X
  • 1976
  • PG
  • Paramount Pictures
  • 1 h 36 m
  • 1976
  • PG
  • Paramount Pictures
  • 1 h 36 m
Lifeguard

Summary Rick is in his 30s, but still works full-time as a lifeguard on the beaches of Los Angeles, California. He enjoys the fun of it, but even more, the silent moments. However, when he meets his divorced high school girlfriend and her five-year-old son at their fifteen year class reunion, he considers switching to a more "serious" job.

Directed By: Daniel Petrie

Written By: Ron Koslow

  • 1976
  • PG
  • Paramount Pictures
  • 1 h 36 m
  • 1976
  • PG
  • Paramount Pictures
  • 1 h 36 m

Lifeguard

Metascore Mixed or Average Based on 6 Critic Reviews
54
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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Summary Rick is in his 30s, but still works full-time as a lifeguard on the beaches of Los Angeles, California. He enjoys the fun of it, but even more, the silent moments. However, when he meets his divorced high school girlfriend and her five-year-old son at their fifteen year class reunion, he considers switching to a more "serious" job.

Directed By: Daniel Petrie

Written By: Ron Koslow

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 6 Critic Reviews
54
17% Positive
1 Review
83% Mixed
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 6 Critic Reviews
54
17% Positive
1 Review
83% Mixed
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
75
A sensitive, thought-provoking story involving a man forced to look at himself as youth gives way to middle age. Elliott is outstanding as the title character, an old-timer in the profession at age 30.
FULL REVIEW
60
Well thought out and with a feeling for ordinary American talk, but too mechanical, too blandly sensitive, too cool to be popular; it's the sort of small-scale picture that's a drag in a theatre but shines on Home Box Office.
By Pauline Kael FULL REVIEW
60
The hinge of Lifeguard's almost nonexistent plot is whether or not Rick will decide to give up his beach whistle for a briefcase. But the film is also extremely well acted by a cast of little-known players who deserve to go on to better things. [02 Aug 1976, p.78]
FULL REVIEW
60
A film that can narrow choices down to making a million as a car salesman, or drifting with alternate complacency and anxiety into middle-age as a superannuated beach bum, has something going for it in the way of cumulative obsessiveness.
FULL REVIEW
50
An unsatisfying film, of uncertain focus on a 30-ish guy who doesn't yet seem to know what he wants. Script takes Sam Elliott through another Southern California beach summer as a career lifeguard, encountering the usual string of offbeat characters found in the type of made-for-TV feature which this project resembles.
FULL REVIEW
50
As a film, Lifeguard is romantic twaddle, but as sociology it's a spontaneous assault on a very American way of life.
By Vincent Canby FULL REVIEW

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Details

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Production Company Paramount Pictures
Release Date Jul 23, 1976
Duration 1 h 36 m
Rating PG
Genres
Tagline The sand is soft, the surf is high, and the sun shines hot on those bikini birds. This is the life. Jackets and ties are for the other guys. [Australian theatrical poster, as 'Time and Tide']
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Awards

Photoplay Awards
• 1 Nomination

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