The Swimmer

"Ned" (Burt Lancaster) has been away for a while so his neighbours are a bit surprised to see him, clad only in his trunks, swimming in their pool. After some chat with them, he discovers that barring the odd bit of terrain to cross, he can pretty much swim his way home through the pools of other neighbours/friends/acquaintances - a river and even a public lido... The film now follows him as this rather unique journey introduces us to his community, and to his own interesting, complicated and lively backstory. I could run to all sorts of amateur psychology about my understanding of what each stop means to him; to those with whom he stops, and to those of us watching - for the adaptation of the pretty depressing Cheever short story would cer...

Offbeat parable of self-discovery on the collapse of the American dream

A somewhat confused man in swimming trunks (Burt Lancaster) travels from pool to pool in suburban Connecticut on his way home. Some of the people he comes across are played by Janet Landgard, Janice Rule, Joan Rivers and Diana Muldaur, amongst several others.

"The Swimmer" (1968) is a semi-surreal commentary on mid-60s America and the emptiness of materialism, as well as self-destruction. The fact that Ned Merrill (Lancaster) is almost naked throughout the film tells all. But the revelations are lowkey; you have to put the pieces together. I liked the insights on the folly of compulsiveness, whether social, youth-obsession, sexual or self-delusion. Its an ...