Any fans of The Swimmer (Burt Lancaster)

I believe the studio didn't release the film until two years after it was made.

 

I saw it once years ago. Would like to watch it again.

 

Very haunting film about alienation, loss and loneliness. It is depressing but beautifully acted by Lancaster. The idea of one being stuck in the past or unable to accept their current life is moving.

 

I saw the middle of the movie once when I was a teenager. Can't remember why I didn't see all of it but it haunted me for many years. I saw the whole thing on TCM awhile ago and loved it. As others have said, it's one of those movies you can watch multiple times, especially since you realize nothing was as it seemed when you get to the end the first time. I'll have to buy the Blu for the extras. As a slight aside, I was a teenager in the '70's and in Canada the CTV network used to run all these amazing late 60's/early 70's movies every Saturday night at 9 pm, unedited. I got to see movies like Easy Rider, Electra Glide in Blue, The Swimmer, Last Picture Show etc. Every Saturday night! Those were the days . . .

 

I think remember the MAD magazine parody of it from back in the day, but have only seen part of it on TV.

 

Saw it once in my early 20's. Intriguing movie. I missed the first 10 mins or so which made it more puzzling.

 

Wow that 's cool

 

One of my faves. This used to be a late-night TV staple back in the late 70s, early 80's...in those pre-cable days. I caught it as a teen back then and fell in love with the film. Even at that age, I found the "loss of the Great American Dream" message very effective. It reminds me a lot of Save The Tiger but only more haunting and surreal. BL was really pitch-perfect in his performance, IMHO. A really great supporting cast of character actors as well...Marge Champion, Jan Miner, Janice Rule, Dolph Sweet, etc. That, and I would always point out Joan Rivers' pool party scene to anyone within ear's shot.

I hear the new Blu-Ray is spectacular. They started it running it in HD on the Sony Movie Channel a few months back. It was also re-aired recently on TCM as one of Gilbert Gottfried's "guest pick" movies. Who knew...lol?

 

I love this film. I'd seen it on cable, then bought the dvd. I recently picked up the blu-ray for $19.99 and then sold my dvd on Amazon for $39.99! It pays to keep that physical media in tip-top shape.
I haven't watched the BD yet, waiting for the perfect time, and also look forward to the bountiful extra features. Haven't seen a bad review online yet - this may be one of the top "classic" blu-ray releases of the year at this rate.
It makes me sad that so many younger viewers would find this film boring or slow - good, solid character development needs to be paced just right, no need for rapid-fire dizzying editing, but so many need that now to stay with a film. Pity.

 

I knew Sony was releasing this movie on blu-ray last year and waited for it to have a firm release date from Grindhouse, so I didn't buy any DVD version of this...knew this was getting a first-rate remaster/restoration job from Sony's Grover Crisp!!!

 

A literate Mad Men type of movie.

 

Not many of today's actors could pull off this type of roll,cept Jon Hamm.

 

I really like the film, and am a very big fan of Burt Lancaster. His unique kind of vital fatalism, announced with the clipped diction of his first line in cinema ("There's nothing I can do about it"), comes to the fore in this film -- he creates Ned Merrill perfectly, filling him out, as it were, both figurally and figuratively, compelling in his belief that he can lengthen the day, that he might avoid what he may or may not know is waiting for him, and return home by engaging with the physical world by swimming through all his neighbors' pools. Not for nothing did Kate Buford's biography of Lancaster use a still from this film on the rear cover. Lancaster's back poignantly conveys the ironic nature of his isolation.

A couple thoughts on the Cheever story, which can be found here: http://storyoftheweek.loa.org/2012/05/swimmer.html
It lets on earlier to the reader, and in a much more pronounced way, I think, than the film does to the viewer that there's something amiss in Ned Merrill's life. I'm not sure I like that. The ending too is more direct. Though written in the 60's, it is drenched in booze and seems now of an earlier time. The film as I recall it pushes the mood forward a bit; think about the scene when Ned is talking to his former babysitter about avoiding the pressure and conformity of "the team" (I wish I remembered the line, but it's been years since I've seen it).

