blanche-2 I will right off admit that this film is not my type of thing. I watched it because I'm a huge fan of Peter O'Toole's. I found it difficult to follow and disjointed despite some really fascinating scenes and some very good acting.Steve Railsback plays a Vietnam vet named Cameron who escapes the police after he is caught for attempted murder. He crosses a bridge and dodges away from an old car that is out of control. The car disappears. Later on, he encounters a film about World War I being shot on the beach. The director is Eli Cross (O'Toole) who offers Cameron a job as a stunt man. It turns out that the stunt man was in the old car and drove the car off of the bridge as part of a scene being filmed, and drowned. The police are sniffing around, so O'Toole introduces Cameron as Burt, the missing stunt man, and the rest of the cast and crew play along.Cameron learns a lot about stunts (as do we) and he falls for the film's leading lady (Barbara Hershey) who at one time was involved with Eli. Cameron over time becomes increasingly paranoid and believes that the manipulative, kind of crazy Eli wants to kill him.O'Toole, Railsback, and Hershey are all excellent -- we first see Hershey in an old lady mask and clothing. Throughout the film, she is beautiful, silly, and flighty as Nina Franklin, and intense and committed as the character Nina plays. O'Toole is madcap, and doesn't seem to care what happens to anyone as long as he gets the shot he wants, and one can see how Cameron would be unclear about his motives.The print I saw didn't look particularly good - I wonder about the budget for this film. I think a good deal of the budget went to O'Toole and some of those amazing stunts, as the film has a lot of TV actors in it -- all good, but TV actors nevertheless: Alex Rocco, Sharon Farrell, Allen Garfield.This film is a little hard to follow, but it's a good one about the value of perception and how it can change from person to person. Also, the ending is very satisfying.

martinoldsberg This film seems to have generated quite a few positive comments. That says something, but not something good (cf H L Mencken on public taste). Disregard that praise, is my sincere advice. This is a stupid, poorly acted and generally lousy film, with a paper thin premise that implodes immediately.The actor Steve Railsback could be a candidate for some kind of All Time Bad, and he's got company here.Also, production qualities are generally of the B-movie standard. But if you like that and have a somewhat undeveloped aesthetic sensibility and the feeling that you're going to live for 300 years, go ahead.

Jeremy Benjamin This film works tremendously on all levels. It is a highly intelligent story about what is or is not real, while at the same time it is a fast-moving and spectacular stuntfest, with much clever and funny dialogue. Steve Railsback plays Cameron, who pretends to be a deceased stuntman who was a stand-in for an actor playing a First World War pilot. So one man (Railsback) is playing another (Cameron) playing another (deceased stuntman) playing another (actor in WW1 film) playing another (WW1 pilot): no wonder that in the world of the film set Cameron has trouble working out what is or not real! I have seen this film probably ten times, and every time I see something I missed before. It is absolutely enthralling, and though it has always had good reviews, it somehow always gets missed when lists of all-time great films are compiled. It is one of those movies which has many fans, and I always recommend it as a must-see, but most people just don't seem to 'get' this film, so it has not got as much recognition as it deserves.

rtcnz Right from the opening it had me taken in. The music, the shots, the action.The whole film is so taut, everything is so finely honed. It's a film about films, so it can't get away with any sloppiness. And it doesn't, it's perfect.The human side of it is touching, with the love story and the personal conflicts etc ... but the best part is the "tricks" this film plays, on its characters, but also on the audience. With Peter O'Toole as the great puppet-master, hovering in and out of shots dangling from a crane like the God he emulates.The 'stunt' sequences are legendary. I have purchased this film and it will be watched many times. To be honest I'm surprised that it has gone out of mass consumption, even after 27 years.Watch it. It ROCKS.