No Stuntmen Were Harmed in the Making of this Movie?: “The Fall Guy”

Back during my Roger Cormanyears, I went on location to help with the making of an Angie Dickinson flick,1974’s Big Bad Mama. Somewhat inspired by the success of Bonnie and Clyde,it’s about a mother/daughter Depression-era crime spree in the rural Southwest.As the story unfolds, a very game Angie gets up close and personal with bothWilliam Shatner and Tom Skerritt, and a good time is had by all.

 Though most of my days were spentat my desk, I was very much present for the stunt team’s biggest moment on thatfilm. Set on a quaint local street in the then-sleepy town of Temecula, California,it involved a car chase that results in the dramatic flipping over of a vintage!930s-era auto. Of course we all wanted to see our stunt guy roll that car, andso New World Pictures personnel were present in force for the big moment. Witha stunt such as this one, you don’t get more than one chance to do it right.And so we all held our breaths when the big moment came. Fortunately, the moviegods smiled down, and it all went beautifully. And so the successful driverunbuckled his safety gear and sauntered off to the local bar.

 I thought of that experiencewhile watching the new and delightful Ryan Gosling/Emily Blunt film, TheFall Guy. It certainly makes the case that there’s no business like showbusiness, and that stuntmen are a breed apart. I defy anyone to make sense ofthe plot of The Fall Guy. But why let a little thing like credibilitystand in the way of enjoying a wild and crazy story that includes every kind ofstunt you can think of, all of them taking place in and around beautiful Sydneyharbor? 

 The Fall Guy, loosely based on a TV series that ran from 1981 to1986, stars the ubiquitous Ryan Gosling as a stuntman named Colt Seavers, whosecareer threatens to be cut short by a serious miscue while he’s shooting a dramaticfall. Holing up to heal in solitude, he alienates his Own True Love, a would-bedirector named Jody, played with sass by Emily Blunt. But, while Colt is parkingcars to make ends meet, he gets a mysterious summons to take part in Jody’sdirectorial debut, a SFX-heavy space opera called Metalstorm. His job (match!)will be to double for star Tom Ryder, an arrogant macho-man type who likes topublicize the fact that he performs all his own stunts. (Yeah, right!) 

 Suffice it to say that thereare chases, and murders, and an evil plot to pin some dastardly doings on poor Colt.And there are also loads of extras milling around in kooky outer-space costumes.The whole thing reminds me of a different Corman flick, Battle Beyond theStars, for which Roger actually built a ramshackle studio to try making hisown threadbare Star Wars clone. (Both Battle Beyond and TheFall Guy actually boast a Space Cowboy character, which I choose to think issomeone’s personal Corman homage. Probably not, though director David Leitchhas graduated into directing from a long Hollywood career as a stuntman.) 

 One big difference betweenthe life of a stuntman today and in the Corman era: though we all love watching“practical” stunts that require athletic skill, not simply CGI trickery, thesedays it’s easy enough in post-production to paste a famous actor’s face on astuntman’s body. So stuntmen get no respect? Well, some in the Academy are nowcampaigning for a stuntman category at the Oscars.