User Reviews

Free-spirited 30-somethingish lifeguard Rick Carlson (a fine and engaging performance by Sam Elliott) finds himself at a crossroads in his life: He's reunited with former high school flame Cathy (well played by Anne Archer), faces temptation in the form of sweet smitten teenager Wendy (an appealing portrayal by Kathleen Quinlan), and thinks about starting a new more lucrative career as a car salesman.

Director Daniel Petrie relates the engrossing story at a deliberate pace, neatly captures a pleasing easy'n'breezy laid-back Southern California vibe, makes good use of the lovely seaside scenery, and, most importantly, brings a spot-on low-key introspective sensibility to the surprisingly smart and substantial premise. Ron Koslow's thoughtful script explores with admirable depth and intelligence the central concept of how life is all about choices: A man can stay true to himself and keep on doing what he's perfectly happy with even if it means having a more modest lifestyle or do what others want and expect him to do by making "more" out of himself, which in this movie boils down to having a job in which you make more money and possess a more outwardly respectable social status.

Elliott's considerable scruffy charm and likeable personality go a long way in making Rick a deeply sympathetic character; he receives sturdy support from Parker Stevenson as eager rookie Chris, Stephen Young as affluent old high school buddy Larry, Sharon Clark as foxy stewardess Tina, Steve Burns as local teen troublemaker Machine Gun, and George Wallace as Rick's disapproving dad. Ralph Woolsey's sunny cinematography provides an attractive bright look. A nice little film.

This is a movie I can never get tired of. You can watch it again and again, all day long. It's laid-back and entertaining, and doesn't ask much or expect much of you, the viewer. The story involves a thirty-something lifeguard who is naturally slick with the ladies, on and off the beach, and oh, saves lives too. Sam Elliot is a very cool actor and delivers otherwise simple lines with slow-burn perfection. Parker Stevenson is his young protégé who is in the film JUST enough, Anne Archer his perfect lady, and Kathleen Quinlin is a young girl, supposedly a teenager, who represents the last of Elliot's 'conquests' before settling down with Anne, who is his age. There is a part in the middle of the film that centers on Elliot's character feeling old and, after attending a 15 year high school reunion, trying to get a job selling cars. This is when he starts dating Archer, realizing she is someone he can settle down with and NOT just for 'fun'. In most films this part of the film would hinder the otherwise kickback feel, but in this movie's case, it flows along just as good as the beach scenes. It's a relaxing movie and you can play it on a loop on your DVD machine (now that it's finally on DVD) and I bet you won't get tired of it. If you do, just swim to shore a while... and I'm sure, soon enough, you'll want to see it again... and again... and again... LIFEGUARD!

This is a very pleasant movie without a lot of sex and violence. It concerns a man in his 30's who is uncertain which direction his life should go after being a lifeguard since high school. At his high school reunion fifteen years later he begins to wonder where to go. A nomadic woman on the beach wants him and his former flame in high school wants him back in her life. Look for Jimmy Van Patten and Parker Stevenson starting to gear up their careers back then. An unexpected outcome and overall good movie that makes all of us wonder about our purpose out there in life. Shot around Hermosa Beach in the wonderful summer of '75. Sit back and enjoy it.

So important to this old guard. Saw it on my future wife and I's first date during its summer premiere in bicentennial '76. Man did it talk to me. Afterward, I bought the "Book Made From the Movie" and read it more than once. During the following summer of '77 I saw it again while stationed with the 3rd Marine Division in Okinawa, Japan. Remember taking a small cassette recorder into the theater and recording John Williams "Time and Tide" and listening to it days after in my BOQ. Why? Because being a life guard is special. The life saving has deep down importance. To this day I mark the lives I saved as among the top 2 or 3 things I'm proudest of. And the precious fleeting beauty of cooling sand in the early evening when the beach has emptied out and it's just you and the primal force of the water. All of that is captured tenderly and just right in this wonderful picture. And Sam Elliot's Rick knows that saving lives and standing sentry by the shore is profoundly more important than mundane pursuits of prestige and money. So he has the presence of mind to take a pass on the rat race and instead do what his soul tells him to do.

This is a very well-made 'sleeper' film that was obviously produced on a small/modest budget in the mid-1970's (circa1976) but everything miraculously works = from the realistic down-to-earth Story, to the highly engaging acting (Anne Archer & Sam Elliott make a seemingly 'perfect' potential couple) to the awesome Southern-California locale & cinematography and especially the fantastic Music Score (by Dale Menten and Paul Williams) = it's kind of incredible how the Soundtrack seamlessly merges with and even greatly enhances the images & atmosphere on-screen providing a perfect 1970's update to 'Beach-Boys' influenced melodies and harmonies. Paul Williams' title song 'Time & Tide' is very moving and fully reflects the idea of the rapidly-inexorable 'slippage' of time (and those perfect summers that seem to have flown-by literally within a few blinks-of-an-eye!)

