STUNT ROCK (1978)
Directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith
Starring Grant Page

“There’s music! There’s magic! And stunts!”

So sums up the female lead of this one of a kind cinematic experience know as STUNT ROCK. A faux documentary about real life Australian stuntman Grant Paige, STUNT ROCK garnered considerable attention in cult film circles earlier this year when a trailer for it appeared on the TRAILER TRASH vol. 1. And, truth be told, the trailer is merely a glimpse of the insanity that dares to combine the reckless and the rocking.

Grant Page (renowned stunt coordinator, probably best know for MAD MAX) packs up his bags and heads to L.A. to visit his “brother,” a performer in the heavy metal outfit Sorcery. When his first stunt goes awry in Hollywood, Page attracts the interest of a blonde reporter who is determined to find out what makes this crazy stuntmen tick. Page is more than happy to show her the expressions of his unique knack, all the while making sure to catch a few Sorcery gigs. Yup, that is the plot of STUNT ROCK. But who needs plot when you have stunts! And rock!

Filmed in both Australia and Hollywood, STUNT ROCK is a true oddity of cinema. The stunt work is pretty daring, featuring some real fist clenching scenes. Page, a dead ringer for Richard Norton, performs a myriad of dangerous stunts, mostly just to say that he had done them (just performing stunts was cool back then). He flies planes, jumps from cars, drives a dune buggy and dangles over cliffs and high rises alike. A stunt gone wrong from MAD DOG MORGAN is highlighted to show how dedicated Page is to his art (he was severely burned but made it back to the set a few days later). “Art?” asks the naïve reporter to which Grant replies, “Ah! You’ve never seen GONE IN 60 SECONDS?” Yes, to solidify the idea of stunts as art, the production even includes several of the amazing (and groundbreaking) car chases from the original GONE IN 60 SECONDS. To counter the outlandish nature of the stunt work, the production features several over the top numbers by the heavy metal outfit Sorcery. In addition to their music, Sorcery presents an elaborate on stage show featuring theatrics that put 70s rivals KISS to shame. The narrative of their show is a battle between good and evil, essayed in a number of magic performances featuring Merlin combating the Devil onstage as the band sings. Given the amount of pyrotechnics used, I guess they qualify as stunts too. The two diverse worlds of stunt and rock finally coincide when Page joins the band on stage for a fire stunt and then Sorcery dedicates a song to Page entitled “Stunt Rocker.”

Exactly who this combination of music and mayhem was aimed at has never been determined. But in both cases the events captured on film are truly something that astounds. Director Brian Trenchard-Smith is no stranger to the world of stunts, having previously helmed the similar Page vehicle DEATH CHEATERS (1976) and the stunt laced Jimmy Wang Yu film THE MAN FROM HONG KONG (1975).

STUNT ROCK is one of the strangest, craziest and most fun movies I’ve seen in awhile. Only in the 1970’s could a film like this exist. What’s interesting is that Australian director Brian Trenchard-Smith, who went on to make the wild THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME ripoff TURKEY SHOOT and the hard-to-believe-it-really-exists LEPRECHAUN IN SPACE, went to the trouble to include a plot in STUNT ROCK, even though it really doesn’t need one.

Daredevils and stuntmen were very popular during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. On television, shows like THE DUKES OF HAZZARD, THE FALL GUY and THAT’S INCREDIBLE were supreme. Burt Reynolds had a huge hit playing a stuntman in HOOPER, which was directed by stunt veteran Hal Needham. And guys like Dar Robinson and Evel Knievel were folk heroes, constantly risking life and limb for the sake of doing something dangerous and crazy that no one had ever done before.

From the looks of it, Grant Page was the Australian equivalent of Dar Robinson, who held the record for the longest freefall into an airbag doing a helicopter stunt in HOOPER. Before Page became the stunt coordinator on MAD MAX, he went to Los Angeles to make STUNT ROCK, a viscerally exciting mixture of stunt footage and theatrical rock-and-roll. Page plays Grant Page, a stuntman from Down Under who goes to L.A. to work on the (fictional) TV series UNDERCOVER GIRL starring Dutch (!) actress Monique van de Ven. While in California, he meets up with his cousin, a member of the rock band Sorcery. Sorcery is similar to dozens of hard rock bands of the period, except for one thing: they performed magic on stage. Two of the band’s members didn’t play music at all; rather, in their guises as a wizened but good wizard and a demonic warlock, they performed highly theatrical magic tricks during the songs. Dangerous-looking ones too, judging from the amount of fire they used.

STUNT ROCK mostly bounces back and forth between Sorcery on stage and Page on his “stage”, performing several different stunts, such as freefalls, fire gags and car crashes. And when he runs out of stunts, Trenchard-Smith turns to film clips from movies like GONE IN 60 SECONDS and MAD DOG MORGAN. Every few minutes, the plot rears its head, focusing on Page’s platonic relationships with Monique and with Lois (Margaret Gerard), a reporter doing a story on stuntmen. The story isn’t much, but at least it provides brief respites between action sequences and rock songs. STUNT ROCK would make for a good double-bill with STUNTS, a mystery starring Robert Forster as a movie stuntman investigating the murder of his stuntman brother.

