Stay Hungry

Well any movie that has Jeff Bridges, Sally Field, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robert Englund, R G Armstrong, Joe Spinell, and Scatman Crothers in it's cast can not be all that bad, now can it?

Bridges is the heir to a steel business fortune and is working with real estate businessmen, in a venture buying properties. A gym is the property for which Bridges' Buck Blake is supposed to acquire. These people Buck has aligned himself with are supposedly dangerous and they want the gym property.

Buck loves the people at the gym and starts on a fitness kick which causes his duty to retrieve the rights to the property to go on the backburner. Buck falls for a fitness instructor, Mary Tate(Field), and becomes best friends with "Mr. Austria" Joe Santo(Ahnuld), a foreignor known for achieving metals for various sports which deal with his impressive physique. RG Armstrong is Santo's trainer, and owner of the gym, who drives him real hard to secure a weightlifting metal.

Buck's uncle expects him to take over his daddy's position in the tradition of the Blakes regarding the family business, but he doesn't really desire such a lofty enterprize. Buck is torn, he must choose the people in the gym or his business associates.




Buck has always been the kid who goes hunting in exotic places with his rich pals, never had to make strong business decisions or run a corporation. His parents made lots of money and Buck reaped the benefits.



It was really neat watching all these stars before they really hit the big time. Field and Schwarzeneggar seem to be in a very good place and when you include the talent of a Jeff Bridges into the mix, then there's gold in them there hills.



Buck has a hard time committing to Mary Tate, because she isn't "royalty". The way he brushes her aside at a swank party, doesn't bode well for their future as Mary Tate is too high strung to be treated in such a way. Anyone familiar with Field knows she can play these kind of lovable, endearing, sweet characters, small and petite as she is, her Mary Tate, like many other strong female women she is known to portray, stands up for herself and isn't to be taken lightly. We see that her Mary Tate is fuming everytime Craig's friends and society types he knows act all superior to her. She's this "small country girl" they can just thumb their nose at. Field has a smile that melts your heart, but don't cross her too many times or else face the consequences.



I loved how Santo is a "man of many talents" with a scene dedicated to his ability as a fiddle player, strumming a tune with some lovable hicks. The ladies love him and he has a charm and likability that endears him to the audience..we see here why he would go on to become an icon, even with the trouble of broken English he had the "it" quite present in his early career.



You have an early performance from Ed Begley, Jr. as one of the posh members of the Alabama wealth community and Joanna Cassidy as a sexpot who takes a liking to our muscleman. Robert England is Santo's "greaser" and isn't afraid to square off with burly types in a barfight. R G Armstrong is at times quite amusing, other times quite scary and intense..the end fight with Bridges is all too real and he seems quite a threat when enraged.



We see the ugly side of the jet set and the grand melodrama scene where Field makes a scene because of how Bridges ignores her in front of his friends at Fannie Flagg's party. Buck(actually his name is really Craig)finds himself tiring of his old friends the longer he hangs around with Mary and Santo. When Buck decides to abandon the idea of securing the gym, his partners decide to target the owner, using various crooked methods.



The ending(which I eluded to earlier), where Armstrong's Erickson goes off the deep end, attempting to rape Mary Tate and kill Craig with bar weights, is rather bizarre, especially when bodybuilders from a Mr Universe contest fill the streets in search of Santo off to save his friends. There's a fear that Erickson would take the money pot(prize money)and run off somewhere to spend it.





I think a movie like Stay Hungry will be considered a gem to fans of 70's character dramedies as it has so many familiar faces in early roles. I like that it is virtually plotless, just this time in the life of a very wealthy young man who needed guidance and finds his calling by chance in this gym he was intended to remove from Erickson's hands. But, these different kinds of gym rats from all walks of life enter his life and make him a better human being in the process. Field and Ahnuld have such wonderful chemistry, good friends who confide in each other.