The
final published and celebrated Pulitzer Prize winning literary work from
American author Ernest Hemingway proved to both a comeback as well as a
farewell for the revered novelist.
Contributory to Hemingway’s eventual win of the Nobel Prize in
Literature and marking the first time the author participated in the making of
a film version alongside a cameo appearance in it, The Old Man and the Sea remains a quiet yet wise tale of an elderly
and largely unlucky Cuban fisherman named Santiago nearing the end of his rope before
engaging in an epic battle catching a giant marlin. Aided by a young boy whose parents forbid him
to fish with Santiago, it’s a moving read about adapting to hardships in a dog
eat dog world where everyone’s an animal fighting for survival.
Spawning
two live action film versions with varying differences and traits unique to
each version, The Old Man and the Sea remains,
much like Bicycle Thieves, a fable
about dignity, endurance and humility as well as questioning one’s own
mortality and place in the world. Though
similar in some instances, the earlier work was a major theatrical feature in
1958 winning an Academy Award alongside two nominations while the other was a 1990
made-for-television feature with the meta move of incorporating Hemingway as a
character observing and jotting down the events of the story. Though both films remain under most viewers’
cinematic radars, The Old Man and the Sea
is an indelible reading turned viewing experience which both explore, in
their manner, different facets of the story which we at the Movie Sleuth will
be examining here.
The Old Man and the Sea (1958)
Regarded
as one of the most painstakingly researched adaptations of a major literary
work yet attempted as well as by admission of its own director John Sturges
(who replaced Fred Zinnemann early on) as ‘the sloppiest picture I have ever
made’, Warner Brothers’ studio-shot WarnerColor widescreen feature is oddly
simultaneously dated and groundbreaking.
Among the very first films to utilize blue-screen matting with actors
shot in the foreground while plate footage of marlin hunting and shark feeding
frenzies take up the background, The Old
Man and the Sea while showing its age with a water tank studio rendered sea
is mostly remembered as Spencer Tracy’s movie.
Tracy,
who personally flew to Cuba to meet with Ernest Hemingway to obtain his
blessing on the project, earned an Academy Award nomination and narrates the
picture directly from Hemingway’s text.
Though abbreviated by a screenplay Peter Viertel, the dialogue is
clearly Hemingway’s which adds an additional flavor and character to the
picture. On the one hand the narration
makes the picture as a literal adaptation of the short story while on the other
hand it inevitably enhances the viewing experience as it provides a glimpse into
Santiago's interior monologue. Hemingway
was reportedly disappointed with Tracy’s casting as he tends to look and sound
like his old crusty and scruffy self rather than an impoverished and struggling
Cuban, but for being cast due to his star power Tracy gives it his all and
makes you believe in the old man’s ordeal.
Visually
the production is breathtaking thanks to famed Chinese-American cinematographer
James Wong Howe who garnered an Academy Award nomination for his lush
WarnerColor photography combined with a wide variety of fish footage provided
by Lamar Boren. Yes some of the scenery
does reveal the edges of a large water tank instead of a wide sea, though the
film’s underwater photography with real sharks tearing away at a marlin
intercut with a fake marlin, is indistinguishable from aquatic documentaries of
the time.
Though
nominated for several Academy Awards, the one which ultimately took home the
Golden Statue was none other than Russian-Jewish soundtrack composer Dimitri
Tiomkin. Best known for his work on It’s a Wonderful Life, The Thing from Another World and High Noon, Tiomkin’s sweeping orchestral
score which ranges from the tranquil to the frantic and frightening sounds
frankly like a lush widescreen epic on an unparalleled scale. Though we’re allowed insight into Santiago’s weary
physical psychological state through the narration and Tracy’s pained,
exhausted expressions, it’s the music which finally drives home the aged hero’s
emotional state.
Despite
Hemingway’s own reservations about the casting after seeing the picture and
critical drubbings from the likes of the acerbic Bosley Crowther, The Old Man and the Sea opened to rave
reviews and cemented Spencer Tracy’s status as one of the great actors of his
time. In the years since its release, The Old Man and the Sea is regarded as a
cinematic classic though its unfortunately overlooked by newcomers, though not
nearly as overlooked as what followed decades later when the idea of doing
Hemingway’s tale on the small screen came about.
Score:
The Old Man and the Sea (1990)
Legend
has it (according to its veteran leading man anyway) that Mexican-Irish-American
actor Anthony Quinn approached John Sturges about playing the Cuban based
elderly fisherman Santiago but was turned down in favor of a more bankable star
which ultimately went to Spencer Tracy.
Nearly three decades later, however, Quinn would get his wish with the
1990 made-for-television film version of The
Old Man and the Sea. Directed by the
late Jud Taylor, part-time character actor/full-time television producer and
director, the end results of the scenic production are somewhat mixed with
debatably some snippets/framing lifted directly from the 1958 film. It’s a bit of a mixed bag in that it casts an
actor better suited for the role ethnically while, despite looking rough and
ragged for the part, isn’t given a whole lot more to do than what Tracy already
did.
Visually
the film looks fine thanks to frequent television cinematographer Tony Imi
though the 35mm footage mastered from a video source looks a bit drab in the
high-definition era. The score by Silverado composer Bruce Broughton,
contrary to Dimitri Tiomkin’s rousing and exciting soundtrack, is decidedly
more subdued though the upbeat mood of the opening and closing cues are lovely
in their acoustic way. Still, the
overall look and feel of this production is kind of unremarkable.
Where
this The Old Man and the Sea differs
greatly from the 1958 film are in two areas: the absence of voiceover narration
and the inclusion of a Hemingway-type character designed to illustrate where
the famed author may have garnered his inspiration from. Lacking the narration unfortunately tends to
make the previously engaging battles between fisherman and marlin kind of
torpid where it should be white-knuckled tension. It’s a misstep for such a literary adaptation
despite Quinn’s performance which is good but it pales in comparison to his
work on A Walk in the Clouds.
Next
we have the inclusion of Mary Pruitt (Patricia Clarkson) and Tom Pruitt (Gary
Cole from Office Space) as a stand-in
for Ernest and Mary Hemingway. While
they don’t come right out and say it, these characters are clearly intended to
be the Hemingways with a conflicted Ernest coming off of a wealthy background
going through a Larry Darrell/The Razor’s
Edge second coming after watching the old man’s undaunted struggles with fishing.
Seeing
the Hemingways onscreen is an interesting touch intended to give an additional
layer of meaning to the story and why it was significant for Ernest Hemingway
to write about it, though the intercutting with the fishing sequences tends to
deflate whatever strength they could have had.
Whereas the 1958 remained trained on Santiago, the 1990 film keeps
cutting away into the though-provoking gaze of Tom Pruitt.
While
I’m glad to have seen both versions of the story and glad Mr. Quinn got to
fulfill a long held desire to play Hemingway’s hero of his Pulitzer Prize
winning story, unfortunately this well intentioned television drama is kind of
stagnant. Yes it was fun to spot
character actors like Gary Cole and Pulp
Fiction’s Paul Calderon show up, but as an adaptation of Hemingway’s story
compared to the 1958 film, it never really gets off the ground or conveys the
depths of Santiago’s ordeal. Completests
and Hemingway aficionados, keen on seeing another take on The Old Man and the Sea will get some enjoyment out of it. That said, there’s a reason people still talk
about John Sturges’ film with Spencer Tracy and have otherwise mostly forgotten
about this one.
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki