"Hooper" opened in July 1978, just in time to catch the summer drive-in crowd who needed another hit of Burt after the first "Smokey" shattered box office records. In some cases, "Hooper" bumped "Smokey" right out of theatres it had been playing in for almost a year. "Hooper" wound up with a box office gross of around $70M.

A former stuntman, this is really Needham's love letter to the profession. In fact the British magazine Hot Dog recently had a list of the greatest movie stunts of all time, and one from "Hooper" clicked in at #2 (right after the famous ski jump from "The Spy Who Loved Me") Stunt man A. J. Bakunas, doubling for Burt, dropped 232 feet, setting a record for the highest jump without a parachute.

In the scene where Hooper ('Burt Reynolds' ) and crew are watching Hooper's "stunt reel" at Hooper's house, the stunt reel contains scenes of Burt  in "Deliverance" being flipped out of a canoe.

Parts of this can be seen as a dry run for the James Bond parody in "Cannonball Run". The title of the film Hooper is working on is called "The Spy Who Laughed At Danger", and the music during the 'movie within a movie scenes' is suspiciously John Barry like.

Academy Awards and Hal Needham in the same sentence? You betcha. "Hooper" received an Oscar nomination in the Best Sound category. 

THOUGHTS WHILE WATCHING 

The most jaw dropping moment from a year 2004 point of view isn't a stunt at all. Reynolds and Vincent get pissed drunk. A cop pulls over and says he hopes they're not planning to drive. They promise they won't. They then take off down the road, passing the cop, still swigging beers-in a rocket car no less. It's portrayed as a moment of macho heroics. This would NOT fly today, need I say.

THE REVIEW

Damn, this is a real movie! The characters actually have emotions, obstacles, trauma, and real life concerns like aging, mortality, fear of intimacy, and regret. Not that this is "American Beauty" or anything. It's still a fun loving. good ole' boy action/comedy, but this one's a helluva lot less broad and over the top than the usual servings from the Reynolds/ Needham oeuvre. For example, contrast the ending of this one where the main character risks his life, health, and relationship to prove that he's not an antique, with, say, "Cannonball Run II", where an ape wins a car race and kisses a guy on the lips.

"Hooper" also doesn't skimp on the stunts. The climax, which the crew nicknamed "damnation alley" is spectacular as Hooper and Ski drive through multiple buildings toppling, explosions, flying debris, and other motorists before jumping a rocket car across a gaping chasm. Makes no sense from the 'film within a film' point of view, but it sure does look cool and would impress even the most jaded of today's Bruckheimer generation. There's also the aforementioned record breaking helicopter jump.

Burt gives a good performance here. There's a lot of the good old boy stuff on display of course. He walks through that, as usual, but there's also a slight attempt at creating a actual human character. In the best scene, he and Brian Keith, post all night drinking binge, talk about what Hooper plans to do about grown up concerns like marriage and, well, staying in the game of life, more or less. "Hooper", at the bottom, is really a movie about how aging, and being threatened with being put out to pasture, makes a grown man have to stop living like a privileged teenager. Hollywood is famous for being a town full of  forty year old teenagers. In "Hooper", the main character finds out that there's a whole new breed of aging teenagers coming up behind him.

CAMEOS

Only Reynolds/Needham buddies like Terry Bradshaw, George Furth, and Tara Buckman...all of whom popped up later in "Cannonball Run". No cameo by Needham this time. No celebrity cameos. Odd since the film takes place in Hollywood.

DVD

Available from Warner Home Video, most recently as part of a three pack bundled with "Stroker Ace" and "Sharkey's Machine". Still, it's a bare bones, full screen release, without so much as a trailer.

CAST

Burt Reynolds, Jan Michael Vincent, Sally Field, Brian Keith, Robert Klein, John Marley, James Best, Adam West.

 

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