The Old Man and the Sea (1958)

Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway with screenplay by Peter Viertel about a an aging fisherman (Spencer Tracy won an Oscar nomination for the role) who fights a band of hungry sharks for an enormous Marlin in the Gulf Stream to bring his trophy home . Santiago goes out on his usual fishing trip and makes a huge catch , the biggest of his life . Then a shark attacks and tries to steal his catch . Santiago is making slow progress toward shore, humming to himself . He notices a fin in the water approaching fast . It's a Mako shark, coming after some free marlin meat. Santiago thrusts his harpoon into the shark, but loses hold of the rope and the shark swims away with the rope and the harpoon. The shark had taken a bite of the marlin, releasing blood into the water . Later on , Santiago battles many sharks for days . As several more sharks approach and Santaigo stands up with his new spear and prepares to do battle . They feed, he stabs, over and over, until the blade of the knife snaps off. He apologizes to the marlin and regrets having gone out so far, for both their sakes . He returns to the shore beaten , tattered and torn, and his catch consisting now of mostly bones .

Enjoyable tale deliberately narrated plenty of sensitivity , stubbornness , dreams and color . It is an Ernest Hemingway's story of heroism , defeat , obstinacy and Victory . The flick is pretty well , but a little bit boring and slow . Humphrey Bogart attempted to purchase the film rights to Ernest Hemingway's novel through his production company, Santana Productions , Bogart identified strongly with the character of the old man and wanted to play the fisherman ; but the film wasn't made until the year following his death , with his close friend Spencer Tracy . The main starring , Spencer Tracy , is marvelous as Ernest Hemingway's aging fisherman who hooks a gigantic fish that drags him out to sea . He garnered his sixth Academy Award Nomination as as the tough , likable as well as dreamer fisherman . After seeing the film , Ernest Hemingway expressed his disappointment and said that Spencer Tracy looked less the Cuban peasant fisherman and more the rich old actor that he was . Ernest Hemingway himself was initially involved in the production, although the extent of his participation after selling his book was to go marlin-fishing off the coast of Peru to try to find a fish worthy enough for the movie . In the end , the producers used a rubber marlin and stock footage of marlin fishing in which Hemingway didn't participate in . Colorful and brilliant cinematography in Warnercolor by James Wong Howe and Floyd Crosby . Dimitri Tiomkin's wonderful musical score was Oscar winner .

This motion picture was well produced by Leland Hayward and compellingly directed by John Sturges who replaced Fred Zinnemann . John began his directing career at Columbia Pictures, where from 1946-49 he he worked on "12-day wonders" ("B" pictures shot on a 12-day schedule). From there he moved on to MGM where he filmed more "B" pictures, albeit on a larger budget . He established an independent production company in 1959, releasing through United Artists. From 1960-67 he worked under contract for United Artists. His first major hit was the western Dog Day at Black Rock (1955) , which he shot in just three weeks, wrapping up virtually every scene in a single take . He specialized in robust action pictures, particularly westerns . He excelled at bringing to life tautly written stories about tough characters facing dif

Fmovies: Ernest Hemingway's books have been filmed by Hollywood with varying degrees of success. Such stars as Gary Cooper, Gregory Peck, Tyrone Power, Rock Hudson, and Humphrey Bogart have taken a turn at being Hemingway heroes. I guess it was Spencer Tracy's turn to do it now.

I'm not sure that any actor no matter how good they are could keep the audiences attention on him for 90 minutes just alone in a boat, struggling to hook the mother of all marlins. But Spencer Tracy is as good as they get and I'm not sure he did it either. But Tracy ought to be commended for trying, in fact an Oscar nomination came in the way of a commendation.

One thing I will say, Tracy may have been the least vain actor on the screen. When a whole lot of his contemporaries were still doing romantic leads, Tracy let his age and everything else all hang out in this story of an old Cuban fisherman with two passions, baseball and fishing. His favorite ball player, who else but Joe DiMaggio the son of an Italian fisherman. The old man's passion; to go fishing with Joe DiMaggio. Actually in real life, DiMaggio honed his baseball skills to get away from the life his father and the old man led.

