Ruzzells Rambles: Stay HAAAAAAANGRY!

Welcome film fans, to the latest installment of the Arnold Schwarzenneger film project! It is still happening, it will not be stopped! It probably wont be complete either, I'm sure I'm missing movies. I have NOT missed one yet though! So let's take a look at the mighty Arnold's next film after not doing anything in The Long Goodbye.

Stay Hungry (1976)

Now we get a proper Arnold movie! Not only is he the co-star, he stars opposite “The Dude” himself, handsome young Jeff Bridges! Not only does he star opposite The Dude, but he’s trained by Robert “Freddy Kruger” Englund! That’s right, it’s The Terminator, The Dude and Freddy all in a movie together! Clearly this is potentially the greatest movie of all time! It could of been if it was made in the year 2000, but it was not. So what is it?

It’s the story of a recently orphaned rich young fellow played by Bridges who’s looking to buy out The Olympia gym to complete a business deal. Then he gets hooked on body building and the receptionist. Arnold basically plays himself, a patron of the gym who’s training for the Mr. Universe title. Arnold does not play himself in that he is a crazy likeable sweet heart instead of a crazy likeable egomaniac. His character is charming, humble, sweet and basically the guy you want to be buddies with. He even plays the fiddle at a country dance! A roll very far removed from the wise cracking tough guys he will end up playing. Arnold is so good, he won Best Acting Debut at the Golden Globes for this performance. Hard to believe isn’t it? Mono-sylabic AHHHHNOLD getting a best acting award! Oh what could of been- Arnold Schwarzenegger as Hamlet! And on his third film, not his debut Hercules In New York! They must of fell in love with his voice since this was the debut of it on screen. He was dubbed in Hercules and didn’t speak in Long Goodbye. Remember? Have you not been keeping up with these? Go read those reviews already!

The movie itself is pretty great with only one miss-step. It’s directed by Bob Rafelson, who’s not very active now a days, but was responsible for the amazing character study Five Easy Pieces that solidified Jack Nicholson as a major actor after Jack’s coming out in Easy Rider (which Rafelson produced). Not only that, but Rafelson was co-creator of The Monkees, and the director of their criminally unappreciated movie Head. The man should surely be Sainted for bringing the world the gift of The Monkees. Why is the Catholic Church so unfair? Anyways, this film is more in the Five Easy Pieces vein then Head, and is pretty damned fine. None of the characters behave in the way you would think based on stereotypes. It has a comedic element that stays naturally subdued until it sadly goes out of line with a slapstick sequence of body builders running loose in Birmingham (Alabama) to goofy music. It’s a big miss-step, especially considering the cause (I wont ruin it since it's an important plot point that's really miss-handled in this sequence), but not enough to ruin the movie. So this one gets a hardy recommend. I’m surprised I’ve never seen it before, what with the cast and all. This is a great find!

Oh, the film also has Sally Field in it. She plays the receptionist. I’ve never liked her, she’s the type of person where just the look of their face annoys you. For me anyways. She was good in this too. That’s how good this film is!

4 out of Five Arnies.

There it is, a dead solid comedy/drama featuring Arnold that was born out of the new Hollywood ashes that was BBS. What's BBS? Why not buy the boxset and find out. It get's 5 out of 5 by me, even though Arnold Schwarzenneger isn't in it.