I actually first saw this almost a decade after it was originally shown in theaters = somewhere around 1983/1984 while in high-school, and was really impressed (first-and-foremost by the Awesome-Soundtrack) but also by the fact that this unassuming little film, seemed to perfectly capture the concept of those free-spirited days of summer-vacation rapidly whizzing-by = this film seems to condense roughly 3 months into a little under 2 hours?! Seriously, I don't know how they achieved this, but the 'feel' is very much akin to that associated with summer-vacation i.e. great anticipation/optimism/high-expectations at the start (when anything seems possible) => then getting into the flow of it, but with expectations lowered a bit ==> lapsing toward a sense of slight melancholy/resignation when it all ends too quickly, then being forced back to 'reality' and the next school-year, etc. (geographically in Hawaii for me, which is close enough to S. California I guess)

Of course for Sam Elliott's character 'Lifeguard Rick' the stakes are much higher and the decisions more permanent/life-affecting = e.g. choosing to be a high-end 'Porsche' dealer (and presumably marrying the professional woman of his dreams/ Art-dealer portrayed by sublimely-beautiful-intelligent Anne Archer, seems like an excellent choice - but to each-his-own!), or continue being a free-spirited Lifeguard with fewer responsibilities/obligations (but for how much longer?) ...... ie. evoking the age-old philosophical conflict between attaining material comforts vs. traversing the pathway most 'true' to your inner nature.

Anyway, this film presents a very 'good-trip' thru a mostly enjoyable Southern-California Summer, but also asks some relevant and realistically presented questions about what constitutes a 'meaningful' Life (and the idea that being true-to-yourself does carry a lot of intrinsic value/ reward.). Kathleen Quinlan and Parker Stevenson also provide fine performances in early screen roles. Highly Recommended and much better than you would expect with considerable depth in both story and authentic-acting (plus a great Soundtrack enhancing the Sun & Surf!)

note: for Years, I had been searching unsuccessfully to find the original Soundtrack to this movie = I noticed in recent times that three of the main selections (eg. the main song written by Paul Williams with additional song/ Music orchestrated/produced by Dale Menten) have shown-up on YouTube.

LIFEGUARD is one of those movies that stays with you for many years. Even though I never owned a copy of it, I recalled huge chunks of the film ever since I watched it back in 1976.

To begin with, LIFEGUARD is a terrific time capsule of what SoCal looked and felt like in the 70's...the cars, the endless roads, the Denny's.

Then it's an amazingly crafted character study of 32 yr old RICK (Sam Elliot) who faces the inevitability of aging past his beach boy life and joining the rest of the mind numbed commuters he Vettes past on the way to Hermosa Beach.

We begin to see Rick's dilemma in the other characters that enter his world: First up is Chris, a rookie lifeguard representing Rick's younger self...who Rick both mentors and competes with.

Then there's Wendy (Kathleen Quinlin's expressive eyes are heartbreaking), the underage girl who causes Rick to lose his very disciplined grip.

School chum Larry arrives at the beach and boasts about his Porsche dealership, showing Rick what might have been if he'd taken his opportunities more seriously.

Finally, there's ex-sweetheart Cathy (Anne Archer) who Rick reconnects with at the ultimate iconic time passages setting, his high school reunion.

All these characters pressure Rick to make a choice, which he finally does. For my money, a very consistent choice after what we've learned about him.

One character that I believe has the strongest influence on Rick is the ocean itself. It remains strong and ageless, his longest relationship, and ultimately impossible for him to leave.

Sam Elliot made this picture what it is. He transcends some of the lesser skilled players in this thoughtful indie and really carries the story. For what might have been just a late night cable filler, this film is resonant over the past 30 odd years because Sam makes Rick so real.

I almost wish Sam could go back and do an updated version, so we might all see what happened to Rick...or perhaps it's best to leave it as the 70's time capsule it remains.

Well, it's not exceptional to have a small and cute movie. These are the movies which we escape to, after getting fed up with Hollywood's big and loud movies. The thing is, this time, it is exceptional to have a hero with new solution for his conflict. So how is that?

Simply because this hero we watched didn't eventually choose the teenage girl who represents his impetuosity for life, as well as his dive into it. And he also didn't choose the mature woman / his old love who represents rationality and stability. The man preferred to choose his freedom, his self with its own defects.

He preferred to work what he really loves, succeeds in, and can't forbid himself of doing; namely his work as a daily Life Guard at the beach, so maybe he could find someday that love which would harmonize with his status, and not the status which would harmonize with his love!

He is an interesting type of hero, who achieved his victory on circumstances for his invariability. And his very success was nothing but realizing that his happiness and his immutability were one thing, which if he tried to change; he would lose the thing that he loved the most: his selfsame, or his precious nature.

Although he knew very well that he was losing a lot in the same time "I know that I'm losing.. more than you could imagine!", but he selected not to select anything of what was in front of him, and that - in itself - is a selection.

As for what I hated, it's obvious: The too much skin all the time as if that was the main goods, the profanity or the bad language in general, and the scene in which the lead enjoys seeing some girls getting harassed in the sea!

In fact, we aren't used to watch this kind of "I'll select nothing" heroes in the movies but rarely. That's why this movie isn't small and cute only, but rare too.

Sam Elliott is a lifeguard for a living. Maybe he's running away from life or the real world not having a more professional career. Maybe he's running away from people or his own problems. But from where he's sitting it's a beautiful day every day. And, he feels the benefit of feeling needing and making a difference in the peoples' lives he saves. Also starring Parker Stevenson and Anne Archer, this is a very laid back and moody film, but those are its assets. The film shows the days in the life of a lifeguard, with the supposed advantages and disadvantages to it, and the film excels at giving the viewers complicated, three-dimensional characters. And, Sam Elliott is perfectly cast. He is given an opportunity to get a car salesman job after attending a class reunion, but he's torn by the love of his job and the pull to fit in with the norm. What will he do? The viewer has a good idea, because what would you do?