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Review: Hooper (1978)
He’s the best there is in a business where the risks are great but while he might be an accomplished stuntman, his days are numbered. Try as he might, he can’t put the injuries he’s sustained over the years away. All he can do is take an aspirin, get back on the set, and hope to cheat death another day. For as long as there’s a death-defying deed to be done, the stuntman is there to earn a paycheck while the star gets the adulation (and a bigger paycheck). That’s the life of a cinematic stuntman like Hooper (Burt Reynolds).
Reynolds and director Hal Needham, having previously teamed on last year’s comedy hit Smokey and the Bandit offer a light-hearted look at the world of unnamed film performers in this follow-up. For both have paid their dues working as stuntmen early in their careers.
Hooper’s tale unreels on and off the set. Currently he’s doing work on a James Bond spoof starring Adam West, who turns in an amusing cameo. On the set Hooper has to deal with the director (Robert Klein) over a stunt’s feasibility and the studio chieftan (John Marley, who previously played such a role in 1972s The Godfather) on whether the budget will allow for whatever stunt(s) Hooper devises and executes—and that’s just for starters.
He later finds himself dealing with the humane society to ensure a pooch isn’t put in possible peril. He finds competition in the form of the more youthful, more able-bodied thrillseeking rookie Ski (Jan-Michael Vincent) when the veteran daredevil takes part in a charity stunt show with his mentor (Brian Keith).
It might be best for Hooper to retire to his ranch with his girlfriend (Sally Field, Reynolds’ frequent co-star of late on and offscreen) before he buys the farm. For perhaps the first time in his career, Hooper finds he has to use his head for purposes other than wearing a helmet or devising a stunt that tops his previous feat; and the wrong decision might make his career history and possibly an opening line in his obituary.
Hooper is altogether somewhat hokey yet it’s got charm. Reynolds does nothing more than a virtual reprise of his role as the rubber-burning outlaw of Smokey and the Bandit but he’s likable. The collection of stunts themselves are a sight to behold as here we see what goes on in preparing for the onscreen endeavors done by largely unknown thrillseekers for decades and hopefully for several decades more.
Robert Baum is Currently a Bryn Mawr, PA-based film afficanado and pop culture junkie.
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