Ironically but cleverly, most of that footage didn't make the final cut of the movie, including the song overlay, so you don't really feel like they put all the best parts in the trailer. The trailer is another good part.
Now I also thought I'd like this movie because I remember the old television show it was based upon. That show was made at a time when Hollywood stunts were still all real, and it was an ode to stuntmen and their work as much as anything else. This movie is like that too. It celebrates stuntmen publicly and visibly, and rather pointedly notes in the movie that there is no Academy Award for stuntwork. As such, it's exactly the kind of celebration of the labor of the unknown hard working man (and woman) that I like to see.
Speaking of the old TV show, there are several points in the film that pay homage to it. The two stars, Lee Majors and Heather Thomas, have a prominent cameo at the end. They have what looks like the original truck to drive around in scenes set in California, and new-model trucks done up to look like it in the Australia scenes. As the ending credits roll (the cameo scene actually follows them), they play a slightly-altered version of the original TV theme song.
2 comments:
Sounds like a nice date night. I was thinking Majors had worked for a time as a stunt man, but apparently not- however, while looking into that I just learned that he and Farrah inspired the song "Midnight train to Georgia"! Had no idea.
>"Popular culture
The song "Midnight Train to Georgia" was inspired by Lee Majors and Farrah Fawcett.[19] Songwriter Jim Weatherly phoned his friend Majors one day, and the call was answered by Fawcett. Weatherly and Fawcett chatted briefly and she told him she was going to visit her mother and was taking "the midnight plane to Houston." Although Majors and Fawcett were both successful by that time, Weatherly used them as "characters" in his song about a failed actress who leaves Los Angeles, and is followed by her boyfriend who cannot live without her.[20] Eventually the genders were swapped, the plane became a train, and Houston was changed to Georgia. The recording by Gladys Knight & the Pips went to number one in 1973."
That mental image must have seemed especially forlorn in the ‘70s. The Marshall Tucker Bamd also used it in 1973, in “Can’t you See,” where taking a train “all the way to Georgia/ ‘til the train runs outta track” was the recourse of a lovesick, heartbroken man.
That would be the port of Savannah, by the way, which is a very plausible place for getting over a broken heart and finding new love.
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