Watch The Swimmer Videos

Release Date: 1968

Cast: Janet Landgard, Janice Rule, Rose Gregorio, Tony Bickley, Joan Rivers, Kim Hunter, Burt Lancaster, Charles Drake, Nancy Cushman, Marge Champion, Bill Fiore

Categories: Movies, Romantic Drama, Film Adaptation, Romance Film, Tragedy, Drama Film

The Swimmer is a 1968 American film directed by Frank Perry and starring Burt Lancaster. The surreal, allegorical tale is based on the 1964 short story by John Cheever, adapted by Eleanor Perry, the director's wife. It tells the story of a man trying to reclaim his life after a life changing experience, similar to The Ballad of Andy Crocker, starring Lee Majors and featuring Marvin Gaye. On a sunny early autumn day, the camera runs along the autumnal forest of an affluent suburb in Connecticut. The running is that of Ned Merrill (Lancaster), a seemingly successful, appealing and popular... MORE

The Swimmer is a 1968 American film directed by Frank Perry and starring Burt Lancaster. The surreal, allegorical tale is based on the 1964 short story by John Cheever, adapted by Eleanor Perry, the director's wife. It tells the story of a man trying to reclaim his life after a life changing experience, similar to The Ballad of Andy Crocker, starring Lee Majors and featuring Marvin Gaye. On a sunny early autumn day, the camera runs along the autumnal forest of an affluent suburb in Connecticut. The running is that of Ned Merrill (Lancaster), a seemingly successful, appealing and popular middle-aged advertising executive, clad only in swimming trunks. We never learn where he has arrived from. He walks out of the woods and into the backyard of some old friends sitting by their swimming pool. He chats with them, then he has a sudden idea: he tells his friends he intends to "swim" home across the county by dropping in on friends' swimming pools which form a consecutive chain leading back to his house. He dives into the pool, emerges at the other end and starts his journey. At first Ned gets warm welcomes as he meets old friends. These are mostly upper middle-class, well-to-do people LESS