The Swimmer (1968) User Reviews (192)

A dark voyage of self-discovery

[Red-Barracuda · 9/10 · 28 October 2010]

This hugely impressive and somewhat obscure film is a troubling psychological drama about a man called Ned Merrill (Burt Lancaster) who appears in his neighbourhood after an absence and decides to 'swim home' to his family house on the other side of the county via all of his neighbours swimming pools. The beauty of The Swimmer is the way in which it is so cleverly structured. At the outset, Merrill seems like a popular and successful businessman and family man but quickly cracks begin to show in his persona. The way in which this is communicated to the audience is via the reactions of the people Merrill meets on his journey. We increasingly discover as he travels from pool to pool that he is not only far from universally liked and respected but that he is also a mentally unstable man who appears to be living in some self-constructed fantasy world. The story-telling approach allows the audience to piece together the narrative from various fragmented bits of indirect information and other very direct hostile reactions. Each neighbour that Merrill encounters acts as a mirror which reflects a dark truth and a different protective layer is peeled back so that we increasingly see who and what Ned Merrill actually is. Among other things, via these encounters we discover that he is a poor friend, is an unfaithful husband and has trouble differentiating between fantasy and reality. As he gets closer to his home, the events he experiences get more and more brutal in their savage self-revelation. At the beginning of his journey he is a picture of health amongst his affluent suburbanite friends, while at the end he is a broken man who pathetically has to scrounge his way into a public pool. The gorgeous weather and beautiful greenery of the fabulous properties that Merrill travels through act as a direct comparison to the very dark nature of the actual story. This is a day in the life of a damaged man, a man who is clearly not a good person, a middle-aged man who in one very uncomfortable scene appears to make a pass on a teenage girl on the basis that she had a crush on him as a little girl. The Swimmer is certainly not a breezy tale despite the attractive setting.

Burt Lancaster is extraordinary in the central role. Repeat viewings of the film only emphasise the brilliance of his performance. It's a very complex role and Lancaster is the dark soul of this compelling tragedy. He is very ably supported too by a very nice pool of actors in the other roles. But it ultimately is Lancaster's vehicle. What makes the film so good though is the combination of this top-class acting, with a great script and intelligent narrative construction; add to that the beautiful suburban Connecticut scenery and you have a superlative drama. The Swimmer is an excellent film that doesn't necessarily give it's audience all the answers but it has enough respect for you as a viewer to allow you to construct it's puzzle yourself, it of course comes highly recommended.

Wonderfully Sad Portrait of Suburban Loneliness

[evanston_dad · 8/10 · 2 June 2006]

Frank Perry's screen adaptation of the achingly sad John Cheever short story gets the tone of Cheever's story just right, even if the movie itself doesn't have quite the same impact.

There have been countless strong and powerful films made around the theme of suburban loneliness, and this movie belongs to that genre. There's something so poignant about the idea that someone can exist in a world that's manufactured for the sole purpose of providing its inhabitants with luxury, pleasure and convenience, and still be miserable. You'd think people would have gotten the point by now, and figured out that privilege, wealth and materialism have virtually nothing to do with ultimate happiness, but if our own consumerist culture is any indication, they haven't.

What helps "The Swimmer" to stand out from other similarly-themed films is the way the story is told. It's only through the reactions of others that we begin to sense what's wrong with Burt Lancaster's character. To us, he looks the picture of middle-aged robustness and health. Lancaster became a much better actor as he aged, and he gives a wonderful performance here, as his bravado and macho virility (the strutting and preening of a man on top of the world) slowly dissolves into a lost insecurity, until the film's final devastating moments leave him as forlorn as a baby.

What a sad, sad movie.

Grade: A-

Swimming for Eden

[judsonkn · 9/10 · 21 September 2005]

Judging by the comments here, apparently I'm not the only one who was incredibly moved by this masterpiece--a masterpiece of storytelling on Cheever's part, that is, and a more than passable film portrayal of what one might call "the perfect short story." If HBO had existed in the 1960s, and Rod Serling had written for it, this is what "Twilight Zone" might have looked like: a tangled, twisted terrain of the human psyche that leads to the deepest of our fears--and the most profound of our hopes. The stakes for Ned Merrill, as we come to discover, are about as high as they can be for any character not caught in a literal life and death struggle. But he might as well be, judging by the size and fearsomeness of the phantoms that haunt his way. For this reason I think I'd say that other than *Glengarry Glen Ross,* this is the most terrifying film ever made.

In contrast to many others, however, I don't think Ned is delusional: I think he's spent so long believing his own publicity, as it were, that he hasn't fully accepted what has happened to him. (And of course, "what has happened to him" is almost entirely of his own making, which makes his predicament all the more painful because it seems to offer no hope of redemption.) And he's clearly one of those hail-fellow-well-met types who, when he promises he's going to do something for someone--as he continually does in the movie, right up to the point where he promises to pay his bill to a local proprietor--he truly means it, at least in the moment.

Additionally, "The Swimmer" seems like far too profound a work to tie it to themes as dreary and shopworn as the emptiness of suburban life or the dark side of the American dream. Granted, a great deal of powerful literature, dating back at least to Nathanael West's *Day of the Locust*, has been written around the second of these ideas, but "The Swimmer" seems to speak to something much deeper, a haunted place in the human soul. In the ads for the movie--which, in sharp contrast to the brilliant development of the story itself, attempted to lay out all the details in a way at once pedantic and almost pandering (as previews in those days tended to be), a voice-over asks if the viewer might see Ned in him- or herself.

*The Swimmer* is an epic, but an unusual one. Not because of the small scale and the deceptively trivial-seeming stakes involved it the epic journey--that's an idea Joyce introduced years earlier in *Ulysses*--but because of that journey's destination. Ned isn't going toward a new land, but back--back to nothing short of Eden. And if it's an epic, then he's a hero of sorts, and not entirely an antihero either. After all, even with all the things you learn about him along the way, it's hard not to root for Ned Merrill.

Come on in, the waters lovely!

[dgrahamwatson · 10/10 · 28 May 2005]

In the opening scene of the movie a man is seen scampering towards a swimming pool on a beautiful summers day, he dives into the pool, swims a couple of lengths only then to be greeted with a drink at the side of the pool. It is clear from the outset that although he knows the people, he has not seen them for a while. Don and Helen are surprised but genuinely pleased to see their guest and before long they are joined by another couple the Forsbergs who he also knows from his past, they too are overjoyed at this unscheduled reunion.

