The Old Man and the Sea (1990)

Elusive Prey

Hemingway's deceptively simple story of an old, out of luck Cuban fisherman's encounter with a marlin is elusive prey for the cinema. Contrary to popular opinion, the first film version with Spencer Tracy isn't that hot, and has a gassy ponderousness and air of fakery about it. Anthony Quinn is more freshly true and this little film also has great close up marlin footage as a compensation. Overall it is not only more authentic, both as to the fish and as to the Cuban setting, but also lighter and brighter. Frankly Quinn beats Tracy by a country mile; he isn't some white liberal worrying about portraying a Cubano with dignity, and gives you a well-rounded performance which admits the character's faults and a certain tendancy to be out of his head. That makes his quest believable and not simply fantastic. Hemingway did actually pick this story up out of real life, but any writer knows that such fact is harder to handle than fiction.

Alas, the film has a few other faults such as poor (old TV) film quality, plus a distracting subplot with a Hemingwayesque writer figure. Yeah, the shot of the old man superimposed with the marlin is funny, but at least has the excuse of being near impossible to avoid. There is no excuse for turning a full moon at sea into a giant searchlight worthy of a prison camp. And then they avoid a great highlight of the book--the night scenes with the sharks!

The subplot is the main problem though. It doesn't finally kill the story, but anyone who has read the novella knows how taut and carefully paced it is between the fisherman's day and night battles, first with the marlin and then with the sharks that devour it. Cutting from that to Mr. Writer and his shallow marital issues is at best minimally interesting the first couple times (mainly because the duo is cast well, and nicely decked out in period costume) but eventually trite. Its a pity because this film, however low budget, had so much going for it, yet its makers strangely didn't trust Hemingway's story enough. And this subplot, students should know, doesn't track Hemingway biography either, nor any of his wives -- the well dressed ditz that is the unnamed writer's wife actually resembles Hemingway's Key West (not Cuba) mistress Jane Mason, who he never paired up with in literary excursions. Nor does it track the Roger/Audrey subplot of Islands in the Stream (the egg out of which Old Man was hatched). Its just too bad to have earnest people who look so good but are such bad news, crowding out a delicate story.

Overall, however, the effort is saved by Quinn's good sense and an excellent supporting Cuban crew, rounding out the village and the old man's family -- only slight liberties on the novella. Quinn's shrewdness and the director's option toward lightness keep the main plot from veering into this novella's very own shark infested waters--the danger of sentimentality at one end, and too heavy metaphor at the other. Quinn's handling of the old man's monologues and dialogues keeps the project with at least one foot firmly set in the realm of realism. And he wonderfully looks the part too, in every frame in which he appears. January 18, 2008

Anthony Quinn brings the story to life

The Ernest Hemmingway story is too short to go into detail without revealing the surprises; however it is about (you guessed it) an old fisherman, that should be over the hill, going out to sea from Cuba to catch fish. He has 84 days of bad luck and with any luck this is about to change (or is it?)

While the book can drag and be a tad redundant; this film adaptation puts life into the story. It is almost as if the story was written for Quinn. I have no intention of calling this a remake.

Anthony Quinn requested his part as a birthday present (his 75th) from his producer.

Anthony Quinn ... Santiago
Gary Cole ... Tom Pruitt
Patricia Clarkson ... Mary Pruitt
Joe Santos ... Lopez
Valentina Quinn ... Angela
Francesco Quinn ... Santiago as a Young Man
Paul Calderon ... Anderez

Notice a few more Quinn's

The Old Man and the Sea
December 15, 2007

Forget this version

If you loved the Spencer Tracy version, this will be a great disappointment. Quinn turns in a respectable performance, but it is wooden compared to the Tracy version. The story is also muddled by the repeated insertion of Hemingway himself supposedly observing the story unfold, and then to later write it up. Bottom line, save your money April 4, 2007

Anthony Quinn at his finest...

I have recently listened to The Old Man and The Sea read by Donald Sutherland. It is an excellent reading. Anthony Quinn's acting is superb and he perfectly plays Santiago, The Old Man. The boy is done finely too. There are elements added that are not in the book per se, but they do not detract from the power of this story of the courage and perserverence of The Old Man. This is truly a 5-star video... January 16, 2007

English teacher gives this DVD a "B"

Making a movie of some guy fishing for three days appealing to an audience of high school kids is a daunting task. Hemingway's "Old Man" isn't exactly full of action, but kids liked reading the novella mainly because they identified with Santiago's ruminations about life and not being defeated by it. This facet of the story is wonderfully presented by Anthony Quinn in a masterful performance as Santiago.

A nice touch to the story (and one that was lost on most of my students) was including Hemingway as a character in the movie: an unnamed newspaper writer on vacation with his wife and who wants to tell the story of Santiago's struggle. Also some of the effects seem dated (The marlin leaping up in the air looked like it was projected behind Anthony Quinn), and some students laughed at the production values of this 15 year old movie.

That said, most students actually enjoyed seeing the movie, and I think it was presented well and well acted. A good supplement to reading the novella in class. July 20, 2006

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