Islands in the Stream (1977)

Director:

Franklin J. Schaffner

Writers:

Ernest Hemingway (story)
Denne Bart Petitclerc (writer)

Release Date:

8 August 1977 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 nomination

Cast

George C. Scott	...	Thomas Hudson
David Hemmings	...	Eddy
Gilbert Roland	...	Captain Ralph
Hart Bochner	...	Tom
Susan Tyrrell	...	Lil
Richard Evans	...	Willy
Claire Bloom	...	Audrey
Julius Harris	...	Joseph
Brad Savage	...	Andrew
Michael-James Wixted	...	David
Hildy Brooks	...	Helga Ziegner
Jessica Rains	...	Andrea
Walter Friedel	...	Herr Ziegner
Charles Lampkin	...	Constable

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Sweden:15 | UK:12 (video rating) (2005) | UK:A (original rating) | USA:PG

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Jerry Goldsmith repeatedly said this was his favorite score he composed.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Legend of Dinosaurs (#1.21)" (1989)

"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 favourite) 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!