Customer Reviews

The Old Man and the Sea

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Ernest Hemmingway story is too short to go into detail without revealing the surprises; however it is about (you guessed it) an old fisherman, that should be over the hill, going out to sea from Cuba to catch fish. He has 84 days of bad luck and with any luck this is about to change (or is it?)

While the book can drag and be a tad redundant; this film adaptation puts life into the story. It is almost as if the story was written for Quinn. I have no intention of calling this a remake.

Anthony Quinn requested his part as a birthday present (his 75th) from his producer.

Anthony Quinn ... Santiago
Gary Cole ... Tom Pruitt
Patricia Clarkson ... Mary Pruitt
Joe Santos ... Lopez
Valentina Quinn ... Angela
Francesco Quinn ... Santiago as a Young Man
Paul Calderon ... Anderez

Notice a few more Quinn's

I haven't read the Ernest Hemingway book yet nor have I seen the old Spencer Tracy movie yet but I saw this television remake starring Anthony Quinn and I loved it, it was a wonderful movie and I though Anthony Quinn was outstanding as Santiago the old fisherman. Anthony Quinn's daughter Valentina plays Santiago's concerned daughter in this movie and his son Francesco plays Santiago as a young man and the movie also stars Gary Cole and Patricia Clarkson as an American couple and I think this movie also had a young boy who befriended Santiago but I do not recall the actors name. This is a wonderful movie and I wish I could give it more then 5 stars and I very highly recommend it. The last time I looked up this movie on Amazon it was only available on video and now that it's also available on DVD I will definitely think about buying the DVD! I don't remember how long this remake was but I think it might have been a two part 4 hour mini series movie.

In my opinion, the film perhaps of its release date in 1963 is not at least standard for what I expect from a movie, but if you've read the book from Ernest Hemmingway it's pretty interesting watching the shark attacks, the big fish, the man and the boy and other events or protagonists of the whole story.

The visualisation makes the boring story a bit more exciting and the new elements that are implemented like the author Hemmingway itself and other persons not mentioned so directly in the novella surprise everybody who read the book at first in a positive way.

Once one said to me that a film as a visualisation of a novella could never as good as the written form. "The Old Man and the Sea" proves the contrary opinion because this movie simply is better than the original book.

Nevertheless also a good visual form cannot hide a weak story. For whose who have read the novella with pleasure or do like the great actor Anthony Quinn I can recommend the movie version.

Everyone else who don't like calm stories with philosophical background should take another video tape or DVD like "A Land Before Time" or "Predator"!