Rating: 
Summary: Unforgettable after...25 years
Review: I first watched this film..in another language when I was a kid. How best to illustrate the impact it had on me? After 25 years I still remembered the story of it. Of a man swimming home and of the last scene where he coming home to find an empty, isolated house.Flash back to the present. I found this movie by accident in the library. Wondering if it's the same one stuck in my mind for so long so I checked it out. The impact of watching it this time was still there (just a bit less since I already know the ending). All in all it's really worth seeing. It left an unforgettably emotional impact on me..as a 10-year-old child. That's how best I could put it to say how good the movie is.
Rating: 
Summary: Why Did Burt Lancaster make THIS Horror?
Review: I happened to watch this messed-up film on TV late one night where I live in Japan, and found this example of a "movie" to be utterly distasteful. First of all, Burt's charachter tries to "make it" with just about every woman he meets, if she's young and beautiful. Second, the story-line seems rather aimless and pointless: about a man who came from just about nowhere only to wind up distraught in a rainstorm at his house which ahd been abandoned for some time. Third, it showed human nature at it's very lowest, the only ones seemingly who cared about the swimmer were a friend he owed a lot of bills to and his ex-lover, who was civil to him for a brief moment, both of these being towards the end of the film (this isn't counting the pretty, young lady he said had been his baby sitter. He tried to "make it" with her, only to see her run off away from him somewhere in the midst of the movie...).
Cponclusion: don't waste your time with this one. Burt Lancaster was an excellent actor, and while he does a good job in this one - as in all of his films - I'm quite disappointed that he chose to be in this film, protraying a charachet that is far below some of his other portrayals.
Rating:
Summary: dude, this is must see tv!
Review: i totally thought that biodome was the most excellent movie, but that was until i rented the swimmer. i gotta give props to burt lancaster! he rocks! the experience was life changing. once as a younger man i tried to swim across my own pool and was sadly defeated and to think that this dude made it across ten. like whoa! swimming is not easy. that part where the llama comes out of nowhere and chases him, that was so intense, i was so scared. luckily for him that chinchilla was around to save the day. the way the blood poured out of that llama, not for those with weak stomachs. that's not even the best part, but if you want to know the rest rent the movie. two tumbs way up. quality entertainment. love and peace out.
Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing and Moving
Review: I was able to watch this movie without distraction for the first time in years. I did not remember how powerful this film really is. It keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finnish (well, almost). Your mind will be working at a furious pace trying to figure out where did Ned come from, what happened to him, why did so many of his friends turn against him and most importantly, what will happen to him after the closing credits. Some of these questions are answered, some are alluded to and some are left up to the viewers imagination. At each pool site, we are introduced to various friends (?) of Neds. We learn that at one time he was the life of the party in beautiful WASPish, Fairfield County Connecticut. What is so fascinating about this movie is that we discover something a little out of kilter at each encounter. A lot is said with just the eye movement of various players. As Ned moves from pool to pool, you will become increasingly aware that Ned's life has gone terribly off track. This man was, two to three years earlier, a pillar of the community with an ideal family and job in New York. What went wrong? We do learn of an affair he had with an actress. Did this lead to his downfall? I will not give it all away but as the movie moves on we learn that Ned is not only not welcomed places where he was once welcomed with open arms, but is now hated. Has Ned been in an instituion the last two years? He is certainly mentally unstable. Did his freinds not care where he was? Where was he living the day he shows up? Not at his beautiful home. We can guess what happened to his family but only in a very general sense. This is a great movie and one that has been ignored (hence no critical review even here, only customer reviews) for ages. I did find the scenes with the 20 year old blond unnessesary. Jumping over horse fences? Please. The last scene was chilling although it was not nessesary to pan the inside of the house, we know by then that it will be empty, cold and barren. It is simply a shell of better days, just like Ned
Rating:
Summary: Discovering Cheever
Review: I was to find out years later that this film" The Swimmer" was relagated to a Television scrap heap by Columbia Studios. I first saw this film in the early 70,s on the old ABC late night movie. This was my first experience with a John Cheever story. From the opening credits I realized that this was not an ordinary film. It was in fact a man,s journey. I followed Ned Merril all the way through each pool as he was to swim "home" The films musical score was..most.... evocative..and soon I knew..I was along for the compete "swim" I should have been ..but I was not prepared for the final reel. I was in denial myself. Why would anyone want to Swim home? With abstract dialogue galore...." the ash tree...the last to get its leaves...and then first to loose them"... I cant think of anyone but Burt Lancaster in the title role...a most unusual film experience. A:
Rating:
Summary: Astonishingly Gripping
Review: I'm a real movie buff, but can't believe I missed this one... The story of a mid life hansome man Burt Lancaster, swimming home across the county,via his neighbors back yard swimming pools. It doesn't take too long to realize his view of his life differs greatly from the friends and neighbors, (some not so friendly,) that he encounters as he swims home. I was left wanting to read the book, as I felt this was a story that was too complicated to cover in a 2 hour movie. Its a movie that some how gets under your skin and leaves you wanting more. He keeps talking about his daughters at home playing tennis,and how much they adore him, he tells everyone his wife is fine..and everything is wonderful in his life....at the end he arrives home to an abandoned, rundown estate..he has obviously been living in the past..but I kept wondering where he had been in the years between actually living there and swimming back home. The people he encounters along the way paint a story and hint of his financial, legal and marrital disasters, but he denies all of it the throughout the movie. I wonder how a re-make of today would handle this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Worst movie ever
Review: I'm sorry, but this movie is pure and utter [unacceptable material]. ... The acting and the screenplay is horrible, with lines like "You're belly is like a sack of hay," not to mention Burt Lancaster walks around like he's bigfoot toward the end of the movie. Get serious people, go see a "good" movie. ... If you want to know how "The Swimmer" was meant to be shown, go read the short story. It's a lot better.
