A Disappointing Continuation

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Even writer Ernest Hemingway was disappointed when he saw the film.Besides starring in the film, Spencer Tracy narrates the vast majority of it. He is the old man, who hasn't caught a fish in 84 days and laments that fact. A young lad deeply cares for him, but the latter's father wants to keep the son away from the Tracy character.Tracy reflects on the past as he goes out once again to fish on the 85th day. Hooking a large fish, only to see the latter devoured by whales.Tracy is philosophic through the film, especially when he went way out to sea for that day's adventure.Exhausted, he returns to his hut and the boy is there, promising a new day. At that point, the film ends.

I'm dismayed by the discussion on IMDb relating to reactions to this film by people of today's generations.Sorry, but maybe the youth of today actually know a thing or two about story, and about film, because they have available to them the sum total of human artistic product. They aren't limited to just what certain folks deem appropriate. Sure, if Old Man And The Sea was one of the few things you could access for entertainment back in the day, you might be impressed by it. Well, life goes on, and some of today's classics will be tomorrow's rubbish. That is how it must be.And guess what? Old Man And The Sea, at least as filmed for 1958, IS rubbish. How can you justify a scene in which a spear is thrown INTO THE OPEN WOUND that it is supposed to yet make? How you can you justify a scene where a line is pulled tight, attached at both ends above the water (boat and fish) and yet the line goes straight down into the depths? Even taking into account the usual curve of a line such as this, it makes no sense. And Spencer Tracy as a Cuban? It's too much to bear.If you can't film it, don't film it.The other annoying thing about this film is the narration. If this was books-on-tape, or descriptive-video, there might be a justification for it. But it's just absurd, annoying, lazy, and pretentious. There are better ways.

After eighty-four days without a catch, seafaring "old man" Spencer Tracy (as Santiago) finds his prowess as a Cuban fisherman slipping away. Hero-worshiping young sidekick Felipe Pazos (as Manolin) is advised, by his parents, to seek fairer waters with another mate - but, the boy won't abandon Mr. Tracy. His unlucky streak ends when Tracy's small boat gets pulled to new waters, where he finds the biggest fish in the sea. As he struggles alone against the elements, you'll wonder who caught who… Like the classic Ernest Hemingway story from which it is adapted, there is much to read into "The Old Man and the Sea" - and Tracy earnestly tackles some of the reading, in frequent narrative interludes. The award-winning efforts by Tracy, director John Sturges, and cinematographer James Wong Howe (in color, this time) are certainly worth a look. The "National Board of Review" considered this the best picture of the year. But, this film doesn't catch the wave you can ride in the original story.****** The Old Man and the Sea (10/7/58) John Sturges ~ Spencer Tracy, Felipe Pazos Jr., Harry Bellaver

For a mid-'50s (okay, that tired phrase, "mid-century") film, it is a half-decent depiction of Hemingway's classic, though Spencer Tracy's Cuban accent is obviously forced, if even available, and Tracy needed a good week under a tanning bed if the producer expected us to believe that even a gringo fisherman would look as pale as Tracy's character looked. The scenery was not as much in the studio appearance as I would have expected, except with the fish-fighting scenes looking forward in the boat to the fish. Wasn't the Old Man (Tracy) fighting a swordfish in one scene, or am I mistaken? I'm told by TMC's anchor that it was a fake fish because they couldn't catch a decent fish when shooting for the flick, and Hemingway wasn't a fan of the movie, making comments about Tracy not passing for a Cubano at all. But at least on my old Sony 19" Trinitron television (no digital here), the expired fish, its long backbone exposed, was perfect! And I love the ending shots of the fishermen silhouetted against the sunset, which as a former west Floridian, was totally real.