Stay Hungry
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B- Film: B-
After a
landmark run with the BBS Production Company he founded and the end of the
Vietnam War, producer/director Bob Rafelson went over to United Artists and
came up with a light comedy called Stay
Hungry (1976). Though it is a fair
film, it is a big comedown from the important work he had been doing, but
everyone needs a change of pace.
Jeff
Bridges is the real estate investor Craig Blake, a young man from old money,
who originally intended to do a little urban renewal for profit, when he
discovers how interesting life is at a local gym he is ready to tear down. Sleeping with all kinds of women, including a
gymnast who may be his match (Sally Field), he befriends the best potential award-winning
bodybuilder in the gym (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and starts to turn on the idea
of destroying the gym and the people who have made it into much more. Fannie Flagg, still in her Match Game period, makes some cameos as
a local socialite with money.
As usual,
Rafelson knows how to cast a film and make it move, but this one is just not
that funny for a film that is supposed to be a comedy. He co-wrote the screenplay with author
Charles Gaines, who wrote the book the film is based on. It has not aged badly and is a curio on
Schwarzenegger’s role alone, which is part of the impetus for its DVD
debut. It is worth a look, but it is
recommended that you do not have high hopes for it. You will enjoy it better.
The film is
offered in both an awful pan & scan version of the film on one side, and a
better anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on the other that is an
improvement, but has major problems with the dark scenes in both cases. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is as clear as can
be expected for its age. The only extras
are commentary by Rafelson, Bridges and Fields, plus Rafelson’s on-camera
introduction to the film and the original theatrical trailer. That is better than usual for what might have
otherwise been a basic DVD release.
- Nicholas Sheffo
