X
- 1958
- Not Rated
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 26 m
- 1958
- Not Rated
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 26 m
Summary An old Cuban fisherman's dry spell is broken when he hooks a gigantic fish that drags him out to sea.
Directed By: John Sturges, Fred Zinnemann
Written By: Ernest Hemingway, Peter Viertel
- 1958
- Not Rated
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 26 m
- 1958
- Not Rated
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 26 m
The Old Man and the Sea
49
User Score
Available after 4 ratings
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Where to Watch
Summary An old Cuban fisherman's dry spell is broken when he hooks a gigantic fish that drags him out to sea.
Directed By: John Sturges, Fred Zinnemann
Written By: Ernest Hemingway, Peter Viertel
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
49
25% Positive
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
63% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
13% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
49
25% Positive
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
63% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
13% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Sturges's direction, given the confining nature of the settings, is masterful, and the cinematography headed by Howe and pieced together by many others is sometimes stunning.
Some of James Wong Howe's photography is lovely, compensating for the rear-projected fish. [12 Jul 1996]
While Spencer Tracy provides a solid performance in the title role and Dimitri Tiomkin won an Oscar for his score, the overall effect of trying to film this rather unfilmable novel is a bit like an illustrated slide lecture.
It captures the dignity and the stubborness of the old man, and it is tender in his final defeat. And yet it isn’t a completely satisfying picture. There are long and arid stretches, when it seems as if producer and director were merely trying to fill time.
Essentially, it’s a slow-moving, low-rent Moby Dick with portentous voice-overs and unconvincing process shots of Spencer Tracy in a studio tank. In fact, why director John Sturges (The Magnificent Seven) bothered to make it remains a mystery.
Whatever allegorical intimations there may be in it are not conveyed to any sensible degree in a voice narration that breaks in occasionally or in the mumblings of the old man.
A painfully sincere, meticulously faithful, and pitifully plodding adaptation of Hemingway's novel about the symbolic struggle between an old Mexican fisherman and a giant marlin.
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Production Company
Leland Hayward Productions,
Warner Bros.
Release Date Oct 11, 1958
Duration 1 h 26 m
Rating Not Rated
Tagline SPENCER TRACY in his most suspenseful role...ERNEST HEMINGWAY'S story of Heroism...Defeat...Victory!
Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Win & 3 Nominations
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Nomination
National Board of Review, USA
• 3 Wins & 3 Nominations