a witty, sly, action-packed mind game. Read full review

Nathan Rabin

It’s a carnivalesque lark whose brevity and gravity are both attributable to the remarkable, pitch-perfect performance of O’Toole. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Subtle, neurotic and multi-layered, every scene in The Stunt Man is about multiple things at once. Paranoia, obviously, but also the stress of filmmaking and simply living. Read full review

Dave Kehr

Pretentious, overenergized, muddled, intellectually bogus, and very entertaining for it. Read full review

Richard Schickel

A carnival of bang-up stunt scenes. which Richard Rush presents with marvelous subtlety. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

O’Toole is excellent in his best, cleanest performance in years. He smashingly delineates an omnipotent, godlike type whose total control over those around him makes him seem almost unreal. Read full review

Gary Arnold

Flawed and uneven, but vigorous and imaginative, The Stunt Man is a brash, whirlwind action comedy about the paranoid uncertainties of a fugitive who takes refuge with a movie company on location. [24 Oct 1980, p.B1]

Janet Maslin

The film's cleverness is aggressive and cool, and so its mysteries, though elaborate, remain largely uninviting. Read full review

Roger Ebert

A film that depends on deceiving us has got to play by its own rules. If we are going to be deceived in general, fine, but then we can't be cheated on particulars. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

A movie filled with gags and excellent stunts which remains curiously humourless at heart. Stunted, not stunning. Read full review