I was watching Desperate Housewives and they had a scene at Bree(Marcia Cross's)'s son high school swim meet. It was such a bad betrayal of swimming. There were no lane lines in the pool and no real timers. Plus, there were no bleachers, just chairs that you would see in a classroom. It would be nice if Hollywood got the accurate view of swimming.
Originally posted by scooter
I may be a newbie to the boards, but not a single kid had their face in the water!
They couldn't get anything right in this scene.
Originally posted by mattson
I don't watch the show, but maybe it is an accurate portrayal. An aging swimming pool, and the athletic director siphoned off needed funds to get the football team a second set of new jerseys... :D
(In reply to Scooter below... They didn't have enough money to hire a real swim coach, so they must have hired the cheerleading coach to do double duty. Can't get the hair wet, after it has been groomed!)
I guess that these writers think that swimmers don't warm up before their races. They just show at the starting blocks where it is time for their race. Now, I forget, were their starting blocks????
Anyone see the movie Swim Fan? It might have been marginally better than this, but there were still some laughable things. For example, the main character had the keys to the pool and just sort of dropped in for a workout whenever he felt like it, regardless of whether a coach was there or not. When they showed the kids swimming you wouldn't confuse them with Ian Thorpe, but at least they did put their heads in the water.
The movie wasn't very good, by the way. Don't rent it because of the title alone.
I've noticed this is not unique to swimming, ever see how basketball is played in Hollywood? I think actors might not be the most sporting crowd. I never saw many from the drama club on the sports teams in high school.
One person in S. Georgia does not a trend make. I stand by my statement that as a general rule actors are not athletes. I suspect many plays, like sports, practice at the same time.
I impersonated a swimmer this weekend at a meet, with similarly ugly results.
Originally posted by knelson
Anyone see the movie Swim Fan? It might have been marginally better than this, but there were still some laughable things. For example, the main character had the keys to the pool and just sort of dropped in for a workout whenever he felt like it, regardless of whether a coach was there or not. When they showed the kids swimming you wouldn't confuse them with Ian Thorpe, but at least they did put their heads in the water.
The movie wasn't very good, by the way. Don't rent it because of the title alone.
I saw part of it on HBO. I love how screenwriters thinks that there are college scouts for swimming. Plus, they are going to a local high school meet to find new students. College swim colleges only check the Junior and Senior Nationals results for scholarship talent and evaluate the swimmers that seek them out. Also, College coaches are more interested in giving scholarships to foreign swimmers. Let's be honest.
Originally posted by Alicat
Would it be better if the actors tried to act and take the swimmers from local clubs? Would that make the actors feel really awful for not having decent swimming skills or should we suggest a method actor for this part?
One good movie with swimming in it was Ordinary People in the early 80's. Timothy Hutten did a decent job with the freestyle, and the acting was incredible! Lane lines, flip turns, streamlining and all!
Where is Johnny Weissmuller or Mel Stewart when you need a great swimming shot?
Isn't Mel Stewart doing that low carb beer commericals. Also, hollywood needs to hire swimming consultants just like they hire miliatry consultants. Stunt swimmers would be a good thing to get some swimming accurancy in TV and film if they don't have them already.
I confess...I saw it. Yuk! Good for your typical though predictable teen drama: boy meets girl with "issues", boy rejects girl with issues...which leaves us with a somewhat anti-climactic pool/drown victim scene at the end...
Anyway - it wasn't so much that the coach wasn't around when the main character worked out (you're right - it's probably unlikely); it was toward the end during the swim meet scene where you hear the announcer say, "...and the winner of the 100 free is "insert winner-guy's name" in 1 minute and 30 seconds!"
Believe me, this is not a hit on anyone who swims 100 free in that time!! It's just that I strongly suspect that most varsity boy swimmers probably are a bit faster in the 100 free.....
There are SO many films about football, basketball and auto racing...any filmmakers out there wanna step up and make a film about swimming!?
