We also learn that Lancaster would throw up before beginning any movie, unsettling information, to say the least! In The Swimmer’s credits he is listed as dialog coach. He had a close friend, Thom Conroy, who almost always accompanied him. We also learn that Lancaster did not come with an entourage. He also is quoted that the film business was a constant fight to get quality work done.
THE MOVIES SUPERSTAR EDITION REVIEW MOVIE
Lancaster, like many movie stars, was not entirely happy with the way the system worked, he longed to not have to stay in such great shape, to not be “a caricature of a he-man” and just be a regular guy watching sports on television. There is an epic sadness to these quotes. You could have fooled me! Throughout the making of featurettes we also get Lancaster’s own printed comments about The Swimmer and other projects in his career. As physically fit as he was Lancaster did not swim as part of his exercise regimen. Yes, incredibly we learn that Burt Lancaster could not swim well he trained for months before the cameras rolled to look like someone who had been swimming his entire life.
Marge Champion recalls her part in the film and Bob Horn, a swimming coach and Burt Lancaster’s personal swimming trainer also has a lot to say about Lancaster’s learning to swim for the film. Joanna Lancaster, one of Burt’s children tells of her memories of her father’s work in the film business.
Joan Rivers tells about her involvement, her first part in any movie, at the very beginning of her career. We also get extensive interview footage with Janet Landgard who played Julie Hooper, Ned’s former baby sitter for his daughters, a very young girl in a bikini who accompanies the Swimmer part of the way on his journey. Both have some great stories to tell about the production of The Swimmer. Both have impressive resumes, it was Hertzberg who helped Mel Brooks put The Producers together. We get many memories from Michael Hertzberg, the first assistant director and Ted Zachary the second assistant director. The featurettes are also among the best I have ever seen in terms of value. This is easily the best version of The Swimmer we will ever see. I never expected to see any movie from the Sixties, much less the Swimmer look this good. Colors stand out so vividly The Swimmer almost looks Three Dimensional, without any glasses. The dvd looks fine but the blu ray is incredible. Hearing Cheever read his story is most illuminating, the film makers were very true to the source material, almost every incident, character and line of dialog as written by Cheever ended up in the finished film. Also an audio recording of John Cheever reading his short story, upon which the movie was based, one of the best special features I have ever encountered on a disc.
THE MOVIES SUPERSTAR EDITION REVIEW SERIES
You get both a dvd and blu-ray, with the same material on both discs, the restored feature, trailers, photo galleries and a series of featurettes that in total run longer than the original movie. Yet I cannot imagine any releasing company doing a better job at presentation. The Swimmer may seem an odd choice for Grindhouse, such a marginal, art house title might seem more at home on Criterion or Kino. Now comes a wonderful new blu-ray edition from Grindhouse releasing. A bare bones edition was released on dvd a few years ago. It was released on VHS, of which I had a copy. I have seen The Swimmer numerous times since then, always on video one way or another. Ned Merrill and his suburban adventure has haunted me ever since. I first encountered The Swimmer one magic night in 1971, I had the house, and thus the television, to myself and on a network broadcast saw The Swimmer for the first time. Among that list I would have to add one of the oddest, most obscure, frustrating, exhilarating, sad and wondrous and yes, enigmatic, movies ever released by a major Hollywood studio, The Swimmer starring Burt Lancaster, released in 1968. Among the more enigmatic and puzzling movies I have seen I would have to start with Citizen Kane (please no arguments, I know we learn the “what” of rosebud but we never quite grasp the “why” of it.), Vertigo, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Performance, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blow Up, (actually all of Antonioni’s resume) The Valley Obscured by Clouds, almost the entire resume of David Lynch, the list is short but impressive.
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