The Swimmer
Blu-ray OUT NOW
n the first scene of Frank Perry’s, the camera trails behind Burt Lancaster, fixing lustily on his big bronzed back as he lurches towards one of the many suburban swimming pools around which the film is set. On arrival, he hatches a quixotic sounding plan: he’ll “swim home”, crossing the length of every pool from here to his own house, walking in between. Taken from a John Cheever short story that Perry adapted into the film, this simple concept forms the entire basis of this psychologically probing satire. An ordinary journey slowly becomes an odyssey of self-discovery as the façade that this hulking, tanned man hides behind gradually crumbles away.
