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The Old Man and the Sea (1958 film)

The Old Man and the Sea
The Old Man and the Sea (1958 film).jpg
Original theatrical release poster
Directed by
Produced by Leland Hayward
Screenplay by Peter Viertel
Based on The Old Man and the Sea
by Ernest Hemingway
Starring Spencer Tracy
Narrated by Spencer Tracy
Music by Dimitri Tiomkin
Cinematography
Edited by Arthur P. Schmidt
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date
  • October 7, 1958 (1958-10-07) (Premiere)
  • October 11, 1958 (1958-10-11)
Running time
86 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $5 million

The Old Man and the Sea is a 1958 American adventure drama film directed by John Sturges with uncredited direction from Henry King and Fred Zinnemann. The screenplay (the "most literal, word-for-word rendition of a written story ever filmed") was adapted by Peter Viertel from the novella of the same name by Ernest Hemingway.

Dimitri Tiomkin won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for his work on the film, which was also nominated for best color cinematography. The same year, Tracy was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

The Old Man in the film is a Cuban fisherman who has gone 84 days without a catch. His only friend is a young boy who has been barred by his father from accompanying the Old Man out to sea. On the Old Man's 85th day out, he finally hooks a huge marlin, which he then tries to bring in and haul in from far out from shore. For three days and nights he battles the fish, which is portrayed in the film (as it had been in Hemingway's novella) as a trial of mental and physical courage that becomes the ultimate test for him of his worth as a man.

The director originally assigned to the film was Fred Zinnemann, but he withdrew, and was replaced by John Sturges. The film's budget, originally $2 million, grew to $5 million "in search of suitable fish footage." Sturges called it "technically the sloppiest picture I have ever made."

According to Turner Classic Movies, a February 2005 CNN article points out that The Old Man and the Sea was one of the first films to "use a bluescreen compositing technology invented by Arthur Widmer, that combined actors on a soundstage with a pre-filmed background."


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