The Red Circle

The Swimmer // 1968 // dir. Frank Perry

There is a man, running. He is leaping over fallen branches and dodging the ever encroaching tree trunks. His feet are bare. So, too, is his torso. He is wearing only a pair of swim trunks, and he is trying to get away.

Thus begins The Swimmer. Burt Lancaster puts himself in the tiny, blue swimsuit of Ned Merrill (and does so at 55 years of age, putting to shame even those 30 years younger) , a successful businessman who lives in upstate New York. Not long after he clears the forest, Merrill comes across one of neighbor’s back patios. They have just installed a pool. From the high vista of these well-to-do suburbanites, Merrill can see the entire neighborhood. It is comprised of a series of pools that lead all the way back to his house. He decides that today he is going to swim home.

That’s essentially the physical plot of The Swimmer. A businessman decides to take the long way home by swimming a “river of pools” to his house several miles down the hilly countryside. Trust me, this film wouldn’t be discussed here if that was as far as the movie was willing to go.

Instead, it’s a deep (and very thinly disguised) allegory ripe with symbolism. Some moments a little more heavy-handed than others. You see, starting with the first pool, Ned is treated as warmly as an old friend would be after months of absence. Old times are recollected, the future is discussed. The times between visits remains a mystery.

But, the closer Ned gets to his home and his wife and his daughters, the colder and more brutal his neighbors become. What do they know about him? What has he ever done to deserve this? All of this slowly comes to light with each new lap.

It becomes clear that we are tracking a man’s downfall as told through the eyes of the crust of the upper class suburban neighborhood. The subtle becomes the painfully obvious.

It starts of with the casual fun of seeing an old friend who you’ve heard some nasty rumours about. They couldn’t be true, though could they? Soon, though, Hank is attempting to kindle a romance with a 20 year old who used to babysit his young daughters. He’s hitting on every woman he comes across, all while swimming the “Lucinda” river – named for his wife. His story is becoming more clear now…

Some of his neighbors coyly ask him if he needs to borrow some money. Others immediately attempt to kick him out of their posh pool parties. We begin to see Mr. Merrill’s situation, even if he is not.

At one of the houses he stops by, the pool has been emptied out and is in disrepair. The only person out to greet him is a young child, selling lemonade under a tree while his parents are out. Unwilling to let something as silly as an empty pool get in his way, Ned attempts to teach the child how to swim through the air, mimicking all of the strokes that one would use to navigate the waters.

“If you make believe enough hard enough, then it’s true for you,” Ned tells the boy. After their impromptu lesson, Hank returns to the pool after hearing an odd sound to see the boy poised over the deep end’s diving board, ready to take the plunge into the waters he’s told himself are there. It’s not a subtle scene – but it does what it intends to do extraordinarily well.

We are treated to the tale of a man who swims his way to his ultimate defeat by dipping himself in the pools of pretty women. There is more going on in The Swimmer than meets the eye. It is not about a man who likes to swim.

This is a story about a man, running.

Tom Nix // 11.05.09

Share