directed by Richard Rush (1980)
It starts off with a buzzard hanging around on a pole watching a yellow dog licks his privates. I'm guessing the buzzard is the audience and the dog is Hollywood, something like that.
The movie is not very good in terms of being a believable story; it's more an arty pastiche of moviemaking. As long as you're ok with over the top performances and general craziness, it's entertaining as hell, and a pretty great look at behind the scenes action too. You get to see crane set ups, action sequences outta control and gone wrong, while a helicopters totes a camera are all over the place. Peter O'Toole in his camera crane is like a mad scientist in his robot creation, overseeing his minions, the dues ex machina hand of god, manipulating everyone in order to get his movie in the can.
Truthfully, the story is really silly, it involves a escaped prisoner or guy with a warrant, (Steve Railsback), I forget why this guy was on the run from the law, but he is, and O'Toole takes him in hiding him among his crew, as a replacement for a stunt man who's gone missing. Dude needs a place to duck out from the man, and the director needs to finish his movie....by any means necessary! O'Toole is making an antiwar film but it looks trite, lots of battle scenes, and tragic love storiness, but mostly explosions and scenes needing mucho stunt work. It's a fun watching the stunt work, and there's some good dialogue too. This bit from O'Toole sums up the message of the flick pretty well.
"We're shaking a finger at them Sam, and we shouldn't. If you've anything to say, it's best to slip it in while they're all laughing and crying and jerking off at all the sex and violence. You should do something outrageous!"
It was nominated for 3 Academy Awards: best director, best adapted screenplay, and best actor for Peter O'Toole. It won a Golden Globe for best score.
I liked the movie, and the director says it's about perception, so watch it with an open mind and see what you make of it.
