The unknown heroes of film and television – stuntmen and stuntwomen. Films have been made about them – “Hooper”, “The Stunt Man”, “The Fall”, “Stuntmen”. And, of course, there’s television’s “The Fall Guy”. Going where above-the-line actors dare not go (or insurance won’t allow them to go), stuntmen bring stories to life with their feats of daring-do. While in today’s cinematic world safety is paramount thanks to the high-tech precision and extreme danger accompanying bigger, better, higher, faster action, back in the day, the stunt world was like the wild west. Did you know that the very first acknowledged stuntman goes back to 1903 with Edwin S. Porter’s “The Great Train Robbery” with ex-US cavalryman Frank Hanaway who was cast by Porter just because he was able to fall off a horse without injuring himself? And as impressive as that feat may have been, it wasn’t until 1908 when executing a stunt became a paying job when an acrobat was paid $5 for jumping from a cliff down into the ocean in “The Count of Monte Cristo.” Western rodeo stars like Tom Mix soon turned to stunts as a profession before ultimately becoming movie stars in their own right, filling the need for action in the burgeoning business of movies. But it wasn’t until Harold Lloyd in 1923 when safety entered the mix and by the early 1930’s, Yakima Canutt was the go-to stuntman in the business. Even Tom Mix eventually had a stunt double – Jack Montgomery. But, lifelong friendships were forged, and many actors and stuntmen developed a professional pairing that would last decades. Now, thanks to Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood”, stuntmen are again center stage as we meet actor Rick Dalton and his longtime stuntman Cliff Booth.
Gary Kent, one of the inspirations for Brad Pitt’s character in ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, is profiled in first-time director Joe O’Connell’s DANGER GOD. The famed filmmaker ‘loosely’ based Pitt’s stuntman character ‘Cliff Booth’ on Kent, and his own run-in with the Manson Family at Spahn Ranch.
DANGER GOD focuses on one of the legends of the game, Gary Kent. Though the king of “B-movies” in the Sixties and Seventies, working for indie directors from Richard Rush to Ray Dennis Steckler to Al Adamson, Kent tackled even larger real-life challenges. With a career that has spanned over 50 years of falling, burning, jumping, fighting, crashing, and breaking his body for some of the most beloved indie movies of the 20th Century, DANGER GOD is Gary Kent’s story.
From the wild west days stunt days of the indie drive-in era, to his run-in with Charles Manson and the Manson family, to Kent’s own battles with health, alcoholism, and love, up to Kent’s life today, DANGER GOD features interviews with Marc Singer, Duane Eddy, directors Monte Hellman and Richard Rush, and more.
Available on DVD September 17th
Available on Blu-ray November 12th
