Film

Studio: Universal Pictures, 1985
Source: Based on the Elmore Leonard Novel, Stick
Length: 109 min
Available Formats: Not Available
Genre: Crime/Contemporary
Special Notes:
Director:  Burt Reynolds
Producer::Jennings Lang
Screenwriter:: Elmore Leonard and Joseph Stinson
Cast::  Burt Reynolds, Candice Bergen, George Segal, Charles Durning, Castulo Guerra, José Pérez, Carlos Cervantes, Richard L. Duran.

Mr. Majestyk was an original screenplay that was later novelized.Stick proved to be one of the most unhappy of Elmore’s film experiences. Ernest “Stick” Stickley, the character, was one of his favorites; previously seen in his Seventies gem, Swag. Elmore Leonard is by nature optimistic, so he welcomed Burt Reynold’s interest in a film version. Burt Reynolds was perfectly disposed to play the character Stick Elmore wrote a first draft based on his book character, an easy going and likeable con and thief who falls into opportunity and menace. Universal decided the script needed work. They wanted to emphasize the action and not the characters. Add machine guns and scorpions. After they saw the first cut of the film they decided that it needed even more action. They added even more machine guns and scorpions, but it didn’t help. Stick was miscast and mis- directed. At a time when Elmore Leonard’s career was soaring, Stick represented the chilling reality that Hollywood could never bring the Elmore Leonard sound to the screen. ncredibly boring underworld melodrama about an ex-con who sets out to avenge the death of an old buddy and finds himself knee-deep in ugly drug dealers. Originally set for release in 1984, then pulled back for some reshooting, which apparently didn’t help.

For the first time in Stick’s life, he has something to lose.. and something to win.