BY TODD GARBARINI
Film director Richard Rush, perhaps best known for
his unorthodox and original 1980 film The Stunt Man, passed away in Los
Angeles, CA on Thursday, April 8, 2021 just one week shy of what would have been
his 92nd birthday following years of health issues. He is survived
by his wife of 48 years, Claude (née Claude Cuveraux); his son, Anthony; and
his grandson, Shayne.
Mr. Rush was born on Monday, April 15, 1929 in New
York City and broke into the film industry through the UCLA film program and
later worked for producer and director Roger Corman as the co-writer and
director of Too Soon to Love (1960), alternatively titled High School
Honeymoon, about high school sweethearts who go all the way and the girl
ends up pregnant. This was heady subject matter for the time and Jack Nicholson
has a small role in the film. Of Love and Desire (1963), a sexually
charged film, followed. Hells Angels on Wheels (1967) had Jack Nicholson
as part of a motorcycle gang, and Thunder Alley (1967) starred Annette
Funicello and Fabian. Another teen, heartthrob Tab Hunter, starred in The
Cups of San Sebastien (1967) as a religious artifact thief. A Man Called
Dagger (1968) featured Terry Moore in a film about a scientist’s attempts
to revive the Third Reich. Psych-Out (1968) was a far-out psychedelic
trip about a hearing-impaired runaway searching for her brother in San
Francisco, with Jack Nicholson again along for the ride.
Mr. Rush ended the Sixties with crazy bikers in The
Savage Seven (1968) and began the Seventies with the counter-culture film Getting
Straight (1970), a comedy-drama with Elliott Gould and Candice Bergen. 1974’s
Freebie and the Bean pitted Alan Arkin and James Caan against crime as
cops, one of the earliest buddy/cop films, but it was his ambitious film interpretation
of Paul Brodeur’s 1970 novel of the same name that captivated filmgoers. Years
in the making and the victim of a poor advertising campaign and minimal
distribution, The Stunt Man pits an escaped convict named Cameron (Steve
Railsback) into the middle of an action sequence that is actually the set of a
war movie, unexpectedly causing the death of the stunt man of the film within
the film. The director, Eli Cross (Peter O’Toole), then puts Cameron in the
film, specifically in all sorts of dangerous situations, in order to get truth
onscreen. Cross’s manipulation of Nina Franklin (Barbara Hershey) is
exceptionally cruel. The film is a litmus test for audiences as we have to keep
track of what is real and what is in the reel – reality as opposed to the
movie-within-the-movie. I see the film as a challenge and it’s a rewarding
experience.
Mr. Rush was a true maverick director and was
nominated for both a co-writing and directing Academy Award, as was Mr. O’Toole
for his performance of the out-of-control director. Despite not getting the
wide audience that it deserved, The Stunt Man lives on in the world of
home video.
Mr. Rush’s last film was Color of Night with
Bruce Willis and Jane March in 1994.