The Swimmer
The Swimmer

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- 76/100 based on 12,911 votes
  • Released: 1968
  • Runtime: 95 mins
  • Director:
  • Studio: Columbia Pictures
  • Genres: Drama

Neddy Merrill has been away for most of the Summer. He reappears at a friend's pool. As they talk, someone notices that there are pools spanning the entire valley. He decided to jog from pool to pool to swim across the whole valley. As he stops in each pool his interactions tell his life story.... (Full plot summary below)

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Actors in The Swimmer:

Burt Lancaster
Janet Landgard
Janice Rule
Tony Bickley
Marge Champion
Nancy Cushman

Full Plot Details

Neddy Merrill has been away for most of the Summer. He reappears at a friend's pool. As they talk, someone notices that there are pools spanning the entire valley. He decided to jog from pool to pool to swim across the whole valley. As he stops in each pool his interactions tell his life story.

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Movie Reviews

Chicago Sun-Times - 10/10 by Roger EbertBurt Lancaster is superb in his finest performance.
Creative Loafing - 9/10 by Matt BrunsonA woefully forgotten gem from the 1960s ... a penetrating piece of introspection that was clearly ahead of its time.
Chicago Reader - 8/10 by J. R. JonesA resounding commercial flop, this has since been recognized as a signature 60s film, prescient in its view of American self-deception.
Blu-ray.com - 8/10 by Brian OrndorfBeautifully shot and executed, the effort is generous with disturbing, puzzling behavior, yet wise enough to provide clear clues to aid interpretation.
The Dissolve - 8/10 by Noel MurrayAs effectively as almost any movie ever made about American suburbia, The Swimmer gets the contentment that comes with material success[...] And it gets how the fantasy is hard to sustain.
culturevulture.net - 8/10 by Phil FreemanLike a series of hammer-blows to the gut.
Empire Magazine - 8/10 by Kim NewmanAn enigmatic, poetic, disturbing, interestingly pretentious fable.
New York Times - 7/10 by Vincent CanbyAs do few movies, The Swimmer stays in the memory like an echo that never quite disappears.
User Review - 10/10 by Garrett CHow can one review or explain this movie? It is nearly beyond criticism, it doesn't even seem like it should be classified as a film it's so out there. It's an existential drama of a man that the audience understands more about as we see him interact with people that he runs into as he stops by each of their swimming pool's. The film has plenty of intentional and possibly non-intentional offbeat humor, surrealistically strange social encounters, and unconventional camerawork. The script is brilliantly opaque throughout, and the music is so normal nice-60's A&M brass pop that it seems to comment on the abnormal events unfolding. At the center of the film is Lancaster's career performance, he had been in a lot of film's before this one but you can see how much he poured into making this one perfect. Lancaster becomes the man in his middle age struggling with his thirst for independence in the 60's, the new spirit coming over him and his body and reality of life failing him. There's a lot that could be said on this film, and I'll just say it's one of the finest I've seen because it pulls the viewer into its own world and gives you a lot to think about before you head out.
User Review - 10/10 by Fabian JThis masterpiece doesn't offer up its secrets easily, if at all. To say its a film about a bloke swimming home is like saying Ulysses is a book about a bloke wandering around Dublin. Burt Lancaster, never the most subtle of actors, delivers a mesmeric performance of a man and an age being slowly written out of history. This is much more than just a film, it's an idyll of complexity and fascinating enigmas. Memory, the loss of memory, the loss of time, delusion, confusion and the painful need for purpose are all intricately encapsulated in one day; "what a day, have you ever seen such a glorious day?"

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