Exploring this thoughtful late-‘70s character piece.
When looking back at past U.S. presidents and their administrations, one of the hardest to define is the Jimmy Carter era. Some political historians laud him for getting more programs and bills passed than any president since LBJ, while others criticize him for not being able to rid the country of its case of stagflation, which he inherited from the previous administration. Yet the main reason this era of politics isn’t one of the easiest to categorize is because it represented a time of a country in great transition. Although it was never meant to be more than a simple drama, Bob Rafelson’s Stay Hungry actually manages to pinpoint the shapeshifting nature of the time in the late ‘70s when America was slowly shedding its hippie-like ideology and embracing the creeping nature of the decade of consumption that was to come.
In Stay Hungry, the wealthy but self-destructive Craig Blake (Jeff Bridges) is hired by a group of corporate bigwigs to facilitate the sale of a local gym which will be demolished to help make way for a new skyscraper. Along the way Craig befriends Joe Santo (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a Mr. Universe hopeful who is also the gym’s star member, as well as its feisty, down home receptionist Mary Tate Farnsworth (Sally Field), for whom he instantly falls.
Stay Hungry has such an incredibly ‘80s feel to it, especially with the gym backdrop and corporate takeover side of things. It’s hard not to see the foreshadowing at hand when thinking about the rise of both Wall Street and the exercise craze that would help define American society in just a few short years following the film’s release. At the same time, Stay Hungry maintains a distinct ‘70s sensibility with its somewhat loose narrative and character-driven elements. An extended sequence in which Mary Tate notices a painting in an upstairs office window leads to Craig spontaneously stealing it for her in one of the film’s purest moments. Even when Rafelson’s film falters at certain instances, such as the scene with a couple of hookers (which goes on far longer than it should despite a couple of laughs to be had) and the overall cheesiness from the larger than life caricatures and accents of the side characters, Stay Hungry manages to remain more or less on track.
Although its plot reads as flimsy, Stay Hungry manages to be a surprisingly thoughtful film about a man caught between two worlds. When we meet Craig, his parents have just died, leaving him their large estate, money, and family name which he feels he cannot uphold. As a result, Craig is seen trying to escape himself and his family’s legacy by delving into the shady business world. Craig wears a variety of hats and personas throughout the course of Stay Hungry; he’s a sullen, self-loathing rich boy, a willing, would-be corporate henchman, a supposed gym rat and a phony free spirit. Consequently, when forced to take an honest look at himself, Craig finds nothing but blankness at the heart of his soul. When things get intense, between Craig’s deception, his bosses moving in, and his feelings for Mary Tate, he’s at last being forced to choose who he wants to be.
Speaking of Mary Tate, she remains the only one throughout Stay Hungry who is bothering to look beyond each of those personas to find out who Craig really is. With her incredibly unapologetic and liberated attitude, Mary Tate proves to be more than just “the girl” in Stay Hungry. You get the sense that she was perfectly satisfied with her life before Craig. But his arrival sparks a fire within that excites her, and it’s hard to dismiss the rambunctiousness the two share together which elevates the whole film and creates a bubble where their respective worlds cannot touch them. Perhaps Mary Tate’s most shining moment comes when Craig lashes out at her out of frustration. The fact that she doesn’t cower, but immediately lashes back before managing to calm both of them down shows the inherent power and connection which exists between the two.
Bridges is fantastic in the part of Craig. Then again, asking him to play a reckless Southern boy isn’t the biggest of stretches. Nevertheless, the actor gives his all to Stay Hungry and uses it as a way to show his commitment and magnetism as a true screen presence. Field may have still been on the hunt for roles which would help to shed her squeaky clean TV image, and Stay Hungry sure fit the bill. Like Bridges, the actress takes her character to a variety of places, playing scenes both big and small, making her and Mary Tate all the more fascinating as the movie progresses. Finally, in his film debut, Schwarzenegger is one of the film’s secret weapons. The natural ease and charisma the novice actor shows here is a combination of talent formed by pure instinct.
Circling back around to my earlier mention of the Carter era and the country’s “up in the air” feel during that time, Stay Hungry further encapsulates this time in America’s history by being the only one of Rafelson’s films which feels lost in terms of time. The rest of his films, from the 1987 thriller Black Widow to the 1992 comedy Man Trouble, all fit in the decades they were made and now speak to the pulse of those particular societies. Stay Hungry on the other hand hasn’t aged quite the same way as those titles. Even the director’s most heralded effort, 1970s Five Easy Pieces, radiates the era in a way few films could. Both Five Easy Pieces and Stay Hungry feature similar plots involving a conflicted male protagonist searching for a way to escape his privileged past, usually through a scrappy female love interest. The two films do manage to chronicle the changing times, with the former’s main character abandoning his girlfriend and the latter’s running off with his beloved to start a new life. Yet while Five Easy Pieces cannot help but exist as a poetic document; Stay Hungry, with all its wandering cluelessness, almost feels like an earnest parody.
Stay Hungry is now available on Blu-ray and DVD from Olive Films.
