Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

4/21/18. Even with the stellar casting of Tracy as the old man, this movie was just way too depressing and long. The poor man appeared delirious most of the time battling the elements as well as the sharks out to eat up his catch. That's the essence of this movie.

Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway with screenplay by Peter Viertel about a an aging fisherman (Spencer Tracy won an Oscar nomination for the role) who fights a band of hungry sharks for an enormous Marlin in the Gulf Stream to bring his trophy home . Santiago goes out on his usual fishing trip and makes a huge catch , the biggest of his life . Then a shark attacks and tries to steal his catch . Santiago is making slow progress toward shore, humming to himself . He notices a fin in the water approaching fast . It's a Mako shark, coming after some free marlin meat. Santiago thrusts his harpoon into the shark, but loses hold of the rope and the shark swims away with the rope and the harpoon. The shark had taken a bite of the marlin, releasing blood into the water . Later on , Santiago battles many sharks for days . As several more sharks approach and Santaigo stands up with his new spear and prepares to do battle . They feed, he stabs, over and over, until the blade of the knife snaps off. He apologizes to the marlin and regrets having gone out so far, for both their sakes . He returns to the shore beaten , tattered and torn, and his catch consisting now of mostly bones .Enjoyable tale deliberately narrated plenty of sensitivity , stubbornness , dreams and color . It is an Ernest Hemingway's story of heroism , defeat , obstinacy and Victory . The flick is pretty well , but a little bit boring and slow . Humphrey Bogart attempted to purchase the film rights to Ernest Hemingway's novel through his production company, Santana Productions , Bogart identified strongly with the character of the old man and wanted to play the fisherman ; but the film wasn't made until the year following his death , with his close friend Spencer Tracy . The main starring , Spencer Tracy , is marvelous as Ernest Hemingway's aging fisherman who hooks a gigantic fish that drags him out to sea . He garnered his sixth Academy Award Nomination as as the tough , likable as well as dreamer fisherman . After seeing the film , Ernest Hemingway expressed his disappointment and said that Spencer Tracy looked less the Cuban peasant fisherman and more the rich old actor that he was . Ernest Hemingway himself was initially involved in the production, although the extent of his participation after selling his book was to go marlin-fishing off the coast of Peru to try to find a fish worthy enough for the movie . In the end , the producers used a rubber marlin and stock footage of marlin fishing in which Hemingway didn't participate in . Colorful and brilliant cinematography in Warnercolor by James Wong Howe and Floyd Crosby . Dimitri Tiomkin's wonderful musical score was Oscar winner .This motion picture was well produced by Leland Hayward and compellingly directed by John Sturges who replaced Fred Zinnemann . John began his directing career at Columbia Pictures, where from 1946-49 he he worked on "12-day wonders" ("B" pictures shot on a 12-day schedule). From there he moved on to MGM where he filmed more "B" pictures, albeit on a larger budget . He established an independent production company in 1959, releasing through United Artists. From 1960-67 he worked under contract for United Artists. His first major hit was the western Dog Day at Black Rock (1955) , which he shot in just three weeks, wrapping up virtually every scene in a single take . He specialized in robust action pictures, particularly westerns . He excelled at bringing to life tautly written stories about tough characters facing difficult circumstances . Throughout his career he regularly alternated hits with misses . He has also been criticized for his lack of stylistic trademarks , though his best films remain exciting to watch . Sturges was expert on all kind of genres , but especially warlike such as : ¨Great Escape¨, ¨Ice Station Zebra¨ and ¨Eagle has landed¨ and Western such as ¨Last train of Gun Hill¨, ¨Magnificent Seven¨, ¨Backlash¨, ¨Law and Jake Webb¨, ¨Joe Kidd¨ and Chino¨, among others . This high-level film will appeal to Spencer Tracy fans .There is a second rendition made-for-TV , ¨The old man and the sea¨ (1990) by Judd Taylor with big name cast , though , unfortunately , this reboot is ordinary and inferior to original ; being starred by Anthony Quinn , Alexis Cruz , Patricia Clarkson , Gary Cole, Francesco Quinn ; photographed by Tony Imi and soundtrack by Bruce Broughton .

