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Burt Lancaster,
Burt Lancaster,
Janet Landgard,
more...
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Frank Perry,
Frank Perry
see all cast/crew...
: 
: Columbia TriStar
: Drama
: 95 min.
: English
: English, French, Korean, Japanese
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This title is currently out of print.
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John Cheever's "misery in suburbia" short stories, brief and to the point, have always proven excellent TV fodder. Director Frank Perry's The Swimmer, adapted for the screen by Perry's wife Eleanor, is a rare, and for the most part successful, attempt at offering a Cheever story in feature-length form. Dressed only in swimming trunks throughout the film, Burt Lancaster plays a wealthy, middle-aged advertising man, embarked on a long and revelatory journey through suburban Connecticut. Lancaster slowly makes his way to his split-level home by travelling from house to house, and from swimming pool to swimming pool. At each stop, Lancaster comes face to face with an incident in his past. Informing Kim Hunter that he once harbored a secret love for her, Lancaster is mildly upset by Hunter's indifference. Elderly Cornelia Otis Skinner is incensed at Lancaster's intrusion in her backyard and orders him to leave. At the next home, Lancaster tries to seduce the nubile Janet Landgard, who'd once baby-sat for his daughters, but she runs away in horror. And so it goes: as each subsequent suburbanite peels off his self-protective veneer, Lancaster grows more and more disillusioned with what he thought was his ideal lifestyle. The more intensely painful episode is the confrontation between Lancaster and ex-mistress Janice Rule (this scene was directed, without credit, by Sydney Pollack). Thoroughly defeated, the all-but-naked Lancaster laboriously makes his way through the Connecticut woods in a blinding rainstorm, desperately seeking out his own home where he fully expects his "loving" wife and daughters to greet him. Not this time. Dismissed as too self-consciously "arty" at the time of its release, The Swimmer's reputation increased over the decades following its release thanks to constant late-night TV exposure. The film represents the first movie work of 22-year-old composer Marvin Hamlisch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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| Obscure gem
by techweenie
May 11, 2003 - 7:48 PM PDT
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9 out of 10 members found this review helpful
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Great to see this out on DVD.
The emptiness of the mid-60s upper middle class culture was never laid more bare. Lancaster's character is out of sync with his life, and is no more aware of it than his neighbors.
But there's a secret, slowly revealed, as the movie progresses about our protagonist.
Every interaction with residents of his community (each closer to his desitnation, and each less eager to see him) reveals a bit about him: to us, and maybe a little to Lancaster's character.
You'll have to excuse some misty 70s-style cinematography, period score, and some histrionic style more suited to an earlier film age, but this movie still has something to say.
It's been said that Lancaster dipped into his own pocket to shoot additional scenes and finish the movie. he obviously cared about his character and the story, and if you can put yourself in the story's time and place, I bet you will, too. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 7.42)
43 Votes
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