The Old Man and the Sea
Tags: flashback

Plot synopsis:
The film follows the plot of the original novel, but at times emphasizes different points. It opens with the dream sequence of an old man named Santiago, who dreams about his childhood on the masts of a ship and lions on the shores.
When he wakes up, we find out that he has gone 84 days without catching any fish at all. He is apparently so unlucky that his young apprentice, Manolin, has been forbidden by his parents to sail with the old man and been ordered to fish with more successful fishermen. Still dedicated to the old man, however, the boy visits Santiago's shack in the morning. The next day, before sunrise, Santiago and Manolin make their way to the seashore. Santiago says that he will venture far out into the Gulf to fish. Manolin wants to come, but Santiago insists on going alone.
After venturing far out, Santiago sets his lines and soon catches a small fish which he decides to use as bait. A big fish that he is sure is a marlin takes his bait. Unable to pull in the great marlin, Santiago instead finds the fish pulling his skiff. An unspecified number of days pass in this manner, during which the old man bears the tension of the line with his body. On one night, Santiago dreams of his youth, of how he won an arm wrestling match against the strongest black man in town. On another night, though he is wounded by the struggle and in pain, Santiago dreams that he and the marlin are brothers, swimming through the ocean together. An extended fantasy sequence is animated here by Petrov. Suddenly, he is woken up; the marlin tries to take advantage of the situation and escape. As the fish jumps out of the water, the old man sees for the first time just how big it is.
Eventually, the fish begins to circle the skiff, indicating his tiredness to the old man. With each circle, Santiago tries to pull it in a little closer. As the fish swims under the boat, Santiago manages to stab the marlin with a harpoon, thereby ending the long battle.
Santiago straps the marlin to his skiff and heads home, triumphant. However, in a short while, sharks are attracted to the trail of blood left by the marlin in the water. Santiago kills one with his harpoon, losing that weapon in the process. He makes a new harpoon by strapping his knife to the end of an oar to help ward off the next line of sharks and manages to kill a few more. Soon, however, the sharks have devoured the marlin's entire carcass, leaving only its skeleton. The old man castigates himself for sacrificing the marlin.
The next morning, a group of fishermen gathers around the boat where the fish's skeleton is still attached. Manolin, worried during the old man's endeavor, brings him food and drink and finds the old man lying in his cabin. When he wakes, he tells him that they had boats searching for him and that his parents allowed him to fish together once again.

Review: He does not harbor ill will toward anyone or anything, including the great fish, but accepts life and makes no judgements.Spencer Tracy provides an excellent portrayal, as usual, of the main character.
It was very interesting to find that in real life, according to the Movie data base biography, his father was an economist and a principal participant in the Cuban Revolution a few years later.A book well written and a film adaption that presents the story as I imagined it while reading the book..
The story, although classic and definitely worth while reading, is best summed up by Tracy's acting technique.This was no location film which means the greater portion of realism must come from the actor.
Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" is a fine story, but it gives every indication of being quite a challenge to any film-maker hoping to adapt it to the screen.
Yet it required above all the right leading actor, and Spencer Tracy comes through with a poignant performance that pulls everything else together.Tracy is perfectly cast as the old fisherman.
Tracy also seems to identify with the character closely, since his mannerisms and body language almost always seem just right.The action parts of the story rely heavily on stock footage, and sometimes on rather obvious models, but the action is not nearly as important as are the old man's character and his thoughts.
Once again, Tracy's narration matches the content perfectly.The heart of the story is an honest but compassionate look at a man almost thoroughly ignored by the world, seemingly with little purpose to his life.
Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" is a classic literary work but it isn't well suited to screen adaptation.
This film has some of the necessary ingredients for success but comes up short in several respects.Spencer Tracy turns in a fine performance as the titular 'old man', one which was rewarded with an Oscar nomination.
Tracy does double duty as the omniscient narrator as well, though I don't think that it made much sense to delegate that task to the actor playing the main character of the film.John Sturges seems to have had to cobble together footage from various shoots and locations, resulting in a somewhat haphazard look.
