A new documentary highlights the work of stuntman Gary Kent.
Review by Mike Vaughn
Directed by: Joe O’Connell
Before CGI could make anything and everything possible, back in the day you needed to do everything live. That’s when you employed real stunt people to throw themselves off buildings, set themselves on fire and often times blow themselves up.
Danger God tells the story of Gary Kent, a legendary stunt man who worked with such people as Jack Nicholson, Ray Dennis Steckler, Al Adamson etc. He’s such an icon in the field that he was the inspiration for Brad Pitt’s character in Once a Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). Now we get a first hand account of the life and career of this legend, told by the man himself and other peers from this time period.
Director Joe O’Connell does something interesting as he doesn’t employ film scholars intermixed with Kent and his fellow stunt men - we just get to hear from the men themselves. It's like you get to pull up a chair and spend an evening hearing some amazing stories from some interesting people.
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Kent goes through the greatest hits of his career and it's very entertaining to hear stories about the making of films like The Thrill Killers, Satan’s Sadists, Hells Angels on Wheels, just to name a few. The accounts range from joyful to interesting antidotes, from his meeting with Charles Manson at the Spahn Movie Ranch to the tragic fate of Al Adamson.
The film is tightly edited and the flow works well, which can be tricky when you have a small cast of interview subjects. But it comes back to the stories being so damn interesting that an entire hour went by before I even noticed.
[ Read more: FrightFest 2019 Review - Madness in the Method ]
We also get treated to rare home movies, photos, television interviews as well as Kent reading parts of his book 'Shadows & Light: Journeys with Outlaws in Revolution'. I learned that Kent is a cancer survivor and we get a glimpse into that.
If I had to lobby one complaint it's that I wish that Kent and company talked more about some of the more infamous movies. It feels like just a taster and it left me wanting more at times. I once got a chance to talk to Mr. Kent and he is just as nice as people say he is.
Danger God is a highly interesting and totally absorbing look at the life of a stunt man, family man and all around bad-ass! Worth watching.
Danger God is on VOD now.
Michael Vaughn is a rabid horror and cult fan who turned that love into a career. He is a writer, blogger and film historian and now author of 'The Ultimate Guide to Strange Cinema' which Shock Wave Podcast named their pick of the month, and Chris Alexander of Fangoria called “recommended reading.”
You can get your copy at amazon.com/Ultimate-Guide-Strange-Cinema/dp/0764354280
His other credits include Scream Magazine, Fangoria and websites like Films in Review and Bloody Flicks(UK). Please follow his Twitter @StrangeCinema65 and Instagram @castle_anger.
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