Of course there's that epic struggle with the marlin and what happens after. Hemingway goes Melville on us here, the big fish is the old man's white whale. Of course unlike Captain Ahab, it's an individual struggle, Tracy doesn't take a whole crew down with him because of his obsession.

It was a great effort and Tracy and director John Sturges deserve an A for effort here in trying to film an essentially plot less story. I suppose The Old Man and the Sea found an audience with fishermen and Spencer Tracy fans.

By the time I read Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea in high school, I'd already read A Farewell to Arms and The Sun Also Rises. Good thing, too, because The Old Man and the Sea is Hemingway's tersest statement about what it means for a male to live a worthwhile life: live vigorously, test yourself, fight what threatens to destroy you (within and without), and emerged bloodied, but unbowed. If I hadn't been steeped in the author's themes already, I never would have gotten this message from his last, great, but very thin book. As it was, I still had to rely on Cliffs Notes to alert me to the mythic and Christ allusions.

This book would have been a daunting adaptation for any movie maker, since most of the important stuff going on is unseen and unspoken. It didn't help that the beefy Spencer Tracy was cast as a near-starving Cuban fisherman. His bulk and vigor contradicts Hemingway's desire to show the depth of character and spiritual strength that can lie within physical frailty. Tracy projects a certain amount of wisdom, but the problem is that he comes across as knowing he's wise, doling out gems from an his life vein of experiences. The power of Hemingway's fisherman was that he was un-self-consciously wise. The combined effect these two incongruities drove me the online Cliffs Notes, 16 years after the first time, to remind me of the mythic and Christ allusions again.

If you want to know Hemingway, read his books.

The Old Man and the Sea fmovies. This is an interesting movie for someone who is more into "Hearing" than "watching" a movie. Its a good adaptation of the book, made almost LIKE a book which makes it both interesting as well as a little boring for viewers with taste for changing scenes. It's about this Old Cuban fisherman who wakes up on an ordinary day after several UNLUCKY days & heads to his beloved sea to find a bite. He gets lucky hooking a big catch that he kept on holding to for 3 days non stop & then how he struggles with his age, sleep & hunger to bring it back home. The story's simple, but for someone with taste for exclusive art, this is a must watch!

John Sturges directed this reportedly-troubled production, a handsome adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's story about an old salt who wants one last chance to catch a prized fish before he dies. This scenario puts extraordinary demands on lead actor Spencer Tracy, who is forced to hold the screen nearly alone for ninety minutes. Although he manages to ingratiate himself early on to the viewer, one still doesn't know how to take this character--is he likably stubborn or stubbornly foolish? Either way, Hemingway's tale doesn't quite make its mark as rousing cinematic material, however the finish is very satisfying. It gets a helping hand from Dimitri Tiomkin and his score, which won an Oscar. Remade as a TV-movie in 1990 starring Anthony Quinn. ** from ****

Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" is a classic literary work but it isn't well suited to screen adaptation. This film has some of the necessary ingredients for success but comes up short in several respects.

Spencer Tracy turns in a fine performance as the titular 'old man', one which was rewarded with an Oscar nomination. Felipe Pazos (as the boy), on the other hand, is a dreadful actor and almost drags Tracy's performance down in the scenes that they share. Tracy does double duty as the omniscient narrator as well, though I don't think that it made much sense to delegate that task to the actor playing the main character of the film.

John Sturges seems to have had to cobble together footage from various shoots and locations, resulting in a somewhat haphazard look. Budgetary concerns were likely a part of the problem along with limitations in technology.

Dimitri Tiomkin's score won an Oscar but I didn't think it was that exceptional. Certainly not nearly as memorable as the scores that Elmer Bernstein provided for Sturges's "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Great Escape".

While some will undoubtedly find the story boring I think that it is easily the best part of this picture. Behind the simple story of a man and his marlin there are layers upon layers of deeper meaning. I could have done without some of the narration, though, particularly when the same thing could have been conveyed with visuals.

In the end, I give the content of the film high points though the film's technical aspects are riddled with inadequacies. It's worth watching but you should be prepared for some decidedly rough edges.