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#45 - Stay Hungry
Bob Rafelson, 1976
A directionless rich kid (Jeff Bridges) is sent to acquire a small gym as part of a real estate deal but instead befriends the local characters and becomes conflicted over whether to side with the other wealthy hustlers or with his down-to-earth new friends.
I have in my possession a six-DVD pack containing a number of Arnold Schwarzenegger films. Five of them are standard action-packed vehicles like Commando, Predator and The Terminator...and then there's this. Directed by the same guy who did Five Easy Pieces, it features Schwarzenegger in a supporting role as - surprise, surprise - an Austrian bodybuilder who aspires to become Mr. Universe. While I have to respect the fact that whoever put together this DVD pack would do something as unorthodox as including such a film on this DVD (surely leaving a lot of action fans baffled in the process), it doesn't guarantee that the resulting film is any good.
For starters, there's the fact that you can easily guess how Bridges' character's arc will turn out. His tense relationship with his so-called friends boils over as he befriends Schwarzenegger and begins a tumultuous relationship with Sally Field's gymnast. There's the usual complications as he is torn between unlikeable rich people and his simple but likeable new friends. Field's character, on the other hand, doesn't get much to do outside of her relationship with Bridges' character. Schwarzenegger gets some bizarre developments - we are introduced to him as he exercises while wearing a mask and hooded cape, then we see him playing bluegrass on a violin on a couple of other occasions. It's a bizarre side to Schwarzenegger that is only emphasised by the fact that his underdog narrative is still overshadowed by Bridges' dilemma.
Stay Hungry is a chore to sit through. Even the sight of Schwarzenegger pretending to play violin isn't enough to generate the slightest amusement despite the film supposedly being a dramedy. It doesn't help that, after an hour or so of this sort of tiresome "rich kid rediscovers himself with help of poor people" narrative, there's an irrelevant and unsettling scene involving a couple of gym staff mistreating some sex workers and eventually
and this plays out against the climatic bodybuilding contest that ultimately devolves into a bunch of musclebound men in Speedos running around in the streets that is clearly being played for laughs. The tonal inconsistency is enough to give you emotional whiplash a few times over and makes me really question this film's intentions. It's not funny, it's not engaging - if anything, the only thing I take away from this film is a very problematic treatment of its female characters in the face of a very uninteresting storyline. I can't believe this came from the same director who made Five Easy Pieces. What a mess.
Bob Rafelson, 1976
A directionless rich kid (Jeff Bridges) is sent to acquire a small gym as part of a real estate deal but instead befriends the local characters and becomes conflicted over whether to side with the other wealthy hustlers or with his down-to-earth new friends.
I have in my possession a six-DVD pack containing a number of Arnold Schwarzenegger films. Five of them are standard action-packed vehicles like Commando, Predator and The Terminator...and then there's this. Directed by the same guy who did Five Easy Pieces, it features Schwarzenegger in a supporting role as - surprise, surprise - an Austrian bodybuilder who aspires to become Mr. Universe. While I have to respect the fact that whoever put together this DVD pack would do something as unorthodox as including such a film on this DVD (surely leaving a lot of action fans baffled in the process), it doesn't guarantee that the resulting film is any good.
For starters, there's the fact that you can easily guess how Bridges' character's arc will turn out. His tense relationship with his so-called friends boils over as he befriends Schwarzenegger and begins a tumultuous relationship with Sally Field's gymnast. There's the usual complications as he is torn between unlikeable rich people and his simple but likeable new friends. Field's character, on the other hand, doesn't get much to do outside of her relationship with Bridges' character. Schwarzenegger gets some bizarre developments - we are introduced to him as he exercises while wearing a mask and hooded cape, then we see him playing bluegrass on a violin on a couple of other occasions. It's a bizarre side to Schwarzenegger that is only emphasised by the fact that his underdog narrative is still overshadowed by Bridges' dilemma.
Stay Hungry is a chore to sit through. Even the sight of Schwarzenegger pretending to play violin isn't enough to generate the slightest amusement despite the film supposedly being a dramedy. It doesn't help that, after an hour or so of this sort of tiresome "rich kid rediscovers himself with help of poor people" narrative, there's an irrelevant and unsettling scene involving a couple of gym staff mistreating some sex workers and eventually
WARNING: "Stay Hungry" spoilers below
Schwarzenegger's corrupt and coked-up manager, after having already gone to work on the sex workers, attempts to rape Sally Field's character
and this plays out against the climatic bodybuilding contest that ultimately devolves into a bunch of musclebound men in Speedos running around in the streets that is clearly being played for laughs. The tonal inconsistency is enough to give you emotional whiplash a few times over and makes me really question this film's intentions. It's not funny, it's not engaging - if anything, the only thing I take away from this film is a very problematic treatment of its female characters in the face of a very uninteresting storyline. I can't believe this came from the same director who made Five Easy Pieces. What a mess.