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The Swimmer

The Swimmer

Drama · 1968

A man spends a summer day swimming home via all the pools in his quiet suburban neighborhood.

Movie details

The Swimmer

“When you talk about "The Swimmer" will you talk about yourself?”

1968 Drama 1h 35m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.6 / 10

16K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

100 %

Tomatometer

TMDB

7.3 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

A man spends a summer day swimming home via all the pools in his quiet suburban neighborhood.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Swimmer?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Coach Jim Ellis shocks the community and changes lives when, aided by a local janitor, he sets out to form Philadelphia's first black swim team. But the odds are against them as they battle rigid rules, racism and more.

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Athlete Diana Nyad sets out at 60 to achieve a nearly impossible lifelong dream: to swim from Cuba to Florida across more than 100 miles of open ocean.

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A busy executive learns during a meeting that his mother may be dying and rushes home to her side. He ends up being his father's caretaker and becomes closer to him than ever before. Estranged from his own son, the executive comes to realize what has been missing in his own life.

Where it lives

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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Frank Perry

Written by

Eleanor Perry

Burt Lancaster

Burt Lancaster

Ned Merrill

Janet Landgard

Janet Landgard

Julie Ann Hooper

Janice Rule

Janice Rule

Shirley Abbott

Tony Bickley

Tony Bickley

Donald Westerhazy

Marge Champion

Marge Champion

Peggy Forsburgh

N

Nancy Cushman

Mrs. Halloran

B

Bill Fiore

Howie Hunsacker

Court is in session

Put The Swimmer on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Ambition earns the room.”

The film reaches for consequence and scale, accepting the risk of seriousness instead of shrinking from it.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Importance has entered the chat.”

The production keeps announcing its significance, as though awards-season posture were proof of insight.