There is a lot of excellent work in this utlimately unsatisfying 1977 film. Fred Koenekamp’s cinematography is stunning. The sometimes obtrusive score is one of Jerry Goldsmith’s best (though not one of the 17 for which he has received Academy Award nominations over the past 37 years). The actors do everything that is asked of them and look iconic. In particular, the film is wrapped around the most controlled performances by George C. Scott.

The primary problem is the Hemingway self-idolization. The solemn commitment to the Hemingway mystique of director Franklin J. Schaffner (director of far livelier films like "Patton," "Boys from Brazil," the original "Planet of the Apes," but also such deadly ponderous one as "Papillon" and "Nicholas and Alexandra") preserves every cliché of Hemingway-style tests of virility. The centerpiece of the film is an extended battle between a prepubescent boy and a very large marlin. It is beautifully filmed atop the pounding music, but Davy (Michael-James Wixted) is not fighting for his life or his country or to put food on the family’s table (or even to collect whale oil for sale, the ostensible occupation of Captain Ahab). It is sport fishing. In contrast, later, when real lives are at stakes, the film is perfunctory, but the Boy Proving Himself a Worthy Hemingway Son is given the full epic treatment (onscreen and on the page).

The movie is based on autobiographical writing that Hemingway tried to pull together through the 1940s and early 50s and which was published nine years after he shot himself in 1961. Both book and movie present “Papa” as a formidable bear everyone admires and wants approval from. Rather than being a writer, his surrogate, named Thomas Hudson, is a sculptor--and a sculptor of brutal metalworks requiring welding torches and goggles. The importance of his work is so great that when his three sons arrive on his island (supposed to be in the Bahamas, but filmed in Hawai'i) in Act I they remain in the car so as not to disturb the Great Man at Work. Yet, in Act III, when he leaves to return to the US mainland, he does not take any of the sculptures along (to market).

Act I ("The Boys") centers on the male solidarity of Thomas Hudson, his visiting three sons, the loyal black retainer (Julius Harris), and an alcoholic shipmate (David Hemming playing a younger, less flamboyant version of the part Walter Brennan played in "To Have and to Have Not"). Davy (played by Michael-James Wixted, who was never seen onscreen again) is the only one who resists--for a while--adoring Papa. Davy is angry at Papa's treatment of Mama, but is also determined to prove himself as tough as Papa--which gives Papa and everyone else the opportunity tenderly to support his quest for proof of manliness in the contest with the marlin (both boy and marlin bleed).

The comic relief not supplied by drunkenness (mostly Hemmings', but in a strange opening sequence, Scott's) comes from the youngest son (played by Brad Savage) who does the worrying for everyone. A young Hart Bochner plays the oldest son (Tom Jr.). Looking like he belongs in a 2001 Ambercrombie and Fitch catalog, he shows that "leggy" is an adjective that can apply to male models as well as to female ones. (He also gets lots of closeups, but his face is less interesting.) After the idyllic summer on the beach, the boys must leave--the younger two for school, Tom to go to Canada to join the RAF.

The short Act II ("The Woman") brings a visit from the mother of Tom Jr., Audrey, the only woman Tom Sr. ever really loved. Claire Bloom is a radiant vision of chicness and in her way a match in toughness for Tom. She and Scott have some edgy dialogue ending in a revelation.

Tom decides to return to the States to be near the younger two boys (who are in prep school) and, presumably, also nearer Audrey. En route, the war that he has been ignoring catches up with him. Like a good Hemingway hero (Humphrey Bogart in "To Have and Have Not" without even the urgings of a Lauren Bacall) when he has to act, he acts decisively ("grace under pressure" is the Hemingway mantra/aspiration). There is some pedestrian action derring-do with the enemy being the Cuban Coast Guard rather than the Nazi submarines.

Plot Spoilers

Back in Act I, Tom realized that the boys were what is most important to him, and he was en route to reuniting with the younger pair, Tom Jr. having been shot down. Therefore, it is very bizarre that in his death reverie he discovers what he has already been acting on. (It would make more sense to me to be beckoned by Tom Jr. and the recently dead Eddy.)

Conclusion

A lot of artistry --acting, photography, music -- is wasted on this embalmed piece of Hemingway self-glorification. The members of the cast both look their parts and flawlessly execute what they are given to do. George C. Scott was very often very over the top. His Hemingway here is underplayed. He is almost preternaturally calm, yet conveys that he led a tumultuous emotional life before exiling himself to his island and does not regard himself as having the wisdom of Prospero (though he has a Caliban and two Ariels).

I suppose if one buys the chest-thumping Great White Hunter/Fisherman/Writer self-representation of Ernest Hemingway, "Islands in the Stream" is a great movie. It has striking visuals and subtle performances, it is tighter and far less alcohol-soaked than the book, but it does not live or breathe or sustain viewer involvement -- as "Patton," the earlier collaboration of star, director, cinematographer and composer, so memorably did.

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This is a contribution to the AGTTM writeoff organized by Curtis Edmonds. For other contributions, see www.txreviews.com/AGTTM/index.html .



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older