Hooper (film)
| Hooper | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Hal Needham |
| Produced by | Hank Moonjean |
| Written by |
Thomas Rickman Bill Kerby Story by: Walt Green Walter S. Herndon |
| Starring |
Burt Reynolds Jan-Michael Vincent Sally Field Brian Keith Robert Klein James Best |
| Music by | Bill Justis |
| Cinematography | Bobby Byrne |
| Edited by | Donn Cambern |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release dates | July 28, 1978 |
Running time | 99 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6 million[1] |
| Box office | $78 million[2] |
Hooper is a 1978 American action comedy film directed by Hal Needham and stars Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jan-Michael Vincent, Brian Keith, Robert Klein, James Best and Adam West. The film serves as a tribute to stuntmen and stuntwomen in what was at one time an underrecognized profession.
Plot
Sonny Hooper (Burt Reynolds), known as "Hollywood's Greatest Stuntman", is the stunt coordinator on an action film directed by Roger Deal (Robert Klein). Hooper's antics and wisecracks are a trial for the egotistical director and his officious but cowardly assistant, Tony (Alfie Wise). Years of physical abuse from the job are fast catching up with Hooper, and the numerous stunts (referred to in the movie business as "gags") and his use of painkillers are beginning to take their toll. Sonny lives with girlfriend, Gwen Doyle (Sally Field). Her father Jocko (Brian Keith) is a retired stuntman.
Hooper is dragooned by a friend into performing at a charity show, where he meets Delmore "Ski" Shidski (Jan-Michael Vincent), a newcomer who makes his entrance with a spectacular stunt. Sonny and Ski become friends after a barroom brawl with a pack of rowdy policemen. He invites Ski to work with him on the film. They begin a friendly rivalry in which the spectacle and danger of their stunts escalates. After a freefall from a record 224 feet, Sonny becomes more aware of his own mortality. He secretly consults with his doctor, who warns Sonny that one more bad fall could render him quadriplegic.
Unhappy with the writer's ending to the film, Roger decides to add a climactic earthquake as the finale, complete with explosions, fires and numerous car crashes. Sonny and Ski would race through the carnage to a nearby gorge, where the bridge explodes before they can cross it. Roger's concept has the duo rappel down one side of the gorge and up the other to safety, but Ski proposes they jump a car over the gorge. When someone points out that no car could jump the 335 foot gap, Hooper suggests that a rocket-powered car could. Roger loves the gag, and he ignores warnings that Sonny and Ski might not survive the landing even if the car lands on its wheels. Sonny persuades Tony, sent to negotiate a lower price for the gag, to pay him and Ski a $100,000 bonus due to the danger involved.
Jocko suffers a stroke, but he denies the gravity of his condition. Seeing the elder stuntman in the hospital prompts Sonny to promise Gwen that he will quit the business after the film wraps.
Sonny learns from his friend and assistant, Cully (James Best), that Roger is downsizing the crew to pay for the final gag. Cully, unaware that Hooper has kept the gag and his health status secret from Gwen, speaks openly about both in front of her. She is horrified. Hooper tells Roger that he is backing out of the gag, but Sonny's friend, producer Max Berns, convinces him to reconsider—no qualified stuntman is willing to replace him. Gwen threatens to leave Sonny if he agrees to do the gag. Sonny reluctantly decides that he has cost too many people their jobs, and he must go through with it.
Sonny and Ski perform the first part of the gag perfectly. Arriving at the bridge, they find that they lost rocket pressure and decide to do the jump anyway. The rocket car overshoots the prepared landing area and lands hard on the far side of the gorge. Ski emerges from the car on his own, but the impact is more of a shock to Sonny's system. Gwen tearfully pushes her way through the gathering crowd as the chief engineer extracts Sonny from the wreckage. Sonny slowly comes out of his unconsciousness and takes Gwen in his arms.
Sonny knocks out Roger with a single punch. He, Gwen, Ski, Cully and Jocko walk off the set.
Cast
- Burt Reynolds as Sonny Hooper
- Sally Field as Gwen Doyle
- Jan-Michael Vincent as Delmore "Ski" Shidski
- Brian Keith as Jocko Doyle
- Robert Klein as Roger Deal
- John Marley as Max Berns
- James Best as Cully
- Alfie Wise as Tony
- Adam West as Himself
- Terry Bradshaw as Brawler
Production
It was rumoured the director character in the film was a send-up of Peter Bogdanovich, who had made two films with Reynolds.[3]
The "destruction of Los Angeles" sequence that concludes both The Spy Who Laughed at Danger and Hooper was filmed in the Tuscaloosa, Alabama area, with all but the final rocket car jump staged at the by-that-time-disused Northington General Hospital, a World War II military hospital near the University of Alabama. The huge stunt sequence was referred to by the crew as "Damnation Alley."[4]
The rocket car jump took place on US Highway 78E between Jasper, AL. and Birmingham, AL. The bridge was in the process of being demolished due to damage from a traffic accident.[5]
Reaction
Hooper enjoyed moderate success at the box office; it was one of the top ten films of 1978, but ultimately the film was deemed a letdown in comparison to Reynolds' Smokey and the Bandit, second only to Star Wars in box office gross the year before. Hooper grossed $78 million domestically,[2] nearly 40% less than the gross of Smokey in 1977 ($126 million).[6]
The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound for (Robert Knudson, Robert Glass, Don MacDougall and Jack Solomon).[7]
"Blooper reel" credits
Hooper was also one of the first movies to make use of the blooper reel credit crawl. The technique, originated by Needham, showed a smaller screen of outtakes from the film to one side while the film's credits scroll slowly up the other side. Needham refined this technique for later films such as Smokey and the Bandit II and the Cannonball Run movies. (In Hooper the credit reel was mostly a montage of many of the stunts performed in the movie itself, owing to the film's tribute to the stunt industry.) It was later adapted into other films, including the CGI animated Toy Story 2 and A Bug's Life, for which the bloopers were intentionally created, and in TV series including The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Home Improvement. Most of Jackie Chan's films also feature blooper reel credit crawls, due to his experience in The Cannonball Run.
References
- ↑ LARRY GORDON ROLLS HIS DICE Taylor, Clarke. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 08 Oct 1978: n35.
- 1 2 "Hooper, Box Office Information". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 24, 2012.
- ↑ Film: Burt Reynolds In Action in 'Hooper': Moviemaking Fun Maslin, Janet. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 04 Aug 1978: C11.
- ↑ IMDb.com, "Hooper," Trivia. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077696/trivia?ref_=tt_ql_2. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
- ↑ http://www.78ta.com/HTAF/index.php?topic=5479.0. Retrieved April 8, 2015. The person who posted the information witnessed the jump as a boy.
- ↑ "Smokey and the Bandit, Box Office Information". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 24, 2012.
- ↑ "The 51st Academy Awards (1979) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
External links
- Hooper at the Internet Movie Database
- Hooper at the TCM Movie Database
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