Movie about swimming

Former Member
Former Member
Hi! Just wanted to pass on the name of a movie I watched last night- "Swimming Upstream". It was a good flick based on a true story about a champion backstroker from Australia. It portrayed his life from childhood and his endless pursuit to please his father. It was motivating to see the guy train so hard. Does anyone know of any other good movies about swimming or swimmers?
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Is it an old movie or a more recent one?
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    It's fairly recent. www.mgm.com/swimmingupstream/# It's a true story about Australia's backstroke legend Tony Fingleton who grew up in an abusive home, suffering through much abuse from an alcoholic father. Really well done. There was a movie from way back in black and white called The Swimmer. That's a classic.
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Burt Lancaster the star of The Swimmer?
  • Wow, what a movie. That guy Ben, why he could go over to the pool any time of day or night and swim in the pool. He had keys to any room in the school. And the coach would always say Ben, keep focused, stop thinking about that girl friend. I remember in the movie the coaches from Stanford came to look at the Ben and the guys in the 100 Free go 1:43 for future recruitments. And then the mandatory drug testing before all of the local high school meets where its real easy to spike the tests. Poor Ben got his samples spiked and couldn't be recruited by Stanford. It seemed like anybody could get into the swimming pool anytime of day or night and our hero Ben had to save his girl friend from the jealous swim fan with a battle in the pool.
  • This seems like a great indie film, can't wait to check it out. Already out in DVD.
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Originally posted by LindsayNB According to imdb.com a remake of "The Swimmer" is in production with Alec Baldwin. This may be a difficult follow-up by comparison to the original movie. Alec Baldwin would make an excellent Fred Flinstone. Compared to Burt who was a pro-wrestler before taking up acting...he's going to need to drop a few pounds.
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    "Swimming Upstream" was good. I went in with low hopes and came out very surprised. And since we're talking about swimming movies you can't forget "Million Dollar Mermaid" and all the other Ester Williams movies. Classics.
  • Originally posted by valhallan It's fairly recent. www.mgm.com/swimmingupstream/# It's a true story about Australia's backstroke legend Tony Fingleton who grew up in an abusive home, suffering through much abuse from an alcoholic father. Really well done. There was a movie from way back in black and white called The Swimmer. That's a classic. Thanks for the link! I tried, however, to find "Swimming Upstream" near me, w/ no luck. I'm in the Philly area. Hoping to get hold of it at some point in dvd/videocassette.
  • Sam.....wasn't that based on your life? :)
  • RE SWIM FAN what a classic how inspiring NOT unfortunately, I did watch swim fan and noticed they didn't have a very good swimming consultant working on the movie. If you watch the timing board in the movie during the meet scene, the times are all wrong, he's supposed to be a really great swimmer but the times didn't seem to make any sense. a non swimmer wouldn't have noticed this It would be great to have a really awesome swimming movie, something like "coach carter" or "Vision quest" something well scripted, totally inspiring some amazing untold story or maybe a comedy ala "animal house," "american pie" or "euro trip," about a university swim team the pranks they pull, their parties, the characters and their antics. featuring Swimming, school, Sex, drugs, and rock n roll I've got some great stories I could fictionalize to protect the guilty. ande Originally posted by Sam Perry "Swimfan" is a great one! (Just kidding...) :D
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