Like many, I do not particularly care for "The Old Man and the Sea". And unlike the previous year's one-man show, "The Spirit of St. Louis", this one, although considerably shorter, is a much more lugubrious slog. It starts out well, with some very warm, authentic grandfather/young boy interactions between Spencer Tracy and Felipe Pazos Jr., who sadly only appeared in this one film. Their palpable, on-screen chemistry is magical, leaving one feeling cheated because it is so quickly replaced by the numbingly boring, poorly matched water-tank phoniness that makes up the core of this film. Based upon Ernest Hemingway's novella of the same name, the story basically delves into what happens when an old man goes out fishing and manages to land 'the big one!' At times very symbolic and allegorical it made for a fascinating, thought-provoking read. But in adapting it to the screen, "The Old Man and the Sea" loses most of its impact. Partly done in by its apparently limited budget, only the brilliant cinematography of James Wong Howe makes it a worthwhile watch. In the lead role, Spencer Tracy gamely tries to make the 86 minute enterprise interesting. Sadly, for this viewer at least, he can't. Even Tracy's scoring a nomination for a best actor Oscar in a lead performance is undermined by his own brilliant performance that same year in the screen adaptation of Edwin O'Connor's "The Last Hurrah!", the film for which he should have been so honoured.Finally, a word about Dimitri Tiomkin's often thundering, bombastic score. I find it quite unfortunate that producer Leland Hayward, who had hired Franz Waxman to score "The Spirit of St. Louis" didn't rehire him to pen the music for this one as well. Often overblown and over-bearing, Tiomkin's score is more intrusive than supportive, lacking any sense of a main identifiable theme or even much in the way of Cuban rhythms. It may have won the music scoring Oscar in 1958, but why I have yet to fathom.

It's very rare that a movie is made based on a book while the author is still alive, and the author is an adviser and has an active hand in the shooting and production of the film. Such was the case with this original movie based on the novel, "The Old Man and the Sea," by Ernest Hemingway. So, viewers can be sure that the movie we watch is very likely how Hemingway envisioned the story in his mind as he wrote the book. Hemingway was an adviser on this film, and had creative control over the final draft of the screenplay. He also worked as a second unit director for some of the marlin fishing scenes. And, Warner Brothers used his boat, Pilar, for the camera platform in shooting most of the exteriors in Cuban waters. The scenes of the marlin fight were from film footage of the world's record catch by Alfred C. Glassell, Jr., who also acted as an adviser.I can understand how some people would be put off by this movie. Especially a younger generation that has grown up on constant action, CGI, and so many films of make believe, fantasy or of a comic book nature. But to anyone who loves to read, this movie should be a treat. For about half the film, we see just one person, alone in his boat. He searches for, finally hooks, then struggles and waits patiently for the right time to land his fish. Finally, he fights against sharks in his long trip back to port.During all of this we see what the old man does to outwit his catch, and to fight off the predator sharks. He talks out loud to himself, to God and to the fish. And we hear his thoughts as he ruminates about how he will make it back. Hemingway's words come alive in the thoughts of the old man. Haven't most of us at some time in our lives talked to ourselves out loud, and carried on one-sided discussions in our thoughts. The monologue of the old man alone on the sea with his fish, which he called simply, "Fish," brought the pages of the book to life. All aspects of "The Old Man and Sea" were excellent. Spencer Tracy gave one of his finest performances, and the rest of the cast were very good. The Warner Color was spectacular, and the cinematography and settings were outstanding. John Sturges turned in another great film as director, and the music by Dmitri Tiomkin was perfect for this film. The only reason I don't score this a 10 is because of some small details that are distractions. The film couldn't overcome the obvious differences in seas. The sea is almost dead calm or barely rippling in most of the scenes when the old man is rowing or being pulled by the fish. But in the scene when the fish surfaces, and the old man struggles to wear it down, we see fairly heavy seas, with five to eight foot swells and choppy water. In one scene of the village we see palm trees bending and swaying under heavy winds, so there should at least have been small whitecaps on the water. Another little detail was Tracy's appearance – facial and clothing. He didn't seem to look as haggard as he acted, and his clothes and hat might have shown a little more wear and tear from his ordeal. But overall, this is an excellent movie that will appeal to those who like to read the classics. "The Old Man and the Sea" surely is an American classic. It earned Hemingway a Pulitzer Prize in 1953, and was cited as the significant contribution to his winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. A priceless bonus on the DVD of this movie is a short video entitled, "Hemingway – The Legend of the Sea." It was a film of a fishing trip in the Caribbean with Hemingway and filmmaker Allen Miner. It shows them landing a huge marlin. And one last piece of trivia – Hemingway and a friend did lose half a huge fish to sharks in real life. They caught a marlin so large that they weren't able to bring it into the boat, and sharks got the tail half of the fish before they got back to port. You can find a photo on the Web that shows the two men standing beside the 500-pound half of a marlin.