I can't remember now if it was THAT'S INCREDIBLE or a stand-alone special, but remember the footage shot of Dar Robinson getting ready for & executing his fall from the C.N. Tower in Toronto? The stunt was done for a Peter Carter movie called HIGHPOINT, but Robinson's stunt work often made its way onto THAT'S INCREDIBLE and he had a certain name-recognition factor unique among stunt men at the time. Burt Reynolds used him for a crucial stunt in SHARKY'S MACHINE, and later again provided him with the best scene in STICK - falling back from the apartment ledge while emptying his gun.

Grant Page also supervised the stunts for the Alvin Rakoff films CITY ON FIRE and DEATHSHIP. There's a wild stunt in CITY - a firefighter inside a building dropping backwards through the floor and into the conflagration that I've only seen done in this particular film. I wonder if it was Page himself handling the stunt.

Just to give a quick nod to Evel K. Those WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS editions featuring his insane motorcycle leaps (and crashes) were 70s staples, and not a one went out without them replaying slow motion footage of his wipeouts. It's nice to see that VIVA KNIEVEL, the film that brings Evel together with Marjoe Gortner, Leslie Nielsen, Lauren Hutton, Cameron Mitchell, & Gene Kelly, is due out on DVD this year.

It was a special episode of THAT'S INCREDIBLE that focused almost entirely on Robinson. IIRC the stunt in question was a "controlled-cable" fall that I think was supposed to be a re-creation of the one he had done for HIGHPOINT - part of the big deal was that this was the second(!) time he had jumped from the Look Out level of the CN Tower. The episode was rerun in '97 or '98 on the "CBC Eye on People" channel when they were showing three-hour blocks of THAT'S INCREDIBLE and REAL PEOPLE every weekday(lordy, do I miss that channel). It appeared in the interview segments with Cathy Lee Crosby and Robinson that she was one commercial break away from jumping into Robinson's lap! Must dig through my VHS stash to see if I still have that episode...

All hail Madman Films for releasing STUNT ROCK on a Region 4 DVD, so we can finally see this amazing film in widescreen for the first time on home video. If you've only seen the pan-and-scan VHS, you really haven't seen STUNT ROCK, because the split-screen sequences are so crucial to the thrills.

Among the disc's extras is THE STUNTMEN, a 1973 TV documentary directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith that shows Australian stunt guys, including Grant Page, preparing their gags. Trenchard-Smith, Page, and actress Margaret Gerard (also the director's professor wife) do a commentary track for STUNT ROCK too.

I don't think guys like Grant Page exist in the movie business anymore, and that's too bad.

I know Code Red is working on a US release for this. It should carry over all of the stuff from the R4 release and have even more extras.

Not to mention it was Code Red that made the 16x9 transfer that Madman Films used in the first place.

Any news on RAZORBACK or DARK AGE?

Madman also released THE MAN FROM HONG KONG on a Region 4 2-disc set, again with commentary by Trenchard-Smith and Page. It also has a couple of additional Trenchard-Smith documentaries and other extras. A great set for a film that is just as much fun as STUNT ROCK. Buy both for an asskicking double feature.

I received my copy of THE MAN FROM HONG KONG at the end of last month. It weren't easy to find; it's out of stock or on order at the Aussie shops I tend to use (including the one I lucked out and snagged my copy from). Seems a little quick for it to be out of print. I've dug around the Madman site and they no longer list it (or didn't when I looked at least). They list it now and apparently have plenty in stock.

It is indeed a very nice two disc set. Amongst the extras Marty mentioned are also two short films by Trenchard-Smith, HOSPITALS DON'T BURN DOWN and KUNG FU KILLERS.

I bought MAN FROM HONG KONG and STUNT ROCK from the same Australian eBay dealer. Neither was particularly expensive.

I tend to stay away from ebay; too easy to get burned, though I too have had successful dealings with an ebay 'store'.

It's odd that this thread got resurrected the day after I played it in the store.

I bought the film directly from a website that I assumed is the filmmakers. The print is in good shape and I have no complaints about it. I might need to investigate this more.

Finally got around to Code Red's DVD earlier this week. I enjoyed it, but honestly, is this the flimsiest premise for a film ever? It's a Grant Page infomercial with frequent random cutaways to live Sorcery concert footage. I thought it would have some semblance of a plot. Nope.

But you know, I'd be lying if I didn't admit STUNT ROCK has stuck with me the last few days. I haven't listened to either of the two (!) commentary tracks, but I'm sure Brian Trenchard-Smith can barely contain his Grant Page man-crush on both of them.

This is definitely getting played at my next movie night gathering. Then, and only then, will my friends and I be able to Cliiiimb the hiiiiighest heights!

Favorite line: "I'll write an article, and call it STUNT ROCK!"

Awesome.

Indeed, a classic line. Here is the song where that appears around the 1 min. mark:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocPOgh_yNUw

BTS definitely did have an admiration/mancrush/bromance on Grant Page. Before STUNT ROCK, they made the documentary Marty mentioned and DEATHCHEATERS, which stars Page and John Hargreaves. That one actually has a plot as Page plays a character but they work in lots of his stunt stuff. That bizarre dune buggy ride he has appears in this one. A decade later BTS made DANGERFREAKS, another documentary about stunt men that features Grant Page.

As well he should, since Page is the greatest badass who ever lived.