We are introduced to Ned Merrill a fit looking middle-aged man who comes across as friendly, likable, perhaps boastful but certainly easygoing. However, he becomes distracted when told of a neighbor the Grahams who have just installed a brand new swimming pool. To the perplexed group Ned announces that he plans to swim home via his neighbours pools. "This is the day Ned Merril swims across the county", he promptly swims a length leaps out of the pool and then jogs away.

At the Grahams he is also welcomed with enthusiasm particularly from Mrs. Graham, and at this stage we also learn that Ned Merrill is a popular ladies man as he easily flirts with all the womenfolk he meets. However, at the third house the mother of an old friend confronts him as he leaves the pool, she is hostile to him and instructs him never to come around again. This is in sharp contrast to the previous people he encountered and the viewer is left as confused as Ned seems to be.

At the fourth pool things return to normal, Ned meets a young woman who used to baby-sit his children when they were younger. To the astonishment of her sister and brother she thinks his idea of swimming to his home via neighbours pools is fascinating and offers to join him. They both make their way through the tranquil countryside joking and talking about the old days with out a care in the world. The girl Julie a happy go lucky 20 year old who seems at ease with Ned and informs him that when she was younger she had a crush on him.

After another friendly encounter at another home full of party-goers who are also pleased to see him, it now becomes clear that Ned was fired from a high flying executive position. Despite trying to put forward a positive persona and ducking awkward questions from the guests he swiftly leaves with Julie.

By this time Ned has become fixated by Julie and decides to sit down for a while after spraining his ankle while jumping a fence. He is overcome by her beauty and tells her of his true feelings. Julie is shocked and grossed out at this man trying to take advantage of her and decides to bolt and runs back the way she came leaving a stunned and pitiful looking Ned alone by himself. Gone is the beaming complexion and the confident posture for it to be replaced by an edgy and confused look as well as a hunched demeanor. The fit middle-aged man, charming and energetic at the beginning starts to look weak and pathetic as he limps a lonely walk to his next pool.

From this point on things get worse for Ned Merrill and it seems the nearer he gets to his home the greater the hostility from folks. They all know him but do not want to associate with him. The viewer also begins to feel uncomfortable about Ned,however, this is tempered only by the dislike for the people he meets on his way. At best they are pompous, loud, arrogant, shallow and at worse self-centered, smug and cruel.

The ending of the swimmer is quite shocking, Ned's American dream is in reality a nightmare, and you are left with an empty feeling. Now you know where he has been all along and why his neighbours have not seen him for a while. It is obvious from the first two houses that he is hiding something and this is confounded by some of the confused expressions on the faces of Ned's old friends; they know something that the viewer doesn't. You are not sure if Ned Merrill is just simply embarrassed and is trying to put on brave face by acting as if things are normal, or else has suffered some form of mental breakdown due to his life imploding on him. At first you believe the former but as the film progresses you begin to see signs of his delusion, confusion and irritability, that quickly points to the latter.

For example, having trouble with his memory and his unwillingness or inability to comprehend the reality of his misfortunes. It would also explain his misreading of Julie's desire to be with him; it was not come on but rather the need to be with a mature fatherly figure. Was he was imagining that he was younger and in the early stages of courtship with his wife? Was his obsession with the past and his wish to swim the county a desire to rekindle happiness from his adolescence? The swimmer is an engrossing film however it is also disturbing because it exposes the shallowness of suburban life with its trappings of materialism and social status in a provocative way.

In addition it also raises the spectacle of how callous and contemptuous people can be when you have lost your social gravitates as a consequence of family or employment upheaval. In the swimmer many were all too eager to use the opportunity to mock Ned Merrill now that he had fallen from grace, the men because their wives had desired him and the women because he had rejected them. Others just simply on the basis of past envy, jealousy and resentment toward his family and status.

Great, great, great movie!

[jazerbini · 10/10 · 5 May 2018]

The Swimmer is one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen. The story is simple but unusual. A successful executive - Ned Merrill - (in the end we realize that this is not quite so), in a psychological trance, imagine being in a time before the real and decides to "go home", the metaphor that supports the film. His return happens in a planned way, passing by the pools of his friends and acquaintances, forming what he calls "The River Lucinda", in fact his dream of returning to the woman he lost in his uncontrolled life. In this dream he thinks of his two daughters who would be expecting him too. And by the way he traces he finds people who still consider him and people who despise him, the fruit of what he did of his life until then. It is a very strong metaphor and produces a gigantic film. Burt Lancaster, I think, made the best part of his career here. I think this film could only have been performed with him in the lead role. Each one of us is incorporated into the story, living with Ned all his dramas, every moment of his "return home." The sequence in which he fights a race with a horse is the most perfect that is known, is exquisite. And he finds women who were part of his past not well understood, but that gives us the dimension of a superficial life and frivolities. Actress Janice Rule has here, too, one of her biggest moments in the movies. It's beautiful. The unexpected and perfect ending of the film completes this vigorous story of a man who has lost his way in life and can not find himself again. I watched The Swimmer in 1968 when it was released and I've been watching it regularly over the last 50 years. Each time I discover a detail, a situation that I did not perceive well, it is an incredible experience. Great, great, great movie!

The Swimmer: A Psychological Puzzle To Solve

[jm000 · 24 February 2004]

Ned Merrill, a Park Avenue (New York) executive, who marries into money (his wife Lucinda), produces two daughters (Ellen and Aggie) and lives a self-centered, self-serving, philandering life in a wealthy suburban community in Connecticut, has been absent from his social circle for a while. The entire story takes place on the day that he reappears. The length of his absence and where he was and what he was doing during the absence remains a mystery in this story. All that is certain is that Ned has had some sort of psychological break (amnesia or repression) and has lost the last two years of his memory. He thinks that it is two years earlier than it actually is. Generally, whatever was going on in his life two years ago is what he thinks is going on in this life on this day. Complicating this basic problem is an unstable perception of time, in which Ned's mind regresses in time during the course of this day, this regression revealing itself in Ned's comments concerning his daughters, Ned describing his daughters as being younger and younger as the day wears on until he is partially shocked back to reality (at the eighth pool, that of the Biswangers) into thinking that it is only two years earlier than it actually is. Between this partial shock back to reality and the end of the story, Ned is forced to remember what he has chosen to forget. On this day, Ned Merrill decides to `swim across the county,' that is, to `swim home' on `the Lucinda River,' a trek comprised of ten swimming pools that lead to his house: (1) the pool of Don and Helen Westerhazy, (2) the pool of Howard and Betty Graham, (3) the pool of Mrs. Hammar (this pool is not mentioned when Ned initially maps out the Lucinda River), (4) the pool of Mr. and Mrs. Lear, (5) the pool of Roger and Enid Bunker, (6) the pool of Mr. and Mrs. Halloran, (7) the pool of Mr. and Mrs. Gilmartin, (8) the pool of Henry and Grace Biswanger, (9) the pool of Shirley Abbott and (10) the public swimming pool. The evidence of what Ned has chosen to forget (as well as some things that he never knew), like pieces of puzzle, is revealed in what is said by the people with whom Ned interacts on this day, whereas what Ned chooses to remember is revealed in what he himself says. A good movie, I think. The viewer has to pay attention to the details in order to put the puzzle together. Burt Lancaster was 53 to 55 years of age during the filming of this movie. Most guys stop looking that healthy 20 years earlier.

