Islands in the Stream

Starring:George C. Scott, David Hemmings, Gilbert Roland, Susan Tyrrell, Richard Evans, Claire Bloom, Julius Harris, Hart Bochner, Brad Savage, Michael-James Wixted, Hildy Brooks, Jessica Rains, Walter Friedel, Charles Lampkin
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
Studio: Paramount
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video
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?

Amazon.com essential video

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?

Description

Thomas Hudson (Scott) is an American sculptor whose self-imposed isolation on an island in the Bahamas is ended by two forces: the visit of his sons and the outbreak of World War II. Hudson attempts to guide his sons while coping with his own personal conflicts and the threat of war.

Customer Reviews:

Islands in the Stream.......2007-05-29

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.

Islands in the Stream.......2007-01-20

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.

George C. Scotts finest performance.......2007-01-19

A very relaxing movie to watch. Picturesque landscapes, great characters!!!! This movie had some great character actors Hollywood never fully utilized. A great human story of life, love, war and peace, tragedy and death. Oh and the soundtrack is wonderful! So calming and soothing. Always a great family movie! When I'm away from family I appreciate this film the most. You feel like your right there with George C. Scott. I cant explain it. Again, great for the whole family!!!

"It is all true".......2007-01-15

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 favorite) 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!

Paramount's DVD offers a good 2.35:1 widescreen transfer but no extras.

Disappointing.......2005-12-30

My opinion of this film is tainted by my familiarity and love for the novel. The film seems to be an amalgam of "Islands" and "To Have and Have Not" with an odd Holocaust twist thrown in. The film may be satisfying to someone unfamiliar with the novel, but if you're expecting a cinematic presentation of Hemingway's last and greatest work you will be sorely disappointed. The film, like the novel is presented in 3 parts. The first, "The Boys" is a faithful but truncated rendition of the book, that is somewhat flat due to the deletion of the family history that makes Hudson's relationship with his sons understandable. The film does capture a little of the complex and often achingly touching father-son bond which is the great strength of the novel. The second section, "The Woman" is poorly done in the film. The movie includes the ex-wife's visit solely for the purpose of telling us that Tom, the eldest son, is dead, the tragic motivation for Hudson's heroic trip in the third section. The novel presents, in rich, profane and erotic prose a journey deep within the tortured soul of Tom Hudson and makes a solid, unambiguous connection to the third section. Hudson volunteers for the hazardous anti-Uboat patrol (not the maudlin rescue of Holocaust refugees inexpicably inserted into the film) because with the deaths of all 3 of his sons and his best friend Eddie, the loss of 2 wives and with an entire world at war, making pretty pictures in isolation on a desert island seems ridiculously irrelevant. Very little of this comes through in the third act of the film. Here, elements of "Have Not" are thrown in to lend a Hemingwayesqe veneer to what is definitely not a Hemingway plot line. Tom Hudson would not act out his grief over the loss of his son at the hands of the Germans by passively and accidentally rescuing refugee Jews (as in the film), but by actively hunting down and killing renegade Uboat sailors (as he does in the book). This is Hemingway, afterall. To die in this personally meaningful cause is satisfying to Hudson and he can let go of his previously meaningless life with satisfaction. It would not seem to have been more difficult to tell the tale as it was written. The film softens Hudson, perhaps to make him more appealing to an audience of mixed gender. Perhaps Hemingway doesn't transfer well to films intended for general audiences. It confirms my view that Hemingway was a man who wrote for men and his works cannot be understood by women, as politically incorrect as that opinion may be.

Average customer rating:

No dedicated surfing enthusiast should miss this
Careful
The Surfing Legacy Continues!!!
Islands In The Stream: The Eternal Beauty of the Ocean
Now I know what perfection is

Islands in the Stream
Starring: Tom Curren , and Layne Beachley
Manufacturer: Monterey Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Sports | Genres | DVD | Video

Documentary | Sports | Genres | DVD | Video

Surfing | Sports | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B00029RSTK
Release Date: 2004-07-20

Customer Reviews:

No dedicated surfing enthusiast should miss this.......2004-07-29

Islands In The Stream showcases the near incredible surfing talents of Donovan Franenreiter, Hawaiian-borne Tamayo Perry, the very highly skilled Mark Healey, among other expert surfers. We are treated to the beautifully magnificent waves of Tahiti and the filming skills of Wes Brown and T.J. Barrack have produced a true classic that will proudly (and aptly) be compared such surfing movie classics as The Endless Summer; The Endless Summer II; and The Endless Summer Revisited. Enhanced with surfer bios and a "Rest In Peace" music video, this is a wonderful addition to any personal or community library DVD collection, no dedicated surfing enthusiast should miss seeing Islands In The Stream.

