Rent Save the Tiger (1973)
3.5 of 5 from 78 ratings
1h 36min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Jack Lemmon won an Oscar for this dramatic performance, considered by many to be his finest. Lemmon plays Harry Stoner, a man caught in violent collision with his past and present life. He believes there is nothing significant in his life except survival, and that instinct pushes him beyond moral conduct. He'll juggle the books, supply women for clients... and even set fire to his own dress manufacturing factory. Meanwhile, he longs for the days when life not only had values and heroes, but it all seemed simpler - yet satisfying and worth living. But Harry is frightened to break away from the emptiness of his seemingly successful life.
- Actors:
- Jack Lemmon, Jack Gilford, Laurie Heineman, Norman Burton, Patricia Smith, Thayer David, William Hansen, Harvey Jason, Liv Lindeland, Lara Parker, Eloise Hardt, Janina, Ned Glass, Pearl Shear, Biff Elliot
- Directors:
- John G. Avildsen
- Producers:
- Martin Ransohoff, Steve Shagan
- Writers:
- Steve Shagan
- Aka:
- Rettet den Tiger!
- Studio:
- Paramount
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama
- Collections:
- Award Winners, Cinema Paradiso's 2025 Centenary Club: January - March, Oscar's Two-Time Club, Oscars: Winners & Losers, People of the Pictures, Remembering Robert Redford, A Brief History of Film...
- Awards:
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Reviews (1) of Save the Tiger
Arson, Ethics and Ulcers - Save the Tiger review by griggs
Watching someone’s midlife crisis unravel is oddly compelling. Save the Tiger leans right into that discomfort. Harry Stoner’s day-from-hell – a failing garment business, creative accounting, an arson scheme and wartime ghosts he can’t quite file away – feels unnervingly modern. Swap the rotary phones for smartphones and you’ve basically got a story about cooked books, broken ethics and a man running on fumes.
Jack Lemmon is the whole show, shuffling through like a man permanently ten minutes late to his own life. He’s brittle-funny, but the panic is always just under the surface. Jack Gilford gives him a lovely, anxious counterweight, while John G. Avildsen keeps it tight, trapping Harry in one long, bad day.
Some of the script really hasn’t aged well – especially the way it treats women and the sex worker subplot – but the spine still works: a guy telling misty baseball anecdotes while he quietly arranges to burn his world down. Not an easy watch, but as a portrait of a man buckling under the weight of his own success story, it still hits hard.
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