Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Curt Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

thejcowboy22 When I see this picture I think about the Led Zeppelin song Dazed and Confused. There's a lyric that reads ,"Don't know were your going,don't know where you've been." Out of the brush and entering common ground of either Westchester or Greenwich, Connecticut Ned Merrill (Bert Lancaster) tall, muscular and lean wearing a smile and a black bathing suit appears. I figure it's the weekend in July with so many pool parties going on at the same time. Ned travels the Lucinda trail named after his Wife as he figures that if he swims across each pool in the immediate valley from one yard to the next he'll reach his stately home by evening. Each visit from each gathering adds a clue to Ned's Past. Need speaks fondly of his family and his two daughters playing Tennis. In the beginning Ned is greeted warmly as we meet a cavalcade of TV familiars. Bill "Mona" Fiore, Bernie "Starsky and Hutch " Hamilton, Jan "Palmolive manicurist" Miner, Dolph "Give Me A Break" Sweet who isn't very Sweet to Ned and an eager Joan Rivers playing a serious role in this story of wonderment. There is a tender moment in this film as Ned befriends a lonely boy and prevents a terrible mishap. Not one of the greatest films but it is thought provoking and makes you wonder who the real Ned Merrill is. A movie you'll watch again and again but get ready to throw Ned a lifesaver.

guylyons This powerful film, had a huge effect on me, when i first saw it.I actually thought it was about swimming.Lancaster was made to play this part, and boy is he good in this fine work.A story of someone in a world of his own, who has blocked out reality, is superbly done, and with a great script. A film which hits the viewer like a ton of bricks at its end,and makes it compelling viewing. Avoid reading spoilers, as it will wreck your enjoyment of this excellent film.

funkyfry "The Swimmer" is a brilliant one-man show for aging Burt Lancaster - - an impressionistic swirl of suburban alienation that hits vaguely like a reverse-image of "The Graduate." Director Frank Perry (most in- famous for TV films like "Mommie Dearest") allows his actors total free reign in their characterizations and this results in an uneven film that feels like it's supposed to be uneven. Lancaster holds the whole enterprise together.... he had long before figured out how, with films like "Sweet Smell of Success", to make himself less appealing. But all his performances are grandiose, and here he's given us a vision of the grand pathetic.... a sort of suburban Lear.The film thematically is very interesting, as you don't really see a film very often about personal failure. His professional failure is something that we figure out about halfway through the film, but we don't want to face the idea that he is a failure as a human being any more than he does. Every gesture that seems spontaneous early in the film, every moment that comes across as an expression of his will to power and his joy in living, later reveals itself as dull repetition and escapism. There is a thin line between the casual recklessness of the perpetual winner and the empty boasts of the fallen champion. There's more going on in the film's script than meets the eye, so I'll just take a single motif and look at it in that context.... how about, alcohol? In the first scene, Lancaster's character refuses a drink which is repeatedly being offered to him by his seemingly over-the- hill younger friends. Lancaster comes off in this scene as a winner, physically fit and envied by his friends who are dependent on alcohol to bond or relax or distract themselves. About halfway through his journey, he begins to reluctantly accept a drink ("just one, to be polite"), but by the time he arrives at his former lover's (Janice Rule) house, he admits "I need one." Looking back on the first scene in hindsight with what we know by the end, his friends come off a lot better. They're disturbed to see him in a state of denial, they want to hear "all about it" over a drink; they've gone from being the losers to the winners. The difference is one of perspective: as Julie's (Janet Landgard) cute crush on the guy she babysits for morphs into a dangerous situation where Ned (Lancaster) harbors unrequited affection for the nymph who is now even more inappropriate as a partner. I like the film a great deal, not so much as a finished product which is in many ways unevenly executed and deficient as entertainment (too episodic and without enough verve), but as a springboard for conversation and thought. I would compare it to a film like Joe Losey's "Boy with Green Hair", another "cult" film -- far from being "great" in any sense but also genuine and unconventional enough to resonate and take on a life of its own.

SnoopyStyle Neddy Merrill (Burt Lancaster) has been gone for some time. He takes a swim in a neighbor's pool. Friends start to gather and everybody is happy to see him. When somebody points out some of the great pools in the neighborhood, Neddy decides to swim the various pools until he reaches his home. He vows to swim home. Along the way, he invites his daughter's former babysitter Julie Ann Hooper (Janet Landgard), he meets friend who are polite, people who are angry at him and a former love.This is journey not only through the neighborhood but into his interior. All the small talk is covering for something tragic. It's obvious that he is trying to escape reality but all his friends talk in a circle. He is always looking towards the sky. There is something disturbing that nobody is willing to put a voice to. Burt Lancaster is brilliant and perfect. The visuals are mostly sunny. There is usually a happy but unsettled disposition. The tone and Lancaster make this a great movie.