Rent The Old Man and the Sea (1958)
3.5 of 5 from 52 ratings
1h 24min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Alone in a small skiff, an aging Cuban fisherman (Spencer Tracy) catches a huge marlin - and must defy the sea, marauding sharks and his own flagging strength to bring his great catch home. Filmed in part on sun-drenched Cuban locales and graced by Dimitri Tiomkin's Oscar-winning score, 'The Old Man and the Sea' is a colorful cinematic ode to the indomitability of the human spirit.
- Actors:
- Spencer Tracy, Felipe Pazos, Harry Bellaver, Don Diamond, Don Blackman, Joey Ray, Mary Hemingway, Richard Alameda, Tony Rosa, Carlos Rivero, Robert Alderette, Mauritz Hugo, Don Alvarado, Mike Morelli, George Nardelli, Jose Portugal
- Directors:
- John Sturges, Fred Zinnemann
- Producers:
- John Sturges, Fred Zinnemann
- Writers:
- Ernest Hemingway, Peter Viertel
- Others:
- James Wong Howe, Dimitri Tiomkin
- Studio:
- Warner
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Children & Family, Classics, Drama
- Collections:
- A Brief History of Ships in Film: From Sailing to , A Brief History of Old Age on Screen: Part 1, Best Film Quests and Adventures, Films by Genre, Films to Watch If You Like..., A Brief History of Film..., What to Watch Next If You Liked Jaws
- Awards:
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Reviews (1) of The Old Man and the Sea
The Wrong Bait - The Old Man and the Sea review by griggs
Weird one to admit: I'd forgotten I'd seen this until I hit play, and that's not exactly a glowing endorsement.
Spencer Tracy plays the old fisherman, and at 58 he's supposed to look worn down by decades battling the sea. He doesn't, not really — he's weathered, but the exhaustion never quite settles in, and the film needed that ache to pull me in. The central fight — man, marlin, and the vast, indifferent sea — barely gets going before the film reels it back in and tidies it away.
It's handsomely shot, and there's an old-fashioned charm to watching someone talk to a fish for ninety minutes, but I never felt the line pull taut. To be fair, I read the book first, so maybe I walked in with the wrong bait.
Solid effort, forgettable result — which might be the most damning thing I can say about a story built around endurance.
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