From Our Vaults
Jeff Bridges, Sally Field, and Schwarzenegger star in this sports comedy-drama about a wealthy young man who has to buy a gym to close a real estate deal.
The screenplay by Charles Gaines is adapted from his 1972 novel of the same name.
The story centers on a young scion from Birmingham, Alabama, played by Jeff Bridges, who gets involved in a shady real-estate deal. In order to close the deal, he needs to buy a gym building to complete a multi-parcel lot.
He becomes romantically interested in the gym’s receptionist (Sally Field) and drawn to the carefree lifestyle of the Austrian bodybuilder Joe Santo (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who is training there for the Mr. Universe competition.
Schwarzenegger made an impression, having previously played Hercules (as Arnold Strong) in the 1970 Hercules in New York, a gangster’s henchman in Robert Altman’s 1973 The Long Goodbye, and a masseur in the 1974 TV movie Happy Anniversary and Goodbye.
Stay Hungry is kind of a mishmash, essentially three movies crammed into one, but that’s also its charm.
Authentic depiction of the bodybuilding subculture, the movie also explores themes of identity and self-acceptance.
Scandalous Movie
Stay Hungry marked the final film for production designer Toby Carr Rafelson, Rafelson’s wife. After learning that her husband pursued women during production, including Sally Field, she filed for divorce and never worked for Rafelson again.
Roger Callard, a top bodybuilder of the era, said of his experience making the film: “The director was screaming over his megaphone, ‘Please do not touch the bodybuilders!’ People were rushing us, even scratching us!”
In her autobiography, Sally Field wrote that during her audition with Rafelson, she was asked to take her shirt off and kiss him.