The film does capture very well that sense I associate with Cheever of the "haunted suburb," the notion that there may be something sick and dark behind the neatly trimmed hedges and wide smiles of party greetings -- and what that something probably is, in this story at least, is that your friendships and relationships and social standing are fragile, maybe never were that meaningful, and, what's perhaps even worse, no one will tell you when they're gone. Perhaps the film actually conveys this more effectively and more subtly than the story. I grew up in and around those places and they can be beautiful and nurturing (and were for me) but when the foliage thickens, the shadows darken and lengthen, and it is not hard to imagine the ghosts. You can hear them when someone will drop his voice to tell you what happened to this or that neighbor. Drive up the Hutchinson River Parkway toward the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut, and get off any of those exits in Rye, Greenwich, Stamford, Darien, or New Canaan, and you can see it and feel it.

 

A scary movie

 

Wonder if Stephen King seen the film.

 

Finally got around to viewing my copy. The BD is really well done. Almost eye popping. Joan Rivers is in there somewhere in a bit part. I was surprised, that with the large cast, I really did not recognize anyone. Filmed in 1966, released in '68 and they discuss computer dating. I can see why it flopped at the box office, but still was glad to have seen it.

 

Part of the movie was filmed in a pool of a grade school classmate.

John Cheever reading the short story (includes a little background on the film)

http://92yondemand.org/john-cheever-the-swimmer/

 

Always very much liked this movie/story. Burt was also a favorite. I'd like to see it again now that I'm much older.

 

The BD has lots of "making of" material including the Cheever reading. It was a very trouble production. The big name producer, Sam Spiegel had his name removed from the credits.

 

I saw this when it came out. My dad was a big BL fan and so he took me to every BL film from the mid 60's to 70s. Anyway I was 10 and bored. Saw it later when I was in my 20's and I thought it was very strange and sad. This is one of those films that screams 60's.

 

The Swimmer lasted one week and vanished. when it had its theatrical release in Australia.It was at a time that MGM as a studio could always be guaranteed to make rather quaint sure-fire box -office flops. . One often found the team of Burton & Taylor seemed to be the leading edge celebrities to create many of those such results for that studio.. Think of things like The Night of the Iguana / The Comedians / The Samndpiper etc....then.... others' contributions like Brewster Mc Cloud / The Subterrtainians with George Peppard/ / The Strawberry Statement / Claire Bloom & Paul Newman in The Outrage (a Mexican style remake of the famed Japanese classic -Rashomon') .Then there were umpteen ubfunny 'comedies' where the leading men (age -rise) were 'cradle-snatching' young female stars in film plots of the Time.
One cannot forget another unmitigated 'turkey' Sydney Lumet's The Appointment. Apparently not shown in the US theatres but sent to Australia by MGM to see - as a test - if it had any life''. It was pulled off a 'test' screen in 3 days - to disappear. The demise of MGM was reputed-I do not know how accurate it ACTUALY is - but the joke was that out of about 100 odd MGM releasases ... just four (4) made a profit.

I am staggered today to see on checking many a modern film obtained perhaps now on a Blu Ray -that could stand comparsion and seek box office success YET not get a US theatre release. One is glad , one owns a copy.
I E: Check the IMDb web site files and history for the big budget dramatic and satisfying action film Shanghai - starring John Cusack.

 

I saw a few minutes of it on TV a couple weeks ago and thought it was bizarre. I'll have to check it out in its entirety some time.

 

I'm a big fan. Saw it a couple of times when I was younger, and that ending has always stayed with me. A great film, and one I don't have. I notice it's on a region free bluray. I must get it sometime.

 

Gilbert Gottfried's usually excells at those comedy roasts.

 

Hollywood meets Ingmar Bergman.