Rating:
Summary: Swim Into the Twilight Zone...
Review: It really is amazing how unknown this movie still is. If you are unfamiliar with it, you are in for a real experience. It is based on a classic short story by John Cheever, and it works like an extended, lost episode of the old "Twilight Zone" television series. A middle-aged suburban man (Burt Lancaster) decides to swim across his wealthy Connecticut county, through all the swimming pools of his neighbors back to his own home. As he makes his journey you gradually become aware that he is not all that he seems. Dark secrets keep getting revealed and it soon becomes apparent that we are witnessing a telescoping of the man's entire adult life into a few afternoon hours of an early autumn day. The film becomes a powerful allegory about disillusionment and tragedy, without being the least heavy-handed about it. Like Cheever's other great short story "The Enormous Radio", "The Swimmer" can be interpreted as a religious parable about the self-deception of fallen humanity. The comeuppance Lancaster receives is almost too intense to watch. This is a genuinely shattering movie that will stay with you.
Rating:
Summary: Frank Perry Magic
Review: Much of this film was shot In Connecticut near the Wilton Ct. area.This was in 1966, scenes were added/ directed by Sidney Pollack . Columbia execs did not know what to do with this film at all. After a brief theatrical release in 1968/9 it was syndicated to ABC, which was showing late movies at the time. The Late Frank Perry also did " Last Summer" 1969 , a haunting film that is a must see as well as " David and Lisa" 1962. Joan Rivers:( to Lancaster ne Ned Merril) " What are you doing"? Merrill" I,m swimming home" Rivers: "I,ve never heard that before" Merrill:" Come with me be my love"! Rivers: "THAT..I.,ve heard before" Thats just a sample of the abstract dialogue.. A superb first score by Marvin Hamlisch. Great Film
Rating:
Summary: Odd and Unsettling
Review: Odd, unsettling film, based on a short story by John Cheever (from his Pulitzer Prize winning collection), about a middle aged man who decides to swim from one end of suburban Westport, Connecticut to the other. Wearing only a snug pair of swim trunks, Ned Merrill (Burt Lancaster) swims in each of his neighbors' pools until he reaches his home which, as he tells almost everyone he encounters, has a tennis court rather than a pool. Along the way, the sky turns from blue to black (both literally and metaphorically), and he realizes his life isn't quite what he thought it was. Despite the presence of Lancaster, who was still in terrific shape at the time (he was 55 in 1968), Frank Perry's film was far from successful. And it isn't hard to see why -- this isn't a happy tale and there's barely even a glimmer of hope or redemption at the end. Nonetheless, it's powerful and original stuff and, although you might imagine otherwise, doesn't really have much in common with the suburban melodramas of the 1950s, like The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit, or the suburban black comedies of the 1990s, like American Beauty. Granted, The Graduate, which was released only a year before, was just as cynical towards the Left Coast's version of swimming pool and cocktail culture, but that cynicism was leavened by humor and the point of view was, even more significantly, that of the young characters in the film rather than their parents. That isn't the case with The Swimmer, which is more like a condensed version of The Great Gatsby or Death of a Salesman. In other words, it's a fully realized character study and minor classic about the failure of the American Dream. Not to all tastes, but easily as relevant today as it was in 1968.
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