The Stately Pools of Greenwich

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 13 April 2012]

This curious picture which could never break out from the art houses is one where Burt Lancaster gives a fine performance, maybe one of his best. The type of story that this is based on is one however that does not translate easily to the screen and the overall results are less than the top.

The Swimmer is based on a John Cheever short story and it's about a man who decides while visiting friends at one end of Fairfield County to swim in all the pools that the folks in his rich set have built on the way home. As he visits each home bit by bit we learn about him and the results in the end show a man quite frankly at the end of his rope.

Burt Lancaster probably was uniquely qualified to play Neddy Merrill. He was 54 when he made The Swimmer, but Lancaster who started out as a circus acrobat always kept himself in good physical shape. By the time he made The Swimmer he had the acting chops as well as the physical appearance to pull off the part.

More from the reaction shots of the people around him although their dialog becomes more and more explicit as time goes on, we learn about Lancaster's fall from grace in the set. He was a man who had achieved the American dream, wife, two daughters, big home in the fanciest of suburbs. But that's all fallen apart for him as bit by bit of his life and character are revealed. The last shots of Lancaster as he achieves this goal tell you all how worthless the swim trip has been.

Lancaster's best scenes are with young Michael Kearney as he tells him being the best early on won't necessarily translate to the good life. Also with Janet Landgard who was 'introduced' in this film after playing Paul Petersen's girlfriend on the Donna Reed Show. She was a beautiful young woman, wonder whatever happened to her.

We also cannot forget that encounter with his former mistress Janice Rule. She really cuts him down to size, but shows pangs of regret doing it. You also get a good picture of Lancaster's wife who is never seen who must have been obsessed with keeping up with the rich Jones that hang out in her neighborhood. His wife and kids must have sucked the life out of him.

The Swimmer was not a film for the mass market and parts of it are better than others. It starts out actually quite dull, but picks up more and more as you reach a shattering climax. Definitely an unusual assignment for Burt Lancaster.

Unique, Beautiful, and Haunting

[captaingeek · 10/10 · 31 July 2009]

I still have dreams where I'm at summer camp; 10 years old and running through the woods. The sun barely breaks through the thick forest canopy. There is no way for me to recapture that feeling in my adult life. No backpacking trip in a national park or well-planned vacation to an unspoiled beach can provide it. This is the problem of privilege: What seems to be a gift is really a loan. We spend the rest of our lives paying back this debt. This movie is fantastic. Burt Lancaster is the man. If you are a film fan and an American and you have not yet seen this film, then be careful! Save this one for a rainy day because you won't find many more like it. It's about living in the past, in a dream of what the present should be. It's about a privileged, womanizing, self-obsessed middle aged man who comes up with a plan to swim home that is clear only to him. "Why would you want to do that?", people keep asking him. Watch this movie alone and then don't talk to anyone about it. Keep it secret. Let it fuel you.

A Suburban Nightmare

[wes-connors · 6/10 · 23 May 2010]

On a glorious summer Sunday in Connecticut, buff Burt Lancaster (as Ned "Neddy" Merrill) finds himself separated from his suburban home, clad in only swimming trunks. He decides to "swim home," going from pool to pool. As it turns out, Mr. Lancaster knows all the residents in the area. And, each swimming pool brings him closer to his destination. At first, it seems like smooth sailing - but, evidently, not everyone is happy to see Lancaster. Each property reveals a little more about "The Swimmer", who may be psychologically unraveling in middle-aged angst. When his journey ends, you may be in for a surprise. Or, you may not.

****** The Swimmer (5/15/68) Frank Perry ~ Burt Lancaster, Janice Rule, Janet Landgard, Michael Kearney

Way ahead of its time film about the falseness of the American Dream.

[RedRoadster · 9/10 · 4 November 2008]

"The Swimmer" is a one of a kind movie, adapted from a John Cheever short story.

The Film opens with the sound of footsteps moving through the woods accompanied by a low eerie music. Occasionally animals and scenes of nature both in daylight and at night come into the cameras focus. The camera moves along looking at trees, a lake and the wildlife clearly representing what someone is seeing as they walk along. Eventually, a man clad only in a pair of black swimming trunks emerges from the woods, skips up to the edge of a suburban swimming pool and dives in. Having swum a couple of lengths he is greeted at one end by the owner of the house holding out a drink and welcoming him to come and join his guests. The Swimmer is Ned Merrill (Burt Lancaster) and it soon becomes apparent that everyone at the house knows him and is happy to see him. He is charming and charismatic with the male guests and flirtatious with the females who obviously find him attractive. The other guests have not seen him for quite some time and when Ned is asked where he has been he evasively states "here and there." When further questioned if he has had a good summer he replies "sure, just great." The guests then begin to look puzzled when he gives answers to further questions that just don't seem to make any sense. They exchange confused looks and clearly know something that we don't. Ned, whilst looking out over the Connecticut valley begins to get an idea that he could swim in stages back to his house by using briefly the pools of several of his neighbours. he boldly announces that today he plans to "swim across the county !"

As Ned visits each house and swims in each pool something more is revealed about his life and how he has behaved towards others in the past. Some people are pleased to see him, others are contemptuous of him and a few downright hate the sight of him.