John Sturges directed this reportedly-troubled production, a handsome adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's story about an old salt who wants one last chance to catch a prized fish before he dies.
I guess it was Spencer Tracy's turn to do it now.I'm not sure that any actor no matter how good they are could keep the audiences attention on him for 90 minutes just alone in a boat, struggling to hook the mother of all marlins.
When a whole lot of his contemporaries were still doing romantic leads, Tracy let his age and everything else all hang out in this story of an old Cuban fisherman with two passions, baseball and fishing.
Hemingway goes Melville on us here, the big fish is the old man's white whale.
It was a great effort and Tracy and director John Sturges deserve an A for effort here in trying to film an essentially plot less story.
I suppose The Old Man and the Sea found an audience with fishermen and Spencer Tracy fans..
Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway with screenplay by Peter Viertel about a an aging fisherman (Spencer Tracy won an Oscar nomination for the role) who fights a band of hungry sharks for an enormous Marlin in the Gulf Stream to bring his trophy home .
Humphrey Bogart attempted to purchase the film rights to Ernest Hemingway's novel through his production company, Santana Productions , Bogart identified strongly with the character of the old man and wanted to play the fisherman ; but the film wasn't made until the year following his death , with his close friend Spencer Tracy .
The main starring , Spencer Tracy , is marvelous as Ernest Hemingway's aging fisherman who hooks a gigantic fish that drags him out to sea .
After seeing the film , Ernest Hemingway expressed his disappointment and said that Spencer Tracy looked less the Cuban peasant fisherman and more the rich old actor that he was .
This high-level film will appeal to Spencer Tracy fans .There is a second rendition made-for-TV , ¨The old man and the sea¨ (1990) by Judd Taylor with big name cast , though , unfortunately , this reboot is ordinary and inferior to original ; being starred by Anthony Quinn , Alexis Cruz , Patricia Clarkson , Gary Cole, Francesco Quinn ; photographed by Tony Imi and soundtrack by Bruce Broughton ..
Good thing, too, because The Old Man and the Sea is Hemingway's tersest statement about what it means for a male to live a worthwhile life: live vigorously, test yourself, fight what threatens to destroy you (within and without), and emerged bloodied, but unbowed.
From the brilliant literally mind of Earnest Hemmingway, comes the touching story of " The Old Man and The Sea ".
Spencer Tracy, plays The Old Man and his fine acting in this movie, garnered him an Oscar nomination in 1958.
In summary: If you want to listen to a reading of The Old Man and The Sea with some pretty pictures to look at then this is the film for you.
It is a completely faithful adaptation to the novella in terms of narrative and Tracy embodies the old man wonderfully, particularly in capturing the modesty and kindliness of Santiago - the Cuban apprentice boy's hero.
Great adaptation of the Hemingway novel.Set in Cuba, an old fisherman (played by Spencer Tracy) is down on his luck.
You would expect that, too: directed by John Sturges, based on a classic Ernest Hemingway novel and starring Spencer Tracy.
Good special effects, especially for the time, and great cinematography.Good work by Spencer Tracy in the lead role, for which he got a Best Actor Oscar nomination.
Spencer Tracy acts and narrates in this film about an old fisherman getting the catch of his life.
The entire story is about the old man and the struggle with the fish a metaphor for life: it's hard and it sucks, and then you die.
In the film he doesn't die, but that is clearly besides the point.Tracy was nominated for an Oscar for his performance, but really, it's just a guy in a boat, talking to himself and to a fish and nothing much is going on.
I think we see an old soul in "the boy" and a lost art in Spencer Tracy.His time on the sea, alone, was so beautiful and his determination should make us all feel a little wimpy for complaining that minor aches and pains keep us, at times, from our appointed duties.
My interpretation of John Sturges's adaptation of "The Old Man and the Sea" is that the title character, a Cuban fisherman (Spencer Tracy), is making what appears to be his last attempt at greatness.
Spencer Tracy is wonderful as the old man, and the scenery is splendid as well, but in the end, the film only reveals that "The Old Man and the Sea" works so much better as a novel than it works as a film.
Especially with the restrictions faced by the production with respect to technical effects, "The Old Man and the Sea" looks really dated sixty years later, and the cinematography is rather bleak at certain times, probably due to budgetary limitations.
