A slow moving film that examines the summation of one man's life. A man who's run away from life and the world en large, but comes to term with his many foibles.
On the face of it I think a lot of us men come to this point in our lives, but do so without the emotional theatrics portrayed in this film. Some do it sooner than others, but for the film's main character it comes almost too late.
The film's essentially a beautifully shot character sketch, staring the legendary George C. Scott. We see Scott's character go through the motions and angst of coming to terms with his personal history, and going through an act of redemption at the end of it.
The film is slow moving, somewhat pretentious in a very masculine sort of way, but overall pleasing to the eye. There's some good solid cinematography, and a number of very appealing coastal and ocean going shots. Unfortunately there're also a couple of process shots that probably should've been left on the cutting room floor, including one cutaway that was probably shot due to a scheduling problem. There's also a miscued in camera SFX sequence, but that's nitpicking.
As someone else said the film is fairly manipulative, and thin at parts, but it still has a kind of basic appeal. It's the kind of film that were it shot today would have be made for couples, and the emphasis of the story would have been put on the people surrounding Scott's character, instead of solely focusing on him. In this sense it's really a film about people of another time and place.
Somewhat pretentious but endearing and watchable, and, from what I've read of the novel, a bit more palatable than Hemmingway's verbose prose.
On the face of it I think a lot of us men come to this point in our lives, but do so without the emotional theatrics portrayed in this film. Some do it sooner than others, but for the film's main character it comes almost too late.
The film's essentially a beautifully shot character sketch, staring the legendary George C. Scott. We see Scott's character go through the motions and angst of coming to terms with his personal history, and going through an act of redemption at the end of it.
The film is slow moving, somewhat pretentious in a very masculine sort of way, but overall pleasing to the eye. There's some good solid cinematography, and a number of very appealing coastal and ocean going shots. Unfortunately there're also a couple of process shots that probably should've been left on the cutting room floor, including one cutaway that was probably shot due to a scheduling problem. There's also a miscued in camera SFX sequence, but that's nitpicking.
As someone else said the film is fairly manipulative, and thin at parts, but it still has a kind of basic appeal. It's the kind of film that were it shot today would have be made for couples, and the emphasis of the story would have been put on the people surrounding Scott's character, instead of solely focusing on him. In this sense it's really a film about people of another time and place.
Somewhat pretentious but endearing and watchable, and, from what I've read of the novel, a bit more palatable than Hemmingway's verbose prose.