What becomes clear (SPOILER AHEAD) is that Ned has been away for a long time and re emerges into the life he once knew believing that it is about two years earlier than the present. He appears to have been a high flying Manhattan advertising executive who had the house, the car, the wife and the money but lost it all by living a life of pure selfishness. We are told that he married into the upper middle class and seems to have been given most of the success he enjoyed. At the various different pools he is revealed as a cheating husband, a bad father, a crook and a "fair weather friend". The result of his behaviour was that his wife either kicked him out or he was fired from his job or both.

It is possible that Ned's fall from grace brought about a nervous breakdown which has led to his memory loss and distorted view of reality. He may have even been hospitalised for the period that he is absent from the neighbourhood, but the absence is never explained. It is also unclear what became of his wife and daughters. They might simply have left him, but there are hints that they may actually be dead.

The final scene where Ned eventually arrives "home" and his disillusionment is brought crashing back to reality is a great piece of symbolic storytelling.

Most of "The Swimmer" was shot in 1966 and finally released in 1968. Maybe back then audiences weren't ready to question the themes that are raised. Central to the story is the falseness of the American dream and how if you're not "somebody" you're not only a nobody, but you're also not even welcome. The film "American Beauty" made in 1998 takes the same swipe at society and is a great film in its own right, but "The Swimmer" made thirty years earlier, is so much more effective at exposing the corrupt underbelly of the professional suburban existence.

Burt Lancaster played many memorable roles and was certainly in much more enjoyable movies, but I think he does his finest acting in "The Swimmer." He is perfect as the arrogant yet vulnerable and bemused Ned who cant work out whats going on. The movie does appear dated today and the musical score is very sixties, but any serious film fan should definitely see this at least once. It really is unforgettable.

The Swimmer

[jboothmillard · 7/10 · 21 July 2019]

I was told that this classic film was worth watching, it sounded like it has an odd plot to me, but it is well rated by critics as well, so I was up for chancing it, directed by Frank Perry (Mommie Dearest), and Sydney Pollack (Tootsie, Out of Africa) (uncredited). Basically, on a sunny day in an upper-class neighbourhood of suburban Connecticut, a fit and tanned middle-aged man in a bathing suit, Ned Merrill (Burt Lancaster), drops in on his old friends, the Westerhazys. Ned jumps into their swimming pool with much energy and vitality, and he realises there is a series of backyard swimming pools forming a "river" back to his house, so he decides to "swim his way home". Ned dives into the pool, emerging at the other end and beginning his journey, his behaviour perplexes his friends, who know of bad things in his recent past that he seems to have forgotten. As Ned travels, he encounters other neighbours and friends. He meets twenty-year-old Julie Hooper (Janet Landgard), who used to babysit his daughters, whom he repeatedly refers to as "at home playing tennis". He reveals his plan to her; she joins him. They crash another pool party, drink champagne and swim another pool. While stopping to rest in the woods, Julie confesses to Ned that she had a schoolgirl crush on him, he says he will protect her and makes plans for the two of them. Julie is made to feel awkward with his intimate approaches, she runs away. Ned next visits the home of a wealthy eccentric couple who are bathing in the nude, he follows suit and strips to swim their pool. He then encounters lonely little boy Kevin Gilmartin (Michael Kearney), who he tries to teach how to swim. They find the next pool is abandoned, and empty, Ned initially thinks his journey is ruined, but then he urges them to use their imagination as he teaches him swimming strokes. Kevin warms his method, as Ned leaves the boy bounces on the diving board, Ned stops him before he hurts himself. Ned makes only superficial connections with people as he continues his journey, he has become obsessed and increasingly out of touch with reality. The neighbourhood is full of judgmental, well-heeled people, and Ned continues to be confused by hints that his life might not be as untroubled as he believes it to be. Ned carries on with his plan. He walks into another party, the hostess who recognises him playfully calls him a "party crasher". He has an encounter with a bubbly woman named Joan (Joan Rivers), he asks her to join him, she is intrigued until she's warned off by a friend. Ned jumps into the pool, making a big splash which grabs the attention of the guests. When he emerges from the water, he notices a cart that used to be his, being used to serve hot dogs. Ned gets into an argument with the homeowner, who says he bought it at a yard or garage sale. Ned is pushed to the ground, and he leaves the party with all the guests staring at him. Ned then shows up at the backyard pool of Shirley Abbott (Janice Rule), an actress he had an affair with several years earlier. He has warm memories of their time together, but she is angry with him being "the other woman". He tries to reconnect, reconcile, or perhaps seduce her, but Shirley demands him to leave. Unaware of the pain he has really caused, Ned wades into the deep end of the pool. Ned goes on, showing up at a crowded public swimming pool. With no money he begs the staff to let him swim one length of the pool, a friend helps pay for him to enter, but he is also stopped momentarily for the state of his feet, which are dirty and have developed bloody sores. There people who know him demand he pays his bills, and make vicious comments about his wife's snobbish tastes, it becomes too much for him and he flees. Ned trudges barefoot alongside a busy highway as the sky gets dark and it begins to rain. With the rain pouring, Ned limps and staggers home, walking through the tennis court he claimed his daughters were playing in. His home and the court are in fact derelict, and his house is locked and deserted, with several windows broken. Ned is a broken man and repeatedly bashes on the door before slumping to the ground is despair. Also starring Kim Hunter as Betty Graham, Charles Drake as Howard Graham, Tony Bickley as Donald Westerhazy, Marge Champion as Peggy Forsburgh, Bill Fiore as Howie Hunsacker, and Diana Van der Vlis as Helen Westerhazy. Lancaster gives a terrific performance, wearing only swimming shorts throughout, as washed-up suburban man on a journey, not only to swim all pools in the neighbourhood, but to find himself, this human study has slightly dark elements, which contrast with the lovely sunny locations, and it is full of clever metaphors about alienation and events of the time, the score by Marvin Hamlisch adds to it as well, an interesting drama. Very good!

Absolutely unique

[RNMorton · 10/10 · 12 October 1999]

This movie is not for everyone, but everyone I know who's seen it admits that it's one-of-a-kind. Burt Lancaster is flat-out powerful in the lead, as the man who decides one day to swim his way through his neighbors' pools to his home. As he makes his way pool by pool we learn more and more about Burt's real character. A kaleidoscopic study of how we see ourselves, versus how others see us. One of my favorites, please give this movie a shot.

The day that Neddy Merrill swam across the county.

