Islands in the Stream
by Franklin J. Schaffner
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: David Hemmings, George C. Scott, Gilbert Roland, Richard Evans, Susan TyrrellDirector: Franklin J. Schaffner
Brand: Paramount
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Original Language); English (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-03-29
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Paramount
Movie Reviews of Islands in the Stream
Movie Review: Better than the novel
Summary: 4 Stars
It is fashionable in some circles to fault this work because it was not finished by Papa before his death. That seems to me a fair criticism of the novel, which shows clear style breaks and long passages that lack his usual wordsmithery.
The movie, on the other hand, is quite watchable, though by no means a cinematic masterpiece. As is often the case, it is probably best to consider the film as a thing-in-itself, avoiding constant comparisons with the written word. George C. Scott is masterful in exactly this kind of role--the tortured, driven soul with a crusty shell and a soft heart. He brings to a less than fully developed story line sufficient skill to realize the essence of the character he portrays. David Hemmings is great in the type of role idealized by Peter Lorre a generation before. The comparison is almost unavoidable.
Islands in the Stream is well worth watching as an exploration of disordered relationships and their tearing impact on the human soul. It has a sentimental three-hankie conclusion just saved from schmaltziness by the skill of the actors.
Summary of Islands in the Stream
Thomas Hudson (Scott) is an American sculptor whose self-imposed isolation on an island in the Bahamas is ended by two forces: the visit of his sons and the outbreak of World War II. Hudson attempts to guide his sons while coping with his own personal conflicts and the threat of war.The film of Ernest Hemingway's posthumously published novel has the air of an Important Event that never quite comes off. Here's Thomas, an artist who's outlived his artistry and settled into sun-kissed reclusiveness on one of the lesser Bahamas. With World War II literally rumbling on the luminous horizon, he divides his time between torturing metal into sculpture, lolling with semi-worshipful retainers and cronies, and committing occasional acts of petty, booze-induced, aimless destructiveness. He is, of course, not Ernest Hemingway. But if he were, who in 1979 would have more appropriately been asked to incarnate him than that disputatious, granite-jawed, reclusively inclined, Oscar-scorning actor George C. Scott? And who better to preside over the ceremony than Franklin J. Schaffner, the director of that earlier celebration of truculently rugged individualism, Patton?
Alas, Scott doesn't so much act as pose, and Schaffner sets up every shot and every encounter like a dust-jacket for a tasteful book-club edition (the DVD transfer is impeccably crisp; the images, stillborn). Thomas's attempts to bond with the three sons who come to visit after years of estrangement are painful, mostly because of the badness of the kids' dialogue and the worseness of the kid actors. However, as Thomas's boon companion Eddie--the "good man" rummy reminiscent of To Have and Have Not--David Hemmings is heartbreakingly fine. So, astonishingly, is the final reel, an absurdist adventure on the periphery of war... and we realize there could have been, should have been, a good movie in this bad idea for a movie after all. --Richard T. Jameson
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