Careful.......2004-06-29

Caveat emptor: Note, this is the surfing picture (as you can tell from the cover art) and NOT the Franklin Schaffner movie starring George C. Scott and Claire Bloom, as Amazon's "Technical Details" section suggests.

I only wish to crikey it was the Schaffner film; it's one of the few credible movie adaptations of Ernest Hemingway, in my view. A limited edition laserdisc of the Schaffner film was released a number of years ago by Paramount Home Video, but given Paramount's sad-sack release record on DVD - and the fact that the Schaffner film never was that big a seller on laserdisc - my guess is we'll have to wait a while yet.

The laserdisc version was pressed in a gorgeous 2:35.1 aspect ratio, by the way, as the original movie was filmed in scope, by longtime Schaffner collaborator Fred Koenekamp (Koenekamp also shot Patton for Schaffner, which also starred George C. Scott, as I'm sure you know). The VHS version of the movie was pan-and-scanned (and compressed during the opening titles!) to fit the regular dimensions of a TV screen, and it looked ridiculous. If Paramount ever gets around to doing the DVD version - and I have my doubts - hopefully it will be in its original theatrical aspect ratio.

Hope this helps everyone. I'm not a surfing aficionado per se, but I'm sure the surfing movie will look swell (sorry) on DVD.

The Surfing Legacy Continues!!!.......2004-06-23

In 1966 a young filmmaker named Bruce Brown was able to capture the beauty and power of surfing as had never been done before. That film was The Endless Summer and with it began a never-ending interest in the sport and lifestyle of surfing. Then with his son Dana, he created the classic films The Endless Summer II and The Endless Summer Revisited, leading Dana Brown to create his own style and success with his current film Step Into Liquid. Now this timeless filmmaking legacy is carried on as Wes Brown (son of Dana and grandson of Bruce) and T.J. Barrack transport us to the beautifully magnificent waves of Tahiti starring three Time Men's World Champion Tom Curren and six Time Consecutive Women's World Champion (and "Step into Liquid" star, "Blue Crush") Layne Beachley. With their new film Islands in the Stream, the next wave of surf film classics has begun.

Islands In The Stream: The Eternal Beauty of the Ocean.......2000-02-27

Jerry Goldsmith, in "Islands In The Stream," proved to me that film music can be as beautiful, complex and lasting as classical music. I can not imagine the movie without Goldsmith's music; the actions and characters so woven togther in the themes written for them. Beyond all the action of the film, always, a constant sea theme, a rising and falling of waves, powerful and subtle at the same time, dwarfing almost the human story. Yet Goldsmith is so masterly that he weaves the themes of the Boys, the Woman, the Journey, and the theme of deep loss and regret. There are strains of the folk song "Jamaican Farewell," that is magically turned into the threat of a shark attack. I have many favorite Goldsmith film scores and this is the one I admire the most; it stands on its own, carries the movie, under-rated by the way. I can't imagine how viewers could'nt respond to its themes of love, family, loss, redemtion, mortality, and all brilliantly underscored by Jerry Goldsmith's unforgetable music score. He has scored so many varied works that it is easy to lose track of his great body of musical works. If you have to buy a few of Goldsmith,s film scores, I highly recommend starting with this, "The Islands In The Stream," a score that captures the raptures of nature and tones of regret like no other piece of film music I've listened to in years.

Now I know what perfection is.......2000-01-14

This is some of the most incredible music that I have ever heard. This quality opus was during Goldsmith's super run of the 1970's, to a movie that no one has seen! This is also Maestro Goldsmith's personal favorites of his own work, along with his masterful score to Legend. If you have ever looked down on film music, or didn't pay any attention to it, or think that it isn't as good of music as classical, then let me introduce you to today's classical music. You can't and won't be dissappointed. BTW, the review by that unknown music listener that is above this one was also written by me.

Average customer rating:

Islands in the Stream
Islands in the Stream
George C. Scotts finest performance
"It is all true"
Disappointing

Islands in the Stream
Starring: George C. Scott , David Hemmings , Gilbert Roland , Susan Tyrrell , and Richard Evans
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video