SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

YouHeart I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

mstomaso Anthony Quinn makes a much better Santiago than Spencer Tracey did, and director Jud Taylor and screenwriter Roger Hirson manage to make the right decisions regarding editing and plot, distilling Hemingway's simple, powerful, story to its fundamental human elements and adding elements of characterization which a more 'faithful' adaptation would have missed.It is remarkable that this film was made for television broadcast. It sports a cast and a pedigree well above the typical TV movie of its time, and - with a little more budget - would have made a fine big screen film. Santiago is an old man in a small fishing village in Cuba. Some of the local men feel that his failure to catch fish for the last 84 days has brought a curse on the village, and they long for his retirement. Others, including Santiago himself, simply believe that he has had a run of bad luck. Inspired by a young man who worships the kindly old fishermen, a respectful innkeeper, and indirectly, by the sympathetic sentiments of a foreign writer (Tom Pruitt played by Gary Cole) staying in the village, Santiago begins what may be his final voyage out to sea, in search of a big catch. Hemingway's story is one of many where the great writer expounds on his unusually sensitive and intelligent views of masculine ideals. In this adaptation of The Old Man and the Sea, however, Hemingway's tendency to diminish female roles in order to make room for men - thankfully - does not come through. Instead, the production team decided to add relationships (such as Santiago and his daughter) which nicely embellish the development of the central character as a passionately independent man who nonetheless loves those around him despite their refusal to understand him (except for his protégé, the young fisherman). The film also nicely touches on issues of aging.Tom Pruitt (Gary Cole), is - basically - Hemingway. And this character interprets the old man for us, but subtly, and only as he learns from the example the old man sets - never as an omniscient god-figure who creates and sees clearly. As such, Pruitt and his lover (Patricia Clarkson) reveal something intimate about Hemingway's famously tortured relationship with his craft. The story is shot and edited exactly as it should have been, and the feeling of Hemingway's story is much better developed than in the previous Oscar winning Spencer Tracey version. This is true despite the fact that Taylor's film strays much further from the original Hemingway story. The film depicts a man struggling with the sea, a crisis of self-confidence, and accusations of uselessness - but who never once loses sight of his prospects and inner strength. The dignity of the character is very admirable, and Anthony Quinn's performance is mesmerizing. Quinn pours his soul into Santiago - and it is clear that the great actor understood his character perfectly. Excellent support is provided by Patricia Clarkson and a very good but largely unknown Latin American cast) Unfortunately, Gary Cole's portrayal of Hemingway is not one of his better efforts and some of his scenes are unconvincing.Recommended for Hemingway and Quinn fans - but not for purists. Recommended for patient fans of human drama. Not recommended for people with limited attention spans.

dakiid4 Warning: This may be a spoiler. I think that The Old man and The Sea is not a good movie. I thought that this was very boring and not very interesting. The book was way much better then the movie ever was. In the movie the old man was very stupid and the boy Manolin's voice was very annoying and not pleasurable. But I felt his love for the old man and his pain and passion. That I felt from the book. But everything else lacked credibility. When he got the fish it looked so fake because the boat was half way up and the fish was all the way down. The marlin looked plastic and rubber and very fake. I thought they dragged out the movie and made it too long. In the book he didn't have a daughter and they could at least made the daughter nicer and not look like a man. I thought she was very mean and didn't care about her daddy. But the movie was very boring and I didn't enjoy it one bit. I thought they could of made the movie much better and made it like the book. So I give the movie no star because it was not interesting.

elyria106 Warning: Movie Details revealed:I'm a freshmen student who watched the movie Old Man And The Sea I think the movie's graphics weren't all that good. The plot was good, but the graphics were horrible. Every thing looked fake, especially the marlin. Other than that the movie was good. They didn't make many changes, and the changes they did make, made the movie better not worse. The actors did their job pretty good and they were convincing. For example when the old man was out to sea looking for the fish and talking to himself he was saying things with a lot of feeling. Or the part when he was saying that he had to kill the fish even though he loved it and respected it. Then when he was asking himself if it was right to kill the fish he put enough real emotion in there to convince the person watching that he was actually there. The actors looked like I imagined they would look. Except one, the daughter Angela. They stuck to the book and how they said stuff and what they said so it was actually a good book in terms of the plot, if you can get over the fake graphics than it's a fairly good movie.

Cat_4_life_02 THIS IS A SPOILER!!!In our 9th grade English class we watched the 1990 version of The Old Man and the Sea and read the book. In my opinion I thought it was a bad book. I personally thought it was boarding. It all started when Sanitago when fishing and he comes back to shore and a little bay was named Manolin. He used to fish was him, but had to stop because his father didn't want him to; he was making any money when he was fishing with the old man. The little boy wanted to fish with him so badly; the boy brought the old man beer and some food. As the book goes on he ends up going out to see, and doesn't tell his daughter, so she gets all upset because she should be taking care of her father. As he is out at sea all he does is talk to himself, and keeps going on about how much he loves the fish and doesn't want to hurt it. He did end up getting his fish but a shark came by and took a piece out of the marlin, there was soon to be blood everywhere. That made more sharks come, other sharks took pieces out, by the time he got back to shore the hole marlin was gone, everything, the whole fish was eaten. Even though the fish was eaten by the sharks, people still gave him great respect for doing what they did. His daughter was so happy that he was back safe and d sound. The old man was a little sick so he stayed home, and everyday the boy would bring something to eat everyday. Then the boy asks, 'When can you take me fishing? I want to be good like you?' The old man smiles and says 'the storm should be over in a couple of days, and we'll be ready for the sea