[brogmiller · 7/10 · 3 March 2022]

John Cheever's short story of 1964 is his most anthologised and here Eleanor Perry, wife of director Frank, has achieved the feat of expanding its twelve pages into a film of ninety five minutes. Cheever's prose is meticulous of course but the tale itself is relatively uneventful and the participants insubstantial so that plenty of fleshing out of episodes and characters has been required, even to the point of adding a few!

Two of the additions are Julie played by newcomer Janet Lindgard who admits to having had a teenage crush on the Ned Merrill of Burt Lancaster but then repulses his advances. The other is the boy Kevin of Michael Kearney with whom Ned 'swims' the length of an empty pool. It is during this scene that Ned utters the crucial words that provide a key to his character:"if you make believe hard enough that something is true, then it is true for you."

We never discover the nature of Ned's 'misfortune' and what has caused his fall from grace although it is hinted at by various characters throughout his aquatic odyssey across the quasi-subterranean string of swimming pools that lead to his home. In believing that his previously affluent life has not changed is he suffering from the ultimate self-deception or has he had a mental breakdown? It is both fitting and ironic that the grim reality of his situation is brought home to him not in the private pools of his social set but by some distinctly unpleasant people in the public swimming baths.

The most telling encounter is that of Ned and a former lover Shirley Abbott played by Janice Rule. What is the briefest of exchanges in the original story has been developed here into one of the bitterest scenes between male and female on film. Ned approaches her with great optimism but his hopes are soon dashed when she lashes out at him for his selfishness and thoughtlessness which leads to his self-pitying lament "we are all going to die."

Could this be the true meaning of Cheever's story I wonder and is this simply an allegory for the ageing process? At the opening of the story Ned is described by Cheever as resembling 'the last hours of a summer's day.' As his journey progresses his stamina is sapped, he feels chilly and his bones begin to ache. I trust it is not too fanciful to see in this the inevitable decline from glorious summer, through the sere and yellow leaf of autumn to the winter of discontent. Just a theory of course.

What is certain however is that this is one of Mr. Lancaster's finest performances and interesting to learn that prior to making this, not only was he unable to swim, he suffered from aquaphobia!

A disappointment

[insomnia · 4/10 · 31 August 2008]

I have read most of John Cheever's short stories including "The Swimmer". Like all of his writing, it's beautifully crafted, and as always, a joy to read. While not surprised that Hollywood would want to film this story I avoided seeing it when it first came out forty odd years ago, mainly because I didn't believe it was the kind of story that would translate successfully to celluloid. After sitting down and watching it on DVD, I still think I am right. I am at a loss to understand why "The Swimmer" didn't succeed as a film. Maybe the problem lies with the screenplay. The writer has added two characters that are not in the original story. I can understand why the writer hoped to add a little 'meat' to an already 'thin' story with the addition of these characters. Unfortunately, all this does is slow the tempo of the film down to a snail's pace. The first distraction is when Ned Merrill meets a former babysitter of his. Ned persuades her to join him in his quest to "swim home" So for a time, we are treated to multiple scenes of Ned and the babysitter casually strolling through the woods. The other diversion is when Ned meets up with a small boy playing the recorder while hoping someone will come along and buy his homemade lemonade. This scene is even more maudlin than the one with the babysitter. Then again, the director I feel, was out of his depth when he set about filming this story. Technically, the film is a bit of a dog's dinner. Some scenes are plainly out of focus. The editing is too jerky. The continuity is appalling. Some shots are even repeated. The sight lines seem all wrong, somehow. As for the music by Marvin Hamlisch, it's pure Hollywood schmaltz. The whole premise underpinning "The Swimmer" is one of exigency, not torpor. Ned Merrill, in the book, has but one thing on his mind, and that's to accomplish what he set out to do as quickly as he can which is why Neddy eschews engaging in idle chatter with the folks he encounters poolside to the point of appearing rude. The saving grace in this film is the performance by Burt Lancaster as Ned Merrill. Like in the story, Burt Lancaster portrays Ned Merrill as a man who radiates confidence while at the same time is plainly in self-denial. Sadly, for this viewer, Frank Perry's version of "The Swimmer" has ended up dead in the water.

A strong movie, rarely seen, with a telescoping metaphor

[Queseyo · 20 June 2000]

I saw this movie in 1968 when it came out, and have never been able to forget it. I never found anyone who had ever heard of it--a shame. It's my favorite Burt Lancaster performance: I can't imagine anyone else doing the role justice.

When Neddy is ready to leave the garden cocktail party he has been invited to, he looks out across the valley and sees the row of pools, all belonging to his neighbors. He's obviously a poet, and sees the chain of pools as a river (Metaphor). He decides to swim back home. Little does he, or we, know at this point what going home means! He goes from house to house, he greets his friends and jumps into their pools. We become a little worried as things seem to get a little out of hand--a little more so at each house. It's not long before we realize that this "river" is (Meta-Metaphor!) a trip through time, through his life--and that he has made one fine mess of it. The ending is amazing, and almost unbearable.

Swimming home

[jotix100 · 8/10 · 8 September 2009]

Ned Merrill, the man in the center of this story, appears out of nowhere and takes a dip in the pool of the Forsburghs, who are his neighbors in suburban Connecticut. They act as though Ned is a long time friend, although one notices a certain reluctance in the part of the hostess to warm up to Ned. Our swimmer, looking to the distant homes nearby, declares he will swim across the area through all his neighbors' pools until he reaches home. This is quite an undertaking because he will have to cover a big area. As Ned Merrill keeps dropping on his neighbors a new image of him is made clear. His good looks and his athletic figure disguise a man that is miserable and has failed as a husband and as a father.

Ned's encounter with Julie Ann Hopper, the former baby sister he employed to mind his daughters, starts on an upbeat note. Julie Ann confesses on the big crush she had on him. He invites her to come with him swimming until he reaches his own home. Unfortunately, Ned tries too hard to make an impression in the young woman, something that turns her off completely, and the spell he had on her is broken. Julie Ann ends up running away appalled at Ned's sudden interest in her appears to be more sexual than friendly. Her idea of the man she secretly loved is shattered.

Ned meets all types of people; some are friendly, while others aren't exactly welcoming, like Mrs. Hammar, who tells him how he is not welcome in her house, let alone, in her pool. She resents him deeply for the way she perceived his treatment of his dying son. Ned strikes a good chord with the lonely boy selling lemonade. Not having money on him, Ned has to cut a deal with the child, plus he is instrumental in dispelling the fear of drowning from the boy when they enter the empty pool.

