Stay Hungry (1976)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1976
	Director: Bob Rafelson (The Postman always rings twice)
	Actors: Jeff Bridges (Tron, The Big Lebowski), Sally Field (Forrest Gump, The Amazing Spiderman, Lincoln), Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator), Robert Englund (Nightmare on Elm Street), Joe Spinel (Starcrash, Maniac)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Romance
	Conditions of visioning: 03.01.2012, DVD, Home cinema
Synopsis: Looking for a meaning to his life, the rich heir Craig Blake (Bridges) is torn between the soulless real estate business and a bunch of authentic friends. Those two worlds will collide.
Review: Continuing my Schwarzenegger retrospective (inspired by his excellent autobiography soon to be reviewed on this blog) I watched this first attempt at serious cinema, after the cheap Hercules in New York. The excellent Jeff Bridges is clearly leading the story, and in his book Schwarzenegger confessed that Bridges was extremely patient and helpful in teaching him acting. And you can see the result: maybe his best acting performance ever. I would partly attribute it to the fact that for the only time in his career he was not in the leading role, but in a secondary one. You see him going in and out of the story and each time delivering a honest performance for his character, the one of a bodybuilding champion also curious about everything in the world (a description very close to Arnold himself). For example he made friends with hillbillies and plays the violin with them! This character strongly contrasts with the one of the rich family people, and in the end this is what the movie is about. Unfortunately the great filmmaking (I love the musical countryside scene with the hillbillies) goes banana 20 minutes before the end with some characters changing completely, and concludes with a band of bodybuilders in underwear let loose in the street of the city. Visually a very funny scene in itself, but not at its place in this movie.
Rating: 6 /10