49
Metascore
8 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- Sturges's direction, given the confining nature of the settings, is masterful, and the cinematography headed by Howe and pieced together by many others is sometimes stunning.
- 63USA TodayMike ClarkUSA TodayMike ClarkSome of James Wong Howe's photography is lovely, compensating for the rear-projected fish. [12 Jul 1996]
- 60Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumWhile Spencer Tracy provides a solid performance in the title role and Dimitri Tiomkin won an Oscar for his score, the overall effect of trying to film this rather unfilmable novel is a bit like an illustrated slide lecture.
- Essentially, it’s a slow-moving, low-rent Moby Dick with portentous voice-overs and unconvincing process shots of Spencer Tracy in a studio tank. In fact, why director John Sturges (The Magnificent Seven) bothered to make it remains a mystery.
- 50Chicago Sun-TimesChicago Sun-TimesThe real star is cinematographer James Wong Howe, who distracts us from the character's lulling conversations with himself -- and Tracy's grim voiceovers -- with his magisterial seascapes and sunsets. [18 Feb 1999, p.31]
- 40The New York TimesBosley CrowtherThe New York TimesBosley CrowtherWhatever allegorical intimations there may be in it are not conveyed to any sensible degree in a voice narration that breaks in occasionally or in the mumblings of the old man.
- 30Time OutTime OutA painfully sincere, meticulously faithful, and pitifully plodding adaptation of Hemingway's novel about the symbolic struggle between an old Mexican fisherman and a giant marlin.