1968, the same year 2001 A Space Odyssey came out, this little indie feeling drama and character study made it's waves. Get it? Waves? The Swimmer? Aw fuck you. C'mon yo, get with the puns.
The Swimmer, as I explained to my movie friend, is a story of modern urban decay, disenfranchisement, and swimming. What I liked about this movie is obviously going to be many many things, and I'm almost unsure of where to start. So, the plot... Burt Lancaster is Ned, a toned and tan socialite in Los Angeles. In the beginning of the film, he's at a little garden/swimming party, and off in his own world. He stares across the abyss of Los Angeles, and suddenly declares he can, via pool-hopping, essentially swim all the way home...
And yeah, that's as much development as we get. He jumps in the pool, swims across, goes out the other side, and begins his walk to the next pool. There is not a lot of time shown of his foot journeys from pool to pool. We gather that essentially, this is the rich area of LA in the 60's, and most people would have a pool. It's also summer, or at least warm-ish, and people are doing things outside.
From there, one can see the film go in many ways. It seems that Ned knows about everyone. As he interacts with those he knows and those he doesn't, we learn about him. Playboy, Don Juan, unhappy, lost in the past, destroyed, haunted, but mostly disconnected is the feelings we begin to gather about Ned. There is a casual lost and hypnotic way Ned acts, as if he's gripped by a surreal half awake state permanently. And as you may know about me, those are all things I love.
All dialogue, super linear, and basically real time, this is an absolute rule-layer about how to do a amazing character study. The mystery is never quite revealed all the way, and the pieces fit with just the right amount of them still missing to make the film intriguing. The encounters he has with people paint the portrait of a man who never lived a great life. But through delusion and lying to himself, perhaps he led himself to believe his life was admirable. Perhaps he has no idea who he really is, what his life has been, and where he is now... at all.
The payoff is a little bit predictable, but it couldn't have gone any other way. But it's not about the payoff. It's about the amazing script, fantastic acting, and the dream-esque, fantasy world we see that slowly unravels. Physically, Ned destructs, just like how his fantasy gets torn apart piece by piece. His feet, bloody from walking. His muscles, sore and cramped. His body, wracked with cold as the heat of the day dies down. It's absolutely amazing.
This film feels like it was made for me. The destruction of fantasy, the power of a mind to lie to itself, the very construct of everything about this fits what I love perfectly. So no surprise about 5 stars.
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