Islands in the Stream
by Franklin J. Schaffner
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Actor: David Hemmings, George C. Scott, Gilbert Roland, Richard Evans, Susan TyrrellDirector: Franklin J. Schaffner
Cinematographer: Fred J. Koenekamp
Editor: Robert Swink
Producer: Ken Wales
Producer: Max Palevsky
Producer: Peter Bart
Writer: Denne Bart Petitclerc
Writer: Ernest Hemingway
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
Running Time: 104 minutes
Release Date: 1995-02-21
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Publisher: Paramount
Studio: Paramount
VHS Movie Reviews of Islands in the Stream
Movie Review: A role George C. Scott was born to play
Summary: 4 Stars
It's difficult to critique the 1977 film "Islands in the Stream." On one hand, it has moments of stark brilliancy, breathtaking in tone and unforgettable. There are enormous talents at work here, performing with great earnest and intensity. It's a beautiful locale, the sun-drenched waters and beaches of the Bahamas' island of Bimini (though it was filmed in Hawaii). We gaze at these vistas while listening to the haunting strains of Jerry Goldsmith's angelic musical score Islands In The Stream: Original Motion Picture Score, easily one of the finest of the composer's career.
George C. Scott, in a role he was born to play, is the lonely Thomas Hudson, an expatriate artist who spends his days walking the beaches, sipping rum and gritting his teeth at the madness of an unforgiving world. The film is based on Ernest Hemingway's Islands in the Stream : A Novel, published posthumously in 1970. Though I have not read the book, it's obvious Hudson is a spicy version of Hemingway himself, and Scott is the perfect presence to take on such a lofty symbol.
Scott's Hudson, a distant man with a history of bad temper and alcohol abuse, is on emotional edge as he prepares for the arrival of his three sons for the summer. The film intimately portrays his heartbreaking attempts at making peace with his boys and forming a bond of deep love with them. These struggles represent the high point of this ambitious film, and scenes on the boat when his most rebellious son fights for hours to reel in a huge fish, is the stuff of engrossing and magic drama. The story takes place in 1940, on the eve of the outbreak of World War II, and rumbles of sea battles can be heard on the horizon, further enhancing the urgency of the drama. The gulf between father and son has rarely been portrayed so well.
"Islands in the Stream" would have been better served to focus on these universal conflicts during its complete running time. Instead, the film breaks up into roughly three chapters, with the opening third dealing with Hudson's sons. The following two thirds, not without their merits, seesaws between the tragic and the hysterical, creating an intensely uneven film.
Through it all, Scott stands firm, giving an amazingly complex performance and arguably one of the greatest of his career. He's given strong support by David Hemmings as Eddy, his tragic alcoholic assistant. Claire Bloom has a memorable cameo as Hudson's ex-wife and while she does good work, her appearance is about the moment the film unravels.
And so, what to make of "Islands in the Stream," a film that navigates insanely between the sublime and ridiculous? Filmmakers made a poor strategic choice in separating the dramatic thrust into three chapters, and even more so because the opening chapter is the strongest. I suppose we could blame the source material, which was an incomplete book of Hemingway's culled together after his death. I choose to say "Islands in the Stream" is a great, unpolished gem. I marvel at the sublime cinematography of Fred J. Koenekamp (which was nominated for an Academy Award). I'll close my eyes and listen to the graceful chords of Goldsmith's brilliant score and then gaze at the incomparable presence of Scott as he strolls the beaches portraying a man very close to him in spirit.
I return to this film often like a warm memory. The opening third is so good, that I forgive the overall imperfection, loving it without reservation.
Movie Review: Islands In The Stream DVD Review
Summary: 4 Stars
Islands in the Stream What can I say? The adage "The Book Was Better" holds true here. If you truly enjoy anything Hemingway as I do, purchasing the DVD (used/like new) is worth the price if for no other reason the visual effect it provides. The book is outstanding even though it was released/published (1970) nine years after Hemingway died. Unfortunately the DVD does not follow the book in many key areas. Which should be particularily obvious to Hemingway devotees in that the main character, Thomas Hudson is a mirror image of Ernest Hemingway himself; the three sons could easily be Hemingway's three sons. If you enjoy Hemingway as much as I do, buy it and enjoy it. It's worth the price. Movie Review: Sad...dated...disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
I was thinking about purchasing this DVD to add to our collection of best-loved movies. I hadn't seen it before today, but I've enjoyed Hemingway's novels and George C Scott's performances...so what could go wrong. Unfortunately much too much.
Perhaps the story Hemingway attempted in this unfinished work is too big for the screen. With so much ground to cover, the filmmakers choose to eliminate too little and so by spreading their attention a mile wide have fashioned a movie paper thin...
I can only guess that the original script was a lot more appealing than the picture we see. Otherwise why would Scott choose to do this after his success with Patton, The Hospital and They Might Be Giants. Nothing was engrossing: not the relationship between Hudson and his buddies on the island, not his relationship with his sons, and not the interaction between Hudson and the only woman he loved.
Completely unsatisfying.
"Islands" was a waste of time. Don't waste your money. I'm happy I borrowed this one from the Library.
Buy one of Scott's other movies...certainly, Patton and The Hospital, but also The Hustler, Strangelove and They Might Be Giants, or another, not yet on DVD, but among my favorites - The Flim-Flam Man.
Movie Review: Islands in the Stream
Summary: 5 Stars
Great movie and George C. Scott at his very best. I've read the Hemingway novel of the same name and like the movie adaptation better. Filmed on location in the Bahamas and wonderful scenery and music. This is film making at it's best.Movie Review: Islands in the Stream
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a very good movie but something in the formating to DVD is not correct. The sound track, although sincronized, has something lacking. The musicical background of the sound track does not flow fluently.
Summary of Islands in the Stream
The film of Ernest Hemingway's posthumously published novel has the air of an Important Event that never quite comes off. Here's Thomas, an artist who's outlived his artistry and settled into sun-kissed reclusiveness on one of the lesser Bahamas. With World War II literally rumbling on the luminous horizon, he divides his time between torturing metal into sculpture, lolling with semi-worshipful retainers and cronies, and committing occasional acts of petty, booze-induced, aimless destructiveness. He is, of course, not Ernest Hemingway. But if he were, who in 1979 would have more appropriately been asked to incarnate him than that disputatious, granite-jawed, reclusively inclined, Oscar-scorning actor George C. Scott? And who better to preside over the ceremony than Franklin J. Schaffner, the director of that earlier celebration of truculently rugged individualism, Patton?Alas, Scott doesn't so much act as pose, and Schaffner sets up every shot and every encounter like a dust-jacket for a tasteful book-club edition (the DVD transfer is impeccably crisp; the images, stillborn). Thomas's attempts to bond with the three sons who come to visit after years of estrangement are painful, mostly because of the badness of the kids' dialogue and the worseness of the kid actors. However, as Thomas's boon companion Eddie--the "good man" rummy reminiscent of To Have and Have Not--David Hemmings is heartbreakingly fine. So, astonishingly, is the final reel, an absurdist adventure on the periphery of war... and we realize there could have been, should have been, a good movie in this bad idea for a movie after all. --Richard T. Jameson
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