Greetings all - I'd like to think there are a lot of fans of The Swimmer (1968) with Burt Lancaster that visit this blog. In my opinion, probably the second-best character study drama next to Coppola's The Conversation.
And a production that was riddled with all sorts of conflict and ego problems beginning with Sam Seigal and working through Lancaster to Sydney Pollack. There were so many problems and drama it warranted a two-and-a-half-hour documentary called The Story Of The Swimmer (2014) which I highly recommend available only on the Blu-ray edition but some random clips can be seen HERE. When it's roughly three year journey from pre-production to final cut was over it had gone through four editors, two directors and three completely different cuts.
Somehow though with all that over-tinkering, the final version is still considered a very special film. This is because of the 12-page short story it's based on, literally an allegorical masterpiece by author John Cheever. (Trivial note- in the film, he's the drunk guy floating on a raft at the big pool party.) To me one of the most amazing achievements of The Swimmer was how Eleanor Perry took a 12-page story and wrote a 100-minute movie script from just all these key random phrases that are packed into the story. Lol, you'll see if you watch the video below.
I recently found this wonderfully creative slide show set to audio of Cheever's story. **I recommend turning the audio off and the captions on and watching/reading it like that ENJOY> I think it's real nice...
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