*The Swimmer*: a Movie with a Philosophy.

The movie The Swimmer was a revelation to me many years ago. These days I was watching it again. It is the tale of a man who swims from pool to pool up to his house. The plot shows this man is over, defeated, done with, but he has not given up –yet. Some lines of the script between a young girl and the protagonist encapsulates what the kernel of the story is all about:

NED Iʼm swimming home.

MUFFIE Laughing. Youʼre swimming home?

NED Figured out thereʼs a river of pools all the way to my house!

…

VERNON To Ned, with a laugh. What a crazy idea!

JULIE With a withering glance at Vernon. I think itʼs a brilliant idea!

…

MUFFIE What are you doing it for?

Ned looks puzzled.

MUFFIE Why do you want to do it?

JULIE Quickly. I think itʼs very original. As if heʼs an explorer or something.

NED Approvingly. Now you sound like a girl with imagination.

JULIE I mean I think itʼs an adventure!

NED Come with me!

But no one goes with him. A vocation is something personal, and no one is supposed to believe in your vocation but you. So, the protagonist is alone all along. Forrest Gump is a movie which seems foolish because people follow the runner as if we must believe that they feel his vocation as theirs. That is phony. Comic. A farce. So, when Forrest stops running and goes home the rest of runners seem marionettes. The problem of the swimmer is that he is turning his mission into a rescue mission, an imaginative (creative) action which is meaningful morally but never materially. The Swimmer is tragic because he has confused his personal vocation into something social and political: the rescue of his family status to be recognised by his class. The composer of the music for the movie, Marvil Hamlisch, said about it:

Vivimos en una sociedad que demanda respuestas rápidas y películas simples. El Nadador ha llegado a ser una película de culto porque va dirigida a un público que se toma su tiempo para apreciarla en toda su dimensión. En El Nadador hay una útil advertencia para los espectadores: ser muy cuidadoso con la vida que vives para estar seguro que es en la que crees y no estar instalado en una mentira.

We live in a society that demands fast answers and simple movies. The Swimmer has become a cult movie because it is addressed to an audience who takes its time to appreciate it in all its dimension. In The Swimmer there is a useful warning for the spectators: to be very careful with the life you live to be sure that it is the one you believe in and not be installed in a lie (see source HERE).

The Swimmer is better than “The Runner” (Forrest Gump) because it teaches a real thing. Never believe in a vocation whose meaning depends on what others say about it. Preference is something personal, and depends on an irrational feeling you feel life is all about. Live it, live your vocation, but live it for you. A meaningful life consists in knowing what is possible and what is impossible. The Swimmer wanted the impossible, to revert time by fooling yourself and reality. More Santayana with less pools. What a great film.

Nota Bene. Of course, the Lucilda river is an allegory of the river of life. By denying death (ageing) as a reality, by denying his humanity, the swimmer is a Don Quixote with a German idealist philosophy PhD. For another vision on The Swimmer, read Molière: The Wise Women. But the swimmer has something very American: that desire to stay forever young, forever successful. An Epicurean like me with a Santayanian love for contemplation of essences, is surprised to see that the film shows that very American defect: life is only good when youʼre on top, when you are adored as a millionaire, when you have social success, fame. The swimmer as another Bob Dylan in need of praise, recognition, adoration, success, sales. A crown for a clown. That is a very American tragedy, as Francis Scott Fitzgerald knew. The Swimmer is a version of The Great Gatsby. Is not Lolita the great American dream: to be in love with youth until you feel a pervert when you age? Nabokov knew that Lolita was not a young girl only, but also a young culture. She is a symbol of what America dreams about.