Spencer Tracy gives his best in a demanding role, and if you never read the novel before, then the film will be quite suspenseful and action-packed.
It's a good film in its own right, and I still think that "The Old Man and the Sea" deserves at least a rating of 7.0 stars, but as an adaptation of a beloved classic, it somehow feels like it didn't achieve the desired effect.
Still, considering what a challenge a presentation of Hemingway's story must have been to any filmmaker, it's worthy of admiration to consider how close this film comes to its source material, mainly thanks to a fantastic performance by Spencer Tracy..
The Old Man (Spencer Tracy) is a struggling Cuban fisherman.
His only supporter is the Young Boy. He rows out further than everyone and faces a battle with a huge marlin.Based on Ernest Hemingway's iconic story, this requires two essential elements; the old man and the sea.
The cinematography is splendid indeed.I have got to search my memory to find a movie in which the sea was filmed with so much talent and so much taste:so hats off to M.Wong Howe!Spencer Tracy,although he was not that old at the time (58!),is ideally cast as the sailor man and it is no small feat to be alone on the screen during one hour ,whith a big fish as his only co-star.The voice over is perhaps too much used and sometimes redundant,the marvelous pictures being much enough.It's always difficult to transfer a book without dialog to the screen .A movie which can be watched by the whole family ,it depicts the fight of a man against his worst enemy , himself ,not the fish..
Even with the stellar casting of Tracy as the old man, this movie was just way too depressing and long.
It contains detail of the old man -Santiago- going out to sea to catch the Marlin and his friend Manolin who is like his protector who watches over him which is very kind because he is just a young boy.
It makes you feel emotion towards the old man and what he wants which is the Marlin, but when the sharks come and eat it he feels devastated, he goes through so much pain and is without luck but manages to catch a great Marlin twice as long as the skiff he is in.
After eighty-four days without a catch, seafaring "old man" Spencer Tracy (as Santiago) finds his prowess as a Cuban fisherman slipping away.
His unlucky streak ends when Tracy's small boat gets pulled to new waters, where he finds the biggest fish in the sea.
As he struggles alone against the elements, you'll wonder who caught who Like the classic Ernest Hemingway story from which it is adapted, there is much to read into "The Old Man and the Sea" - and Tracy earnestly tackles some of the reading, in frequent narrative interludes.
But, this film doesn't catch the wave you can ride in the original story.****** The Old Man and the Sea (10/7/58) John Sturges ~ Spencer Tracy, Felipe Pazos Jr., Harry Bellaver.
For a mid-'50s (okay, that tired phrase, "mid-century") film, it is a half-decent depiction of Hemingway's classic, though Spencer Tracy's Cuban accent is obviously forced, if even available, and Tracy needed a good week under a tanning bed if the producer expected us to believe that even a gringo fisherman would look as pale as Tracy's character looked.
I read and seen this film in school, and must say that the story lives up to be a classic book and a classic author, Ernest Hemingway.The story about an old man living in Cuba dreams about catching the biggest fish he has been wanting to catch his whole life.
Spencer Tracy gives an amazing performance as the old man in the film.
I must have seen "The Old Man and the Sea," with Spencer Tracy in the title role (released in 1958), first when I was in High School or College.
I think that scheme might have been better than what is the reality of this old Warner Brothers' movie.I am afraid the film has not aged particularly well.The portions where Tracy is shown super-imposed against an unsaturated rear-projection screen are, unfortunately, all too obvious.
An older Spencer Tracey, in the beginning of the last phase of his long career before his death in 1969, portrays the eponymous Old Man, Santiago while also providing the voice-over narration.
The film was not very successful and it seems it was of special interest to fans of Hemingway or of Spencer but this movie is highly underrated and under-appreciated.
Spencer Tracy is Santiago, an old impoverished Cuban fisherman who has had eighty-four days of bad luck and is being helped to survive by a young boy of the village.
