Each "pool" represented a different time in Neddy's life. His journey didn't encompass one single afternoon, it transpired over a number of years.
So, to sum it up in legal terminology: Get lost, you bum.
I agree. The movie messed that part up. That was a big part of the story and they decided to cut it out.
shareffs anyone with half a brain can see this is not a literal story, happening in a day! it is an allegorical/metaphorical representation of life's journey, a reflection of our delusions and grief, losses and gains, the light within us, the shadow side within us, the rich contrast of the relationships we form with different people, the shallowness of people, the ultimate feeling of existential terror that can grip us when we are faced with the possibility that it was all for nothing and so on.
Brilliant film.
I actually disagree - while the film was STRONGLY symbolic, it was clearly much more literal than Cheever's surrealistic short story.
What we see in the film could, conceivably, have occurred in one day. It's unlikely, but not impossible.
At the very least, though, there's a suggestion that he's done things like this "river of pools" before. Shirley specifically tells him that he can "swim the pool, do whatever you have to do," so she "gets" what he's up to right away.
That's why she asks him whether he'll ever "grow up" when he first tells her what he's doing. She understands his whimsies, and she knows his actual purpose (to relive happier times, HIS happier times).
Ultimately, though, I don't think it matters to the story's theme and "message" whether the film literally takes place in one day or not. It does have a sort of James-Joyce's-Ulysses feel to it, though. And that novel also crammed an epic journey into a single day.
Good analysis.
I thought the fact that the first pool was on that hilltop, on a beautiful day with everything stretched out in front of him was very telling. Representing the peak point of his life. He then began to travel "downhill", and life began to change.
But...he still had to climb up the steepest hill to get to his house, just as he mapped it out in the opening.
I disagree with the OP, the movie deviates from the written story in that it does all happen in one day in chronological order. He hurts his ankle and is seen limping from that point on. He crosses the highway and the results of running across the highway can be seen on his feet at the swimming pool.
Man without relatives is man without troubles. Charlie Chan
...the movie deviates from the written story in that it does all happen in one day in chronological order.Agreed. First pool in the morning...arriving at his place in the early evening; allegorical or not. share
I've never read the short story, but the film gives no indication that the events occur over more than a day. It's completely possible for the weather to go from sunny to stormy, over perhaps 8 hours. If we had seen the trees turn brown and leaves falling, then I might agree.
The plot is laid out as such, that it presents people with varying perspectives of Ned. With each group being increasingly negative as his journey continues.
Nothing changes in Ned's life during the film. The damage has already been done. Some characters early in the film are unaware of Ned's downfall, and just wonder where he's been. Others are aware, but sympathetic. Then those towards the end have a strong dislike for him, but are politely tolerant. Finally, the lower middle class couple at the public pool obviously hate his guts, and don't mind telling him so.
It's unlikely these characters would be encountered in such an organized progression in real life, but the plot must develop that way, in order to make the film work.
While I believe that the sequence of pools does allegorically illustrate the protagonists' downfall, I also think that this is not beyond the symbolic and that in a literal sense, the movie is set in one single day.
The fact that he hurts his leg and has to limp for the rest of his journey, and the fact that he gets progressively more cold as the day draws on and that his feet get dirtier, are all facts that would not make sense were each pool to represent a different period in the protagonists' life. We'd have to assume that his leg-injury was somewhat permanent, that he ended up becoming homeless at one point because he was shivering through the last several pools and was muddy, and these assumptions are "forcing it" a little...
Explain, if you will, the wearing of the same pair of trunks, the same hairstyle and length and the lack of aging in Neddy's face.
share