Il bagnino

This is the movie to see when you want to fantasize about an alternative to the 9 to 5 lifestyle. It's not your typical beach party movie, but has real depth, as lifeguard Sam Elliott tries to decide what to do with his life, when he is forced to examine it after attending his high school reunion. I liked Sam's character, even with all of his imperfections, and I felt good about his choice. A bonus in the movie is getting to see Kathleen Quinlan as a teenager. She later went on to play a great role in the marvelous romantic movie "The Promise."

With a different type of role for Sam Elliott. Has some of my fave actors in it besides him-Anne Archer and Kathleen Quinlan. She is a cutie, Anne is as always class. I enjoyed the theme of doing what you Should be doing for a career VS. what you Want to do. It was something that hit home with myself, having worked some dubby jobs in my twenties ere finally getting that 'Real' career that everyone expects you to have by c.30, roughly the same age Elliott is in this flick.

I liked the poignant scenes of his 15 year High School reunion, the scenes of indecision he and Anne Archer undergo, trying to reconnect with what they had in their pasts, and the attempts to do something about it now. It is always hard to 'keep up with the Joneses' in High School, and as hard after too.

Overall a good flick, nothing great, hearfelt, well acted, plays like a TV movie(maybe it was? I donno)-but one of the highest order.

*** outta **** of course.

Back in the 70s i had to have seen all those party movies , for example, The Van and The Gas Pump Girls, and lifeguard was so much of a breath of fresh air along side of those others, i grew up hanging out at redondo beach and Hermosa beach California which is where this movie was filmed, in fact on ricks tower u see the letters HR i believe that stands for Hermosa/redondo and this is also 1 of the beaches that mike love and Dennis Wilson of the beach boys used to hang out at as they lived in near by Hawthorne, I have this movie on VHS not available on DVD yet, and I watch it at least once a month, as i live in new york now and this movie brings back some special memories of my fun days, i even love that song time and tide in this movie, and watching him drive to the beach in his stingray passing all those very familiar businesses, wow, well if your nostalgic then i don't have to explain the feeling. LIFEGUARD is on my list SAM elliots #1 movie.

This is one of the finest films of the seventies. It deals with the complexities of life and society, and forces you to make a decision on what's important in life. Do we need to conform and fit into a society that has its own set of rules?....or is it O.K. to do what makes you happy as an individual, in turn giving you a better sense of fulfillment in life. Sam Elliott, Kathleen Quinlan, and Anne Archer, are all wonderful. This movie is a wonderful portrait of Southern California and the 1970's. Don't miss the chance to see it, you will not be disappointed.

Saw this when it came out and, though I never had the leisure to share as much beach time as some of the characters in this film, I did know some of the surf-and-sand denizens of the beaches from Malibu south to San Diego back in the 1970's. I thought this film was a not inaccurate glimpse of what that sun-kissed lifestyle was all about. Sam Elliott was well cast as a lifeguard a few years older than the average athlete who perched on those observation stations, looking out at the Pacific's frequently treacherous waves. He looked the part and had the depth needed to make his character's less-than-monumental struggles to come to grips with his life and his career choice about as convincing as any actor probably could.

With some fallow periods in the years since, Sam has continued to work quite steadily, though I've often wished he wasn't so often confined to Western roles. (What would he have done without Ted Turner and TNT and all those made-for-TV Western sagas?) With that distinctively macho growl of his, there's no mistaking who's doing a voice-over for one of the commercials he's done. I've always felt that his speaking voice has been his unique asset as an actor, not to mention the awesome mustache he frequently sports. "Lifeguard" is worth a look if you want a glimpse of southern California before it became impossibly overcrowded and overbuilt...when it was still a semi-paradise for the young and feckless.