Tracy takes his little fishing boat farther out than usual, lands a giant marlin after a fierce three-day struggle, and then loses his trophy to the sharks who tear the great fish to pieces, leaving only the head, spine, and tail.If it get off to something of a slow start, it nevertheless involves us in Tracy's fate all the way.
An old Cuban man (Tracy) sets out in his small boat to do some fishing.
Hemingway's multi-award winning book was turned into this tidy little movie, less than 90 minutes long, mostly on the water, with narration, and it seems to be a character that Spencer Tracy was born to play.
My local library has the DVD and for an old movie is nice indeed, with several good extras, including some recently discovered film of Hemingway on a fishing trip for giant Marlins.
It's a short story that should be impossible to translate into a visual medium, but surprisingly this quiet drama about an old man talking to himself in a boat works quite well as a movie.
The story is a great vehicle for Tracy's ability to project restraint and dignity, and his careworn face makes him an ideal choice for the role of the old fisherman even in the absence of any Cuban ancestry.
Such was the case with this original movie based on the novel, "The Old Man and the Sea," by Ernest Hemingway.
So, viewers can be sure that the movie we watch is very likely how Hemingway envisioned the story in his mind as he wrote the book.
The sea is almost dead calm or barely rippling in most of the scenes when the old man is rowing or being pulled by the fish.
But in the scene when the fish surfaces, and the old man struggles to wear it down, we see fairly heavy seas, with five to eight foot swells and choppy water.
The screenplay was adapted by Peter Viertel from the novella and the film was directed by Sturges.Spencer Tracy is the Old Man, a Cuban fisherman who tries to haul in a huge fish that he catches far from shore.
In this movie,Tracy did great great for himself as he was able to put to life a movie the features himself mostly with no other characters involved.I personally could say that he was born to play the old fisherman.As for the screenplay,the movie was a great adaptation of Hemingway's novella.The only negative thing I could say was that the film was very poor in its technical aspects as inconsistencies in very obvious all throughout many scenes.I could have given this movie a 10/10 rating if not for this..
"The Old Man and the Sea" is one of those little, sometimes forgotten about films, that when seen makes you remember how good a film can be when you put your faith in a great story, and have intelligent directors and actors to make them.At only 86 minutes, this film packs more action and has a lot more to say than most movies at almost twice the length.
It is the story of an old man, largely forgotten about and ridiculed by others in his town, in search for one last great fish.
And in the end, he has sacrificed almost everything, and wound up with only a carcass of what could have been.Spencer Tracy is nothing short of brilliant as the Old Man. While he also supplies the voice over, his performance is incredibly moving.
Screen version of Ernest Hemingway's novel The Old Man And The Sea (1952), directed by John Sturges is a great argument to support a thesis that no special effects and big budget productions can make a movie good, without quality actors and brilliant story behind it.Hemingway, born in 1899 in United States, had been awarded Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1953 and Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.
He had become friends with local fisherman Gregorio Fuentes who is commonly considered as a main influence for "the old man" character.Santiago is an aged man who has gone 84 days without catching a fish.
Santiago had ruined himself because didn't want to give up on the marlin that lead him to the open sea for two days and two nights.Great narrator's performance makes a film extraordinary.
Hooking a large fish, only to see the latter devoured by whales.Tracy is philosophic through the film, especially when he went way out to sea for that day's adventure.Exhausted, he returns to his hut and the boy is there, promising a new day.
Based upon Ernest Hemingway's novella of the same name, the story basically delves into what happens when an old man goes out fishing and manages to land 'the big one!' At times very symbolic and allegorical it made for a fascinating, thought-provoking read.
But in adapting it to the screen, "The Old Man and the Sea" loses most of its impact.
Old Man And The Sea, at least as filmed for 1958, IS rubbish.
Can a creative team overcome the obvious technical and narrative difficulties inherent in the prospect of filming the Hemingway novella 'The Old Man and the Sea?' Well...
Not too long after that, the old man hooks a ridiculously big fish.
To more realistically portray the Old Man, Tracy whitened his hair, but the myriad production delays and the stress of the role managed to turn his hair white anyway.I find the picture is loaded with symbolism and it's been too long since I read Hemingway's novella, so I don't recall if some of the ideas presented in the movie were part of the original source.