When he arrives at Shirley Abbot's patio, he gets a cool reception. We realize that both have been lovers, although all Shirley feels now is contempt for the man she loved so much. More of Ned's life is revealed as Shirley throws in his face all she had to put up with him and the hypocrisy of their relationship because he had no intentions in leaving his wife and daughters.

The last pool where Ned tries to swim proves to be the one where his past comes to play a trick on him. Not having the fifty cents for the entrance fee, he turns to Howie, a tradesman in town, and his friend Jack Finney, to lend him the money. As he exits the pool Howie and his wife, and Jack and his, confront Ned because the way he had used their services and not paid his bills.

The pathetic arrival of Ned to his dilapidated and run down house, is an affirmation of the image one had in one's mind about what appeared to be a secure and dashing man. Instead of a hero, Ned is more a creature that deserves pity. He had wasted his potential, and the happiness of his family pursuing a life that was instrumental in destroying what might have been a happy marriage. Now, broken in the middle of the pouring rain Ned is reduced to nothing.

"The Swimmer", a novel by John Cheever, chronicled the life in suburbia, that he knew so well. It took an important director, Frank Perry, to bring the book to the screen. Let's not forget that Mr. Perry had a string of films that are as important today as when they were produced, namely, "David and Lisa", "Diary of a Mad Housewife", "Last Summer", among them. "The Swimmer" was adapted by his wife, Eleanor, this 1968 film doesn't show any signs of aging, perhaps because of the situation presented is real and it keeps repeating itself. Dennis Quaid cinematography captures that ideal setting of rural Connecticut, its country homes and estates. Marvin Hamlish composed the musical score that blends perfectly with appears on the screen. Supposedly Sidney Pollack helped Mr. Perry, although he gets no credit for his efforts.

The best in the film is the inspired performance of Burt Lancaster. He makes a credible Ned Merrill with his good looks and physique. Mr. Lancaster's performance begins in a high note giving us the impression he is above his neighbors, who appear to resent him for what might be his success in life, although as the story develops, he is seen in another light by the viewer. Several performances are worth mentioning. Janice Rule as the suffering former lover does wonders with her role. Same can be said of Janet Landgard, who appears as Julie Ann. Others in the large cast are Kim Hunter, Marge Champion, Jan Miner, Rose Gregorio, and Cornelia Otis Skinner.

"The Swimmer" deserves a look thanks to the great work of Frank Perry and the inspired performance of Burt Lancaster.

a terrific adaptation of Cheever -- and one of Burt Lancaster's best

[jai-38 · 8/10 · 24 January 2007]

A man beyond middle-age living in tony, upscale Connecticut environs decides to swim home from one neighbors' swimming pool to another, drinking cocktails all along the way, engaging in friendly, empty banter and confronting all the demons of his life -- most of his own making. This is a late '60s experiment (and, thankfully, they were more experimental in the main in the '60s than today) that takes an exceptional short story by the uniquely American master teller of modern tales, John Cheever, and expands it into a character piece for the wonderful Burt Lancaster. Here he's playing an ordinary business executive stuck in an early '60s, three martini lunch time warp, a Viet Nam era/Hippie-Nation prevailed-upon Upper West side would-be master of the universe. A man who is strangely out of place and out of time and will suffer a fate, maybe cruel, maybe just, but one that he is entirely complicit in despite any protest. This is engagingly dark stuff told under the glare of a late summer bright sunny sky. The film's flaws are bound to its era of production -- auto-camera zooms and sunlight flares and delirious music montages -- but they mean little compared to the hyper-sophisticated smarts of its dialogue and the performances, obviously from Lancaster, but also the unique variety of women he encounters from his past before arriving at his horrible present. "It's a beautiful day! Look at that sky, look at that blue water!"

Drowning

[nickrogers1969 · 6/10 · 13 May 2008]

The idea of the film is good but probably better in the book. A man gets the brilliant idea to swim home in a neighborhood where everyone has a pool. Along the way he meets people from his life and pieces of his past reveal what has happened to him. He isn't as well liked as he thinks.

The film has many good bit parts for people playing his neighbors, among them a sensitive Joan Rivers! The photography gives a good feeling of the place but the editing is not the best. Several minutes could easily be trimmed down. The story does not say enough about the man's character or his earlier actions. The film could have been more and I understand why it was not a hit and quite forgotten until recently. Could be remade!

An attempt to explore Ned Merrill's life....

[gregory-joulin · 9/10 · 26 July 2011]

--- Spoilers ---

I love this movie so much it's hard for me to write any kind of in-depth analysis about it.... and the fact that other reviewers did it perfectly well doesn't encourage either.

One of the great strengths of this eerie film is that we'll never be revealed what happened to Ned Merrill and to his family, so that many viewers can figure out their version of the personal background story for Ned. Well, I'd like to try to figure out my own, just for fun.

1- Basic facts, given very early in the picture: Ned's been away for quite a long time, as it seems, something like two years. He appears to have been a big corporate executive in Manhattan, rich enough to live in some big mansion located in a wealthy neighborhood. He has a wife, Lucinda, and two daughters. Strangely enough, he only shows up dressed in swimming trunks, bare foot, without any car or vehicle of any kind. Even if he carries himself well, and seems in very good shape, he has a tendency not to answer questions about himself, his life, his family, or in the vaguest way. (Writing skills from John Cheever and the screenwriter: by giving these specific informations early, they're setting up the odd tone of the film.)

2- Derived facts or light extrapolations: Ned has problems to remain focused (even in the middle of a conversation), he seems "elsewhere", delusional. We're pretty sure he's subject to hallucinations, and we also get the point quickly he cannot see reality as it is. When confronted to hostile people, he looks astounded, totally surprised, as if woken up in an abrupt way. He then loses all his arrogant self-confidence, and at times runs away, literally. (The good filmmaking quality gives the audience the ability to often view things from three points of views: Ned's, his counterparts' - male or female, aged or young, friendly or hostile - and our external point of view.)

