Stay Hungry (1976) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski) and Tuna

From 1970 to 1990, director Bob Rafelson had a fairly solid string of successes.

• Five Easy Pieces (1970)
• King of Marvin Gardens, The (1972)
• Stay Hungry (1976)
• Brubaker (1980) (uncredited co-director)
• Postman Always Rings Twice, The (1981)
• Black Widow (1987)
• Mountains of the Moon (1990)

It's interesting to look at them sorted by IMDb ratings.

• (7.37) - Five Easy Pieces (1970)
• (7.06) - Mountains of the Moon (1990)
• (6.66) - Brubaker (1980)
• (6.28) - The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)
• (6.18) - Black Widow (1987)
• (6.04) - The King of Marvin Gardens (1972)
• (5.51) - Stay Hungry (1976)

By now you are probably thinking, "Among all those famous and/or acclaimed films, how could there be one movie on the list that I've never heard of - a film which scores below six at IMDb?"

That's a fair enough question, but I guess the film in question, Stay Hungry, wasn't that obscure when it came out. After all, it earned a Golden Globe for its co-star, a large muscular man named Arnold Schwarzenegger. About five or ten years later, the big fella hit pay dirt in Conan and Terminator, and the rest is history, but in this film he played a much more realistic role than his usual larger-than-life super heroes and villains. Arnie played a bodybuilder from Austria who was competing in the Mr Universe competition and trying to make a new life in the United States. You have to admit it was a pretty solid job of casting.

Jeff Bridges is the star of the film. He plays a rich boy whose parents died in a plane crash. He lives in his parents' home, but he still calls it "their" home. His own life has not yet begun. He doesn't really fit in with his rich relatives and friends.

Somehow, Bridges falls in with a sleazy real estate syndicate which is trying to buy up entire city blocks to erect high rise office buildings. One project is being blocked by a single hold-out.  (How many movies have used this plot?) A shabby mom 'n pop gym is the reluctant seller, and Bridges is assigned by the syndicate to charm, cajole, or otherwise convince the owner to play ball. Bridges, however, turns out to be one of those rich guys who is more comfortable with genuine working class people, and he strikes up friendships with some of the people in the gym.

(This is a recurring Bob Rafelson theme, and is also the basic concept behind Rafelson's best movie, Five Easy Pieces.)

Bridges pals around with Big Ah-nuld, as well as a slightly trashy but refreshingly unaffected female employee of the gym (Sally Field). Ah-nuld and Bridges form a relaxed love triangle with The Flying Nun, and Bridges pretty much forgets about his assignment to buy the gym, at least until some sleazebags show up to do with muscle what Bridges failed to do with guile.

Meanwhile, Bridges takes a certain perverse pleasure in foisting his new friends on his rich pals, and watching the fireworks between the two groups. Fields finds it callous of Bridges to take aloof pleasure from everyone's lack of comfort in the forced social mixture, so their relationship becomes turbulent.

Rural country music and Ah-nuld's bodybuilding provide the colorful backdrop for the film, often in tandem, because Ah-nuld's character is a helluva country fiddler as well as a bodybuilder! The bodybuilding and musical scenes provide a nearly surrealistic underscore to the film, especially when Ah-nuld's gigantic hands finger the ol' fiddle. Bridges does an amazingly good solo dance number when his character gets liquored up and is persuaded to dance inside a circle at an impromptu country jamboree. He has to perform well, albeit drunkenly, and he has to convey both exuberance and embarrassment at the same time. He pulls it all off with aplomb.

This is not a very good movie, as you can guess by the fact that you never heard of it despite the presence of several major talents. It is kind of an interesting movie in some ways, often veering off into truly quirky and surreal directions. Let's face it, there's a lot of fun in seeing Ah-nuld playing the fiddle, or Jeff Bridges clogging up a storm, or Ah-nuld wearing a Batman outfit, or Sally Field just prancing around in the altogether in her first and last real screen nudity. Perhaps you join me in having a lot of curiosity about seeing what those three big stars looked like a quarter of a century ago.

The major problem with the movie is this: after I watched it, I read the DVD box and noticed that it was supposed to be a comedy. I never suspected that for an instant. I thought it was just supposed to be an offbeat romance about a guy trying to find himself. I don't remember thinking anything was especially funny, although certain of the most surreal scenes seem funny in a way. There is a scene, for example,  with dozens of bodybuilders prancing through downtown Birmingham in their little bathing suits, occasionally stopping to do pose-downs for the street people, and even riding single-file, standing, on top of a public bus. I guess that was supposed to be funny.

The film was not extraordinarily popular back then; it has been forgotten over the years; and it doesn't seem good upon a fresh look either. Given the presence of Rafelson and some big talents, I expected more than this film delivers, although I still enjoyed watching it for the curiosity value.

Tuna's comments in yellow:

Stay Hungry (1976) is a Bob Rafelson comedy set in Birmingham, Alabama, The film centers on professional body building, which was not a well known sport at the time, and the "nouveau riche" Birmingham wealthy class. Birmingham, a relatively new city which did not exist during the Civil War, possesses an upper class which is newly wealthy, and more snobbish than old money would be.

Jeff Bridges plays an heir who lives in his parents' mansion. Even though they were no longer alive, he still considered it their home, not his. He had never quite fit into the place in society that was expected of him. His uncle wanted him to go into the steel business, but he marched to his own drummer. His shady syndicate was trying to buy an entire block of downtown businesses so they could build a high rise for enormous profits, and Bridges was responsible for the last piece of property, a run-down gym. This is where he met Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his first non-documentary film, who was training for a Mr. Universe contest the gym owner was to hold. Sally Field, in her first adult role and performing her only nude scene, worked for the gym, as did Robert "Freddy Kruger" Englund, whose most important job in the film was to grease Arnold before competitions.

Arnold and Bridges became friends, then Bridges and Field became an item. Everything started to unravel when Bridges's society friends treated them shabbily, and then when the syndicate realized that Bridges wasn't going to complete the purchase, and started using strong-arm tactics. At that point, the film got way over the top, and even before that I only found isolated moments of humor in the first 2/3, but it is worth seeing for the cast, and the rare nudity from Sally Field. The cinematography is very nice, we get to hear Arnold playing country fiddle and, as one of the Birmingham snobs said, Arnold had most impressive musculature.