The Swimmer

We've just watched again a great but obscure movie, The Swimmer, starring Burt Lancaster. Made in 1968 from a John Cheever short story. Sad and gripping and faithful to Cheever's story. Well worth trying to find on netflix or cable.

(Copied from a web site): "The Swimmer has long been one of my "holy grail" titles, a rare gem that captures the essence of its time, as a powerful and compelling commentary on the decay of the American ideal, and of one man's odyssey of self-realization. Surrounded by the decadent aura of late-1960s upper-middle-class suburbia, Lancaster delivers a superb performance in this gripping character study."

Here's a link discussing the Cheever short story: http://www.salon.com/weekly/cheever960930.html



Another classic movie we've just watched for the first time is The Guns of Navarone from 1961. Peck, Niven, Quinn. Great special effects and locations. The prologue starts with a shot of the Parthenon in Athens similiar to one that we shot during our visit to Greece, now eleven years ago. And I was also watching a Frank Sinatra tape set that consisted of an edited Rat Pack show at the Sands around 1963 and a tape of Frank and Friends. The second tape, coincidentally, had a clip from a charity concert Frank did at the two thousand plus year old Herodes Atticus amphitheatre located at the base of the Acropolis in Athens. Hard to imagine Dino flying to Greece. How about: The Rat Pack at the Acropolis!