3- Interpretations and extrapolations: everybody seems to recognize Ned easily, from residents to employees, and even teenagers have recollections about him (fourth pool). Needless to say that Ned was some sort of a big man on campus, which could explain why few people will take a chance to push him out directly, only three actually. A kind of "The higher they rise, the harder they fall" situation is plausible, of course, but beside the obvious fact that Ned got bankrupted, other disturbing elements about him are revealed: his educational skills seem poor (he isn't paying much attention to the little boy's safety by the empty pool), he was a definitive womanizer and acting unfaithfully to his wife, while other people seemed aware of it (first pool), he is accused directly to be a crook (recreational center pool) and less than concerned by others' health (the encounter with the mother on third pool). We're also proposed to believe he was a kind of cynical jerk, unable to appreciate the simple pleasures of life, which he apparently can now (the race with the horse). And last but not least, he's portrayed as an actor of segregation (the surrealistic conversation with the African-American Rolls Royce driver) and a miser fellow, as well (sixth pool). (Rather than explaining things with long pieces of dialog, the counterparts' reactions to Ned's behavior and words build a precious indicator of Ned's past life and times.)

4- Questions: why do some people seem so uneasy when Ned's around? In a scene where he clumsily tries to seduce a woman who never met him before, the lady's husband takes her aside and as he whispers something to her hear, her face gets distraught instantly. Some other people won't hesitate to bully him (eighth pool), humiliate him, pity him or even insult him (the whole recreational center pool sequence). Why this violence? Do Ned's past acts make him deserve this? If he's been just kicked out of his mansion by his wife, why is the house in such a poor condition? Is it more than two years he's been away? Why ain't there any pool in his own backyard?

So, my assumption? A few years before the movie begins, Ned Merrill was a big shot of an executive, messing around with others, doing only what he wants (the tennis court instead of a swimming pool, the girls must've been pleased), selfish, ignorant, and unfaithful. For some reason, he got bankrupted and his wife, tired of his lies and unwilling to go on with a new life at a smaller scale, decided to leave him, taking her daughters with her. Enraged by this, Ned hit his wife, almost killed her, and therefore got committed to a mental institution, where he received heavy therapy, perhaps shock treatment. Released from the institution, he comes back to his old neighborhood, wandering around, brainwashed (maybe for days, that would explain his sun tan), with all remembrances of the drama wiped. As he decides to pay a visit to his friends at the first pool, his mind starts to trigger his memory

Great acting, excellent simple, pure storyline

[destroyedcelluloid · 7/10 · 9 February 2005]

One day someone told me I would like this film. I had not heard of it before, but when they outlined the plot I thought it sounded interesting. So i took the 'plunge' and bought it. And they were right.

Not previously familiar with Lancaster's work after seeing this I think he is an amazing actor. They way he seems so childishly oblivious to events in the beginning to his shattering realisation at the end, the guy is incredible.

Lancaster is a guy who one day decides to swim his way home, via all his neighbour's pools. Stopping for chats and drinks Antwan (and even a frolic in some woods with a buxom blonde teenager!). It appears at first he is doing this for fun, then snippets of things that some neighbours say unveil a darker story. This is a weirder film than it sounds, they way things happen and the interactions with the neighbour's is occasionally surreal.

The fact that this film is so good should serve as a reminder of how today's blockbusters rely on ever more grandiose action and sfx scenes to carry their films, If this film was written today I don't think it would have a chance of being made, where has the art of story-telling gone? With little or no sex, violence or sfx, this is similar to The Graduate in that it is a very pure and simple yet incredibly interesting story, and for such a restricted location/storyline, there isn't a dull moment! Highly recommended.

Cleansing of the Soul

[sol1218 · 10/10 · 4 November 2003]

"The Swimmer" was a critical and financial disappointment back in 1968 when it was released because it was a subject matter that was never covered before in the movies, as far as I know. The film was so ahead of it's time that the viewers back then couldn't quite understand just what it was trying to tell them.

The movie starts off with Ned Merrill, Burt Lancaster, coming out of the woods in rural Connecticut wearing nothing more then bathing trunks to his neighbors Donald and Helen Westerhazy, Tony Bickley and Diana Vander Vils, home. After impulsively taking a dive into the Westerhazy's swimming pool Ned gets the idea of going home by swimming in all of his neighbors pools, that ring the neighborhood, until he reaches his home on the other side of the woods.

The Westerhazy's seem happy and at the same time surprised to see Ned who seems, by their conversation with him, to have been away for some time. From what we can gather from the talk between Ned and the Westerhazy's Ned's, or Naddy as they call him, a very successful person in both his work and his marriage to his lovely wife Lucinda with whom he has two beautiful daughters; in short Ned is a success in everything that he ever did.

We first begin to notice that there's something wrong with what Ned's talking about himself and his wife and daughters when his neighbors seem startled and taken back a bit by Ned's boasting, that's the only word I can come up with in regards to the way Ned is talking about himself. The Westerhazy's want to say something but settle not to and seem to play along with Ned's story telling. It's like you would do with a youngster who's making up things in order not to hurt his or her feelings.

As Ned starts to swim from swimming pool to swimming pool every one of his neighbors who's pool he swims through begin to put a piece of the puzzle of Ned's life into place. Even the swimming pools that Ned swims through begin to take a different look like the insight that the audience gets about Ned's past.

Going from swimming pools in private homes and mansions to the public pool at the local recreation center where Ned has to borrow .50 cents, which came as a great shock and embarrassment to him and his ego, to swim in. We also begin to see during his swimming adventures in the movie Ned slowly being worn down. Vigorous and athletic looking in the beginning of the film, for a 50 or so year-old, Ned turns into a broken down and pathetic looking old man toward the end.

Even though the movie doesn't come right out and say it the audience comes to see just what Ned is really all about through the people that he meets, who reveal bit's and piece's of his past, in his quest to swim home through their swimming pools; And at the same time so does Ned by the time he makes it home.

Ned's the type of person that everyone watching the movie can either relate to or identify with as someone that everyone's come across in their life. Ned's a person who lives in a dream world that he built around himself and doesn't want to see reality until it hits him right between the eyes. You have to see the movie a number of times to realize what it's trying to tell you about Ned: What he's all about? Where does he come from? What's the story with his wife and daughters? What did he have to do with those neighbors that he comes in contact with in the movie and most of all what state of mind is Ned in?

You somehow begin to realize that there's something wrong with Ned almost as soon as you see him but you just can't put your finger on it. "The Swimmer" makes you think, as soon as the credits start to roll down the screen, where you know that something isn't quite right with the picture and the person in it but it takes some ninety five minutes to see it for what it is. The movie does it by putting together all the swimming pools that Ned swims through like some kind of cleansing of Ned's soul that conditions him for the hard reality that's about to strike him at the conclusion of the film.

"Everybody's going crazy today..."

