The Swimmer
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Burt Lancaster, Janet Landgard, Janice Rule, Marge Champion, Tony BickleyDVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Japanese (Subtitled); Georgian (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-04-29
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures
Movie Reviews of The Swimmer
Movie Review: LANCASTER TAKES US FOR RIDE [..OR A SWIM] IN THOUGHT-PROVOKING CULT DRAMA
Summary: 5 Stars
The Swimmer is an unusual, unique movie that you will probably never forget. Hall of famer Burt Lancaster reaffirms his legendary acting prowess in this actionless and philosophical "trek" about a "successful" middle-aged man who spends a sun-drenched day in his life returning home in the burbs by traversing his neighbors' properties and swimming through their pools . He is ruggedly handsome, fit, glib and popular. He begins his journey poolsiding with rich friends who just say what he wants to hear and ends with some less rich "friends" who recall a less flattering past and tell him what he doesn't want to hear and what he probably doesn't know. Initially, the swimmer is admired and adulated but ultimately is admonished and abhorred. This film has a lot to do with an individual's veridical identity---an often turbulent balance of how we see and feel about ourselves [our subjective self] versus how others see us [our objective self]. Ideally, they should augment and reinforce each other. However, this is not often the case as we tend to pamper and imbibe ourselves with positive aspects of the former but often fear and avoid negative aspects of the latter. Unfortunately, the former is more prone to aberration by delusions and disease.
In his pool-hopping Lancaster tries to seduce a young woman half his age, tries to recapture an old flame he previously renounced, and has a weird encounter with a couple of elderly nudists, among other things. Upon sporadic query throughout this film his wife and kids back home are doing just fine and he is eager to return, but only via this creative and adventurous route. Some of the protagonists we bump into in this journey include Oscar winner Kim Hunter [A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, 1951], the always-attractive vet Janice Rule [also with Brando in THE CHASE, 1966], Diana Muldaur [remember her two Star trek episodes in 1968] and even a not-that-bad-looking Joan Rivers as a poolside pickup.
Lancaster's encounter with a small boy alone near his waterless pool was an insightful characterization. The boy is home alone, his parents away. Despite the dry, neglected pool Lancaster convinces the boy to descend into the pool and pantomime swimming across with him. It seems nothing will deter the ever-optimistic swimmer from accomplishing his goal. At the end, however, the boy, practical and concrete as are all his age, seems be aware of the futility of the swimmer's whim. The viewer seems to understand at this point that, unlike the boy, the swimmer is not cognizant of his isolation and solitude. You are left to wonder here whether the boy's ambivalence toward the swimmer results from the latter mirroring, at least in the boy's mind, his parents' tacit abrogation of him and their responsibilities to him.
What is A swimmer? Stripped of all that is corporeal for the buoyancy needed to accomplish his task with ease but rendering him open to exposure and attack, as all swimmers are usually equal and indistinguishable in form and function---though not ability---now open game for prejudgement and denouncement regardless of class or status. A swimmer has to come out into the open to parlay his practice. A swimmer is also a user---a user of wonderful physical laws for personal enjoyment and physical benefit. A swimmer must also stay on or near the top of his medium lest be crushed or collapsed by these same laws which do not permit descending too deep or rising from the depths too quickly. Obviously, the swimmer cannot be too bold or impulsive or be ignorant of the laws of his environ or he may be harmed or even perish. Though we can see a swimmer on the surface [arms, shoulders and back] there much of him that we do not see. He can easily hide and is always on the move---inconstant and surrepticious. It is only when the swimmer comes out of the water that we can clearly make out his face and underbelly.
Who is THE swimmer? Abhorring of clouds and rain, both crowds and solitude, stagnation, and interruption and having little regard for boundaries or privacy the swimmer is, among other things, an audacious exhibitionist [not in the prurient sense] and an escapist. In other words, a narcissist and a hedonist with an inflated sense of self, lacking in accountability for past or present actions. But with that ELMER GANTRY [1960] way about him he manages the subterfuge and win our sympathy for most of the film. The swimmer is not a bad guy, not evil or perverse, but just an absorbent product of where he came from and who got him here. And he is delusional, really believing he's a peach of a guy---great friend, cool dad, steadfast husband---aren't we all. The swimmer has many positive attributes: he is a passionate man, full of vigor, an eternal optimist, is friendly and has a sense of humor. But when times get tough people tend to steer toward individuals with another set of attributes---namely, courage, commitment, constancy and judgement.
Lancaster, who late in his career often seemed miscast, was exquisitely cast here. Few stars can captivate a viewer with such evocative expression of eyes and face, posture and delivery, than Lancaster whose early-in-the-film youthful insouciance and vigor, optimism and, of course, that perfect smile, turns the viewer into a sympathetic ally not aware of who this guy is underneath. Indeed, he does a wonderful job of deluding the viewer.
The swimmer's final pool to cross in his journey is a public pool owned by an obnoxious couple he once knew. They degrade him by insisting he pay his way through the pool just like anybody else. With only his trunks on, and not carrying any money, he further debases himself by asking for a handout from a stranger so he can enter the pool and complete the final leg of his obsession. The ending, where the humiliated Lancaster arrives back home only to find an empty, dilapidated structure---he pounds on the front door and nobody comes, rain pouring over the broken man---is stark and sad. At the end, the swimmer, in his symbolic unidirectional journey, comes to realize that his past actions, and their impact on those around him, are immutable. At the end, the swimmer finds out what many of us would prefer not to know, or may never know---who he really is and what place in the world he really has.
The score, by a pre THE WAY WE WERE and THE STING [ both 1973] Marvin Hamlisch, was melancholic and poignant and served the film very well carrying us through our developing disappointment of the swimmer and the eventual denudation of his character. The DVD has no extras. It does include a trailer for the movie which is excellent. Transfer and picture quality were excellent. Hopefully the Criterion Collection series will pick this one up some day and include the in-depth extras it deserves including some info about now-deceased author John Cheever and more about the great Lancaster.
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