I couldn't wait any longer, or find a big enough gap in my diary to do a triple feature of all the lovely bounty from Australia that arrived last week. So with that in mind I squeezed in a quick viewing last night of Stunt Rock on Blu Ray from those wonderful little pups at Umbrella Entertainment. Question is, after the magnificence of one of the best trailers I've ever seen, could this film stand a chance of living up to that level of greatness? Is the film any good? Well, if you are mad enough to read my drivel (you really must be mad!) then I'll give you my opinion of the film in the next few paragraphs.
Let's start off with a reminder of the incredible trailer, which incidentally is available in full HD from a fresh rescan on the Blu Ray. And it looks excellent.
Before reading the rest of this verdict/drivel, feel free to go have a lie down, a cup of tea or something stronger and then come back and read the rest of this tripe, if you wish to. It's understandable after a trailer that good and that intense.
* INTERVAL *
Welcome back!
So, Stunt Rock is quite the piece of work and has quite the story behind it. A lot of which you will learn from the extras on the Blu Ray (which are long and plentiful). For starters, director Brian Trenchard Smith had the idea for the film while he was having a shower. He stopped mid-wash, sat at his kitchen table with a typewriter and a whole heap of cannabis (he does mention this in the introduction video to the film) and knocked out the script/treatment for Stunt Rock pretty much there and then.
It shows as well because the film is quite literally a compilation of stunts by Grant Page mixed in with live performances from the band Sorcery and tied together very loosely with a script that somehow stitches the sequences together in order to make it a feature film. The film is essentially a promotional vehicle for Grant Page and Sorcery, and Trenchard Smith is very open and up front about this. Especially around the fact the production company he did a deal with in the Netherlands gave him X amount of money and about 6 weeks to put the whole thing together.
What's also interesting is the cast for this film. There is of course Grant Page, celebrated stunt man, and Sorcery, the rock band looking for a real-life breakthrough moment. Then there is the supporting cast made up of Monique van de Ven, who plays herself as the star of a film that Grant Page is doubling as her in for some stunts. She has married twice in real life and interestingly was married initially to director/producer Jan de Bont (yes, he of Speed, Minority Report etc). The other main supporting actor is Margaret Gerard, who plays a reporter doing a piece on stunt work and what drives the actors to take up such a profession. An interesting bit of trivia here, Gerard is actually Brian Trenchard Smith's wife in real life. They've been married since 1975 and it's great to see them interviewed together for one of the extras on the Blu Ray disc. Oh, and Stunt Rock was also the first theatrical feature film for Phil Hartman. You may remember him from such TV series as The Simpsons...
What about the film itself? Well it's quite brisk and all over in a rather speedy 91 minutes. You'll probably need another half an hour to absorb everything you just saw though. To put it bluntly, this film is absolutely off it's head. It's nuts. Grant Page is an actual madman with planet-sized testicles of palladium. He is a total lunatic with absolutely no fear whatsoever. Given this was made in 1979 (plus some archival footage), a time when health and safety standards were nowhere near what they are on film sets today, some of the stuff you'll witness just beggars belief. I'll just rattle off a few sequences to whet your appetite. He wears a bomb suit and lays on top of a mine. He sets fire to himself about 20 trillion times, several times the stunt goes wrong and he just shrugs it off and says "will we go again?" while his leg is still audibly crackling. He climbs buildings and rock faces 'free solo' (aka, no wires or safety cables). He catapults himself (literally) off a cliff and over the sea. When asked "has this been done before?" he simply answers "no, but we think we have the calculations right". He flies a hang-glider that crashes (footage shown including the rescue) and says "I was down there a few minutes and almost drowned" and then says something along the lines of "we went again though, it's great up there in the air"
The man is nuts. Literally batshit nuts. I can add nothing further. He just is. The end.
The rockumentary/music part of the film is just as good and it beggars belief that a band who were playing Los Angeles in the 1970's and having Van Halen open for them didn't end up making it anywhere near as big as they should have. Their stage presence is absolutely immense, both musically with tracks like 'Wizard's Council' and 'Woman'being particularly good. Their stuff with regards Stunt Rock is hard to find as it's not all available on streaming services. I'll most definitely be tracking down an LP or CD of the soundtrack as it's absolutely excellent. What makes the band even better is the magic tricks performed on stage (and throughout the film too). There's some really clever stuff going on there and I imagine the pyro work for the band didn't come cheap either along with the stage mechanics. It may look a little dated and primitive today, but think back to the 1970's and imagine seeing this stuff while it was new and hot (pun unintended). Minds must have been blown from every conceivable angle!
The rest of the film is the cobbled together dialogue and scenes to stitch the whole thing together which, in all honesty isn't exactly award-winning material in either script or delivery. But it doesn't matter one bit because you are not here to watch some intricate plot delivered in the style of The English Patient or The Piano. You are here for absolutely insane stunts and very loud rock music. Nothing more, nothing less.
On this level Stunt Rock delivers in spades. I strongly recommend going in to this one by cranking the volume up as far as your home theatre will allow. Display the film on as big a screen as you can manage. Grab your favourite beverage and snack and literally dive in head first for 91 minutes of insanity, cobbled together with some talky moments in order to make it look like a coherent feature film when really it's a clip show and some awesome live music performances.
A quick word on the disc itself. The presentation is as good as it can be. I believe the original negative is presumed lost/destroyed (I need to double check that) so the scan is from the film elements I think. Again, need to double check that. The image is clean and reasonably clear, though a little soft with some of the 16mm stunt sequences. Sound is good but can be a little bit busy on the 2.0 DTS-HD MA track. The film was originally 6 track stereo and it's a shame that that isn't quite fully represented here. That said though you would be doing yourself a HUGE disservice if you played this at anything other than MAXIMUM VOLUME!
Stunt Rock isn't a great film because it's not 'a film' as such. Or at least it was never really the directors intention. It's quite literally 91 minutes of madness, and that's perfectly fine with me. Bravo to everyone involved with making this film. It's a unique entry in to the vault of cinema history.
And no, Jackass doesn't count. Enjoy, and PLAY IT LOUD!
SIDE NOTE:
If you want to buy the film, it's available direct from Umbrella here (and the first few copies come with a comic book adaptation of the film). You might also find it elsewhere to buy online but the prices seem a bit all over the place. I just went direct to Umbrella, who are awesome. No this isn't some influencer-riddled shout out garbage either.
Just a heads up, Camera Obscura in Germany are doing a brand new 4K UHD scan and release of Brian Trenchard-Smith's The Man From Hong Kong!
A lot of the stunts from that film were used in Stunt Rock. It's a great film too, I watched the Umbrella release I bought a few months ago which was excellent but now will certainly upgrade!
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Thanks list