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 3 November 2021]

"The Swimmer" is a film with a decent overall score and very positive reviews. Nonetheless, it's NOT a film for all tastes and it's certainly among the stranger films of 1968!

THe story is without context. It simply begins with Ned Merrill (Burt Lancaster) arriving unannounced at a friend's home across town. They haven't seen each other in some time and you have no idea where Ned's been nor what's occurred. All you know is that he has a weird obsession....to go from home to home in the rich suburbs swimming across their pools until he eventually reaches his home. Why? You have no idea. And, through the course of the story, you learn a bit more about Ned...and how he's fallen from grace. But what did he go through?! What about his life? Amazingly enough, the viewers seem to know as much as Ned, as Ned is living only in the now and seems to have little recollection of the last 1-2 years of his life.

Well, this certainly was a daring role for Lancaster. Not only does it have a plot that is far from a crowd pleaser, but he has to briefly disrobe. He also acts the entire film with nothing on other than a bathing suit.

So is it any good? Well, the idea is interesting and the ending is pretty good....but it really seems like it would have worked better as a short film, as 95 minutes of all this seemed drawn out and overdone. A genuinely odd film.

One of Two Morality Tales of the Era That Hit a Nerve

[kckidjoseph-1 · 10/10 · 22 October 2015]

EVERYONE has films that for some strange reason, seemingly completely out of sync with one's age and place and station in life at the time, resonate and then some, impacting that person for years to come.

For me, the two that stand out in that regard are 1968's "The Swimmer" and 1973's "Save the Tiger," both dark character studies dealing with morality, amorality and the twists and turns of complex lives not always so well lived by their middle-aged characters.

Why I identified with these characters at such an early age myself I have no idea, only that their serpentine screen dilemmas provided a kind of moral road map in the real world, at least for me, and did their jobs as cinematic storytellers in staying with me all these years, still.

"The Swimmer," taken from a short story by John Cheever, stars Burt Lancaster as Neddy, an upper-class Connecticut man whom we find lounging poolside with friends in an affluent suburb.

It occurs to him that he can "swim home" by visiting pools of friends and acquaintances, a route that he sees as a kind of "river."

As the man swims, we begin to understand more and more about his life, or think we do, and he evolves through conversations, confrontations and offhand comments, until he winds up ingloriously at a public pool and, finally, standing shivering in the pouring rain before the gates of his mansion in one of filmdom's most surprising endings.

Many fascinating characters people the film, played by many a recognizable face, including Joan Rivers (yes, that Joan Rivers), John Garfield Jr. (son of the great noir star), Janice Rule, Marge Champion (dancer-choreographer Gower Champion's better half), Kim Hunter and Janet Landgard.

The film was directed by Frank Perry (with some scenes overseen by Robert Redford's frequent collaborator, Sydney Pollack, who is uncredited), with a screenplay by Perry's wife, Eleanor.

"Save the Tiger" stars Jack Lemmon as Harry Stoner, a clothing manufacturer who is undergoing the loss of youthful idealism as he weighs whether or not to pay an arsonist to torch his factory so he can survive financially through the insurance settlement. His friend and business partner is played by an extraordinarily effective Jack Gilford, a rubber-faced actor with the saddest eyes you'll ever see best known to a generation as the Cracker Jack man.

Like Lancaster's Neddy in "The Swimmer," Lemmon's Stoner in "Tiger" is undergoing more than an evolution, but a breakdown, not only emotionally, but spiritually as well. Each story is a type of first-person morality play as seen through the eyes of these central characters.

Lemmon won the best actor Oscar for his performance (beating out, among others, Redford, for his turn in "The Sting"), and the film was voted best drama by the Writers Guild of America.

Both films seem to have evaporated into the mists of time, little remembered or considered by generations that came after.

But they've stayed with me, I like to think because they were both beautifully rendered and had something worthwhile to say, expressing it uniquely and well.

If you're in the mood for thought-provoking character studies that will stay with you long after viewing, and for all the right reasons, I recommend giving them a look.

Exposition of Lancaster's Body

[stimpy_tr · 7/10 · 9 September 2020]

There is apparently no sense of time and space in this movie. Ned looks 10 years younger than his coeval. He lives in the same county for a very long time but he barely remembers his memories with the people he encounters around. It is as if he wasn't around for 10 years or so. He talks about marrying her daughters off soon, and then invites over a 20-years-old girl to babysit his daughters as in old times. What a confusion? Moreover, the girl accepts this invitation.

As he approaches his house, the atmosphere and the treatment of people become gloomy. This might give an indication of an unfavorable ending. However, we never know what happened to his wife. Did she die of an illness or a car accident? Or did she leave him because he was treating her badly? Did she find another lover and cheat on him? The only thing we understand from conversations is that his daughters are impudent to him. Who knows for what reason? The answers to these questions will yield different interpretations of the ending.

Without these being explained we are left with a story consisting of the exposition of Burt Lancaster's body for 96 minutes and stepwise devolution of his psychology. On the technical side, the dreamlike shots and beautiful landscapes create great visuality. This is an interesting movie but not to be exaggerated.

"inner" stories do not translate well to the screen

[grizzledgeezer · 1/10 · 8 November 2014]

"The Swimmer" was released in 1968, the same year as another highly controversial film that went on to be considered a masterpiece. Whether "The Swimmer" is even a competent (let alone good) film is questionable.

It //is// a profoundly annoying experience. It isn't that we're not sure what's going on (or why), but that the acting is loud and overwrought, and Perry's direction is pretentious, failing to create a "matter of fact" atmosphere needed at the start to draw us into the story.

The story is a widely anthologized work by John Cheever. It suffers from heavy-handed metaphor (eg, Merrill being chased from the public swimming pool for not having an ID tag). But it is, overall, restrained enough and short enough that it's easy to forgive Cheever. (We should be grateful that, after making 150 pages of notes, Cheever condensed them into a short story.)

It's not easy to forgive the director's wife, who wrote the clumsy screenplay. Everything important in "The Swimmer" happens in the protagonist's mind. This sort of story doesn't translate well to film, requiring far too much verbal exposition (rather than character interaction). And the film doesn't show the progression of the seasons (and Merrill's apparent weight loss) that suggest Merrill is not experiencing "reality".

The short story pretty much "works", with a fairly obvious meaning. By converting thoughts into images, the film becomes too literal to reproduce the short story's effect. It would have worked better as a 50-minute "Twilight Zone" episode.