Mustache Marathon 2: Hooper (1978)

This summer, there was a movie that everyone was talking about.  It wasn’t The Avengers.  It wasn’t The Dark Knight Rises.  It wasn’t even Prometheus.  The movie that I’m talking about was a little picture called Magic Mike.

Magic Mike told the story of Mike, a member of a male strip club.  Mike takes a young man under his wing and brings the young man into the world of male erotic dancing.  Mike also falls in love with the sister of the young man.

I couldn’t help but notice how similar the storyline is to Hooper, a movie included in the Mustache Marathon this year.  Hooper is about Sonny Hooper, a stuntman in Hollywood.  Hooper takes a young stuntman under his wing and brings him onto the movie he’s working on.  With the difference of the love story, the plots are quite similar.  I’ll go into detail in a second.

SPOILERS FOR MAGIC MIKE AND HOOPER BELOW.

Let’s begin with the characters of Hooper and Mike.  They are the best in their respective business.  Mike is magic.  You don’t get that moniker unless you are exceptional at your job, or you are a magician.  Let me tell you, Mike is no magician.  At one point in Hooper, it is stated that there are only about four people in America who can do the stunts that Hooper can do.  That makes him as exceptional as Mike.

Now for the arcs of the characters.  Mike’s arc essentially becomes about him getting out of the business and starting down a new career path before his life gets taken over by the stripping.  By the end of the movie, he ditches his asshole boss and leaves the business.  Sonny Hooper’s arc is that this is his final movie, before retiring.  He must retire or else the stunts might take his life.  That’s right.  Being a Hollywood stuntman (stuntman) might kill Hooper so he has to retire.  By the end of the movie, Hooper punches his asshole boss in the face and walks off into retirement.

In Magic Mike, the young man is called “The Kid” by his fellow strippers.  He’s not as good as Mike, but he has the potential to become a star of the stripping world.  In Hooper, the young man is also nicknamed “The Kid.”  He’s not as good as Hooper, but he has the potential to become a star Hollywood stuntman (stuntman).  Both are still in their respective businesses at the end of their respective movies.

Mike, at one point, gets called out that he’s getting too old for the stripping business so he goes out and performs one of the best dance routines that he has ever been told to perform.  Hooper, at one point, gets told that he’s getting old and decides to jump out of a helicopter from a record height.  Both characters are trying to prove that they aren’t too old for the business, before realizing at the end of the movie that they have to move on.

There is a scene in Magic Mike where Mike and The Kid go to a house and strip.  After The Kid gives a girl some drugs, the guys get into a fight and flee the house.  In Hooper there is a similar scene where Hooper and some of his friends go to a bar, get in a giant brawl, and are thrown out.  I know this one is stretching it, but I still found it similar.

The only big difference I can find between the two movies is the romantic story of the main character.  There isn’t much there in Hooper.  The woman is there, and Hooper is in a relationship with her the entire time, without any real strife to it.  In Magic Mike, Mike is pining for The Kid’s sister the entire movie and is struggling to be with her throughout the movie.

Without the relationship aspects, I find many aspects of the movies to be similar.  They are vastly different movies, don’t get me wrong.  I simply feel that they are telling the same story in a different package.  Magic Mike seems very much like the reincarnation of Hooper.  It is made for a modern audience, but it is the same story.

Because this is the mustache marathon, I must also say that Burt Reynolds has the mustache to end all mustaches.  If Tom Selleck is The Beatles of mustaches, then Burt Reynolds would be The Rolling Stones.  Both are equally important to the mustache landscape.

Next up in the marathon is No Holds Barred, a 1980s Hulk Hogan film.  Hoo-eey this is going to be an interesting one.  I can’t wait to feel the pain.