Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is touted as a possible lead for a rumoured remake of Lee Majors’ 1980s TV show THE FALL GUY, the tale of Colt Seavers, a bounty hunter-cum-stuntman who goes after key crime figures whilst leaping from building or horse.
However, it was Hal Needham and Burt Reynolds who followed up the blockbuster success of their 1977 road comedy SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT with what remains the affectionate and definitive Hollywood tribute to that unsung hero of the big-screen, the Stuntman.
Sonny Hooper (Reynolds) is an ageing veteran of the big fall who has become co-ordinator on a brand-new James Bond blockbuster in the works, under the watchful eye of a egotistic and inconsiderate director, Roger Deal (Robert Klein), as well as his sycophantic weasel of an assistant Tony (Alfie Wise).
He has a good home life, with girlfriend Gwen (Sally Field), whose own father Jocko (Brian Keith) is even older than Sonny and does like a good punch-up, which comes to the fore during a punch up with some SWAT convention attendees at their regular watering hole, The Palomino Club.
However, Sonny is facing competition from brand-new hot blood, Ski (Jan-Michael Vincent, AIRWOLF) who impresses the hell out of the crowd at a weekend stunt show when he parachutes, then unclips the parachute before landing in an airbag. Sonny decides to use him on the production, but Roger has plans for the greatest stunt ever amidst ‘the biggest earthquake ever’. When Ski suggests taking a rocket car over a gorge after blowing up the bridge across it, logistics and mortality begin to creep in….
For decades, actors and film-makers have lobbied hard for an Oscar category dedicated to the stuntman – and in an age of digitally-minded creativity where it seems to be easier to simulate a stunt rather than perform it, some argue that the day of the live stunt performer is past. However, there is something all the more impressive seeing a stunt performed in real time in real circumstances. The CIRQUE DU SOLEIL shows do give a sense of the daring that physically-minded performers thrive on.
Over forty years on from its’ debut at the box-office, HOOPER represents Burt Reynolds at his incomparable best and reflects a time when the late star was the Number One Box-Office Star in the World, only rivalled by Clint Eastwood in terms of broad appeal.
The stunt-work is spectacular (the climactic stunt sequence is still one of the most incredibly staged and filmed of all time, but it is backed up by equally involving humour (the scene where Hooper drives his truck backwards down a freeway and how he deals with the motorcycle cop is another stand-out) and a sense that these guys like to have as much fun as the stars they make look even better on screen. As Harrison Ford once pointed out ‘I don’t do stunts – I do physical acting. Vic Armstrong (his double in the INDIANA JONES films) does the stunts’
It’s high time we had another film like it.