Islands in the Stream (1977)

Sad...dated...disappointing

I was thinking about purchasing this DVD to add to our collection of best-loved movies. I hadn't seen it before today, but I've enjoyed Hemingway's novels and George C Scott's performances...so what could go wrong. Unfortunately much too much.

Perhaps the story Hemingway attempted in this unfinished work is too big for the screen. With so much ground to cover, the filmmakers choose to eliminate too little and so by spreading their attention a mile wide have fashioned a movie paper thin...

I can only guess that the original script was a lot more appealing than the picture we see. Otherwise why would Scott choose to do this after his success with Patton, The Hospital and They Might Be Giants. Nothing was engrossing: not the relationship between Hudson and his buddies on the island, not his relationship with his sons, and not the interaction between Hudson and the only woman he loved.

Completely unsatisfying.

"Islands" was a waste of time. Don't waste your money. I'm happy I borrowed this one from the Library.

Buy one of Scott's other movies...certainly, Patton and The Hospital, but also The Hustler, Strangelove and They Might Be Giants, or another, not yet on DVD, but among my favorites - The Flim-Flam Man. September 6, 2008

Islands in the Stream

Great movie and George C. Scott at his very best. I've read the Hemingway novel of the same name and like the movie adaptation better. Filmed on location in the Bahamas and wonderful scenery and music. This is film making at it's best. May 29, 2007

Islands in the Stream

This is a very good movie but something in the formating to DVD is not correct. The sound track, although sincronized, has something lacking. The musicical background of the sound track does not flow fluently. January 19, 2007

George C. Scotts finest performance

A very relaxing movie to watch. Picturesque landscapes, great characters!!!! This movie had some great character actors Hollywood never fully utilized. A great human story of life, love, war and peace, tragedy and death. Oh and the soundtrack is wonderful! So calming and soothing. Always a great family movie! When I'm away from family I appreciate this film the most. You feel like your right there with George C. Scott. I cant explain it. Again, great for the whole family!!! January 18, 2007

"It is all true"

Islands in the Stream, Hemingway's posthumously published exercise in romanticised self-loathing about an ageing artist in self-imposed exile in the Bahamas in WW2 coming to terms with his failure as a husband and father and trying to make amends, reunited many of the key talents from Patton - director Franklin J. Schaffner, composer Jerry Goldsmith, cinematographer Fred Koenekamp and star George C. Scott - to almost universal audience indifference, but it's a surprisingly solid and engrossing film that gradually works its way under your skin. The kind of personal project that somehow usually heralds the end of a director's major works and the beginning of his descent into lucrative journeyman work when it fails to find an audience, it does build up a surprising degree of emotional power in the last third. Scott reins it in to good effect here: the scene where he realises the true reason for his ex-wife's visit overcomes the atrocious writing to deliver real suppressed emotional power, while his scene on the beach with Julius Harris where he knows he needs to move on but cannot bring himself to do it is genuinely touching. Aided by a well-cast David Hemmings as his rummy mate and a superb score by Jerry Goldsmith (the composer's favorite) that builds on the sea theme from Papillon and works much better on screen than on CD, it's well worth checking out, although be warned that in the marlin fishing sequence there is one bit of back projection so staggeringly bad you cannot understand why it was allowed to remain in the picture!

Paramount's DVD offers a good 2.35:1 widescreen transfer but no extras. January 15, 2007

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