Richard Rush – 2000
Possibly taking a cue from Orson Welles’ self-hosted essay films F for Fake and Filming Othello, similarly unlucky director Richard Rush stars in this thorough and personal re-telling of The Stunt Man’s production history. Frequently claiming that he was the first filmmaker to do various things, like the rack-focus, Rush may create as many legends as he dispels. He quotes laudatory reviews that may or may not be real praising The Stunt Man as one of the most brilliant and revolutionary films ever made, yes, even comparing it to Citizen Kane. He accuses past films – Day for Night, Night Moves and Hooper – of poaching various ideas from his script during its long development period in the 70s. Seemingly smitten with quaintly dated video editing effects, Rush uses every trick in the book to keep the visuals diverting, never letting it become a typical talking-head/archival footage documentary. In many ways, it’s just as tongue-in-cheek and genre-defying as The Stunt Man itself. Rush comes off as mischievous and good-natured rather than brimming with resentment over the numerous missed opportunities that characterized his career. Still, there is an air of exigency coming through it all, as if, being unable to make any new films, he resolved to make this final argument to the world that his best-known film is much more of a groundbreaking masterpiece than it really is, but it’s an enjoyable, fascinating presentation all the same.
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