MovieChat Forums > The Swimmer (1968) Discussion > What if someone had taken up one of Ned'...

What if someone had taken up one of Ned's offers?

posted 18 years ago by simnia-1
3 replies | jump to latest

It's interesting how many times in the movie Ned nearly takes people over to his house, but circumstances "just happen" to intervene.

At the Forsburgh's house (pool #1)...
Ned: I could run you over to our house in ten minutes.
but one of the ladies says they honestly don't have time.

Then when he meets Julie (pool #4) he barely weasels out of taking Julie over...
Julie: I'd just *love* to see them. Let's drive over.
Ned: Well, I've gotta be on my way. I'm swimming home.

Then he scares off Julie before reaching the Hallorans (pool #6)...
What if she'd continued the journey with him instead of running off?

Then he invites a lady along while at the Biswangers party (pool #8)...
Ned: Come with me, be my lover.
but she declines since he seems to be just another lecher.

Then Shirley offers to drive him home (pool #9)...
Shirley: Listen, I'll drive you home.
Ned: No! I've got to swim home.

Twice he refuses to be driven, once the company refuses to be driven, and twice people refuse to go along on foot. So many such circumstances start to make the plot seem a little unrealistic. What if one of those many people had actually taken Ned up on his offer, gone over to his house, and found it empty? His fantasy trip would've ended with witnesses, and possibly much sooner! Strange thought.

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] gnolti 15 years ago

*SPOILERS*

Actually, all these near-misses do nothing more than postpone the inevitable. If one of these people had taken up Ned's offer, the hard reality wouldn't have changed. They would simply have followed a strange man to his "house" only to see him lose his mind and break down.

The story rightly allows Ned to experience this alone.

There, daddy, do I get a gold star?

[–] GuyOnTheLeft 10 years ago

I may be biased because I read the story first, but I never had the impression that his "true circumstances" were the same all along. That is, had he "run them over to his house in ten minutes" at pool #1, I assume he would have found his daughters there playing tennis, house still in good shape, etc.

And even in the movie, there are signs this is the case. At one of the stops, an old colleague recommends he look into a certain position (implying he's unemployed at the moment, but fairly recently so, and still employable). Later on, it's implied that his circumstances have become much worse, and no one would even suggest an idea like that.

You reminded me though of something else I dislike in the movie compared to the story: his trying to get multiple women to "be his lover", along the way. In the story, he visits one former lover, but he had been the one to break it off. This makes him come across as a completely different kind of personality from the story.

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