Search - The Old Man and the Sea on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Suitable for Children Movie Release: 1958 DVD Release: 03/13/2001 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV,Pan and Scan Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English, French SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 26 mins Studio: Warner Home Video Members Wishing: 3 Genres: Drama, Adventure Drama, Sea Adventure

Ernest Hemingway's short novel -The Old Man and the Sea was probably unfilmable to begin with, but this didn't stop John Sturges from trying to cinematize Hemingway's tight little character study. Spencer Tracy is the Old Man, a Cuban fisherman who tries to haul in a huge fish that he catches far from shore. Tracy's tiny boat is besieged by sharks and by natural elements, but the Old Man stubbornly sticks to his job. In the end, the fish is nothing more than a skeleton, and the Old Man returns to his tiny hovel to "dream about the lions." Spencer Tracy may have been dreaming about the Oscar when he agreed to make this film, but Old Man and the Sea is defeated by pretentiousness and by several unconvincing "sea" scenes shot in a studio tank (even though both Tracy and director Sturges underwent incredible hardships filming in a real boat on the real ocean). Old Man and the Sea was remade as a 1990 made-for-TV movie starring Anthony Quinn, which compounded the mistakes made in the Tracy version by grafting on a pointless love story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Spencer Tracy - The Old Man
Felipe Pazos - The Boy
Harry Bellaver - Martin
Donald Diamond - Cafe Proprietor
Don Blackman - Hand Wrestler

John Sturges directs the Oscar winner Spencer Tracy in this cinematic adaptation of The Old Man and the Sea that comes to DVD with a pair of transfers. The widescreen anamorphic transfer preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and is preferable to the standard full-frame image. English and French soundtracks are rendered in Dolby Digital Mono. Subtitles are accessible in both of those languages as well. Supplemental materials include a documentary about Ernest Hemingway, and the theatrical trailer. This is a fine disc from Warner Brothers. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide