Customer Reviews

Drowning Pool [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This fine film is not a mystery, though some methodical detective work occurs. It is not a drama, though some very broken lives are exposed. It is Paul Newman exploring the backwoods and bayous of Louisiana, meeting a host of eccentric--but not, as another reviewer suggested, unrealistic--characters driven by greed, envy, selfishness, and in Newman's case, personal integrity.

Look for Melanie Griffith as a terribly temptatious teenage tart. Look for Newman effortlessly reflecting his pity for and simultaneous identification with the lost souls of this tale. Great acting, scenery, dialogue, and insight from a rewatchable classic.

This mystery is a great way to showcase Paul Newman's superb acting skills. Without him, this film, would not have worked. The film is an odd mystery that takes many odd turns, without subtle hints that are few and far in-between, so, you'd assume figuring out who the killer is would be difficult. Yet, towards you get it right at the beginning, despite the fact they never investigate the suspcet you get a feeling of who it is. Paul Newman, none theless gave it all, as always. He is an amazing actor, and the movie is worth seeing just for his baby blue eyes, and intelligent police work. Without him, as I said, it wouldn't work. I would have had to give it a 1 or 2 stars without him

...I find this a very entertaining film. Growing up in another state, this was my first introduction to southern Louisiana in any form and a teasing glimpse of the city I knew I must one day call home...at least for a while. I find the acting in this movie exquisite from the ENTIRE cast; this being almost the one time that I found any of Melanie Griffith's work to remotely resemble her talented mother's. As for the characters, having lived and travelled often in that part of the country I find them most believable and their dialogue quite adequate. True, some of the plot is a bit of a stretch, but this is a drama and even the Greeks jazzed up their work; no pun intended. This is a good glimpse into the world of a people who guard their secrets like they guard their family names and community status. A world that still exists in New Orleans.

Bought this movie watched Newman In a Excellent performance as always.Give this movie 10 Stars********************

This film is finally decent and the suspense is quite OK, though with some little thinking we could think the end right from the very beginning. I can't tell you how otherwise you may yell SPOILER in about twenty-five languages including Arabic and Hebrew, both modern and old. Louisiana is there in front of you, New Orleans, a little bit though not the Mardi Gras festivities, too bad, but the bayous quite a lot, though they seem to look like the Everglades in Florida. Well I must be fantasizing or I must have watched too many Miami Vice-Squad series. One thing is sure down south they sure have an accent and they sure do not work the same way as in any other part of the world. But I guess they kill the same, they embezzle the same, they corrupt the same as anywhere else in the whole world. With money, for money, under the influence and the smell of money. What a universal devil those satanic green backs are and you can't escape them, no matter how much money you yourself have, no matter how many bodyguards you may have, no matter how many guns you may be able to brandish, no matter how many corrupted fiendish friends you must be able to have in the wings. A bullet or some pills will do the job quite well. That's the main interest of a private eye series: it can without any reserve reveal the depth of the guano we are living in all the time and every day, and in this case you can't imagine, and a "normal" cops series will not show you how decayed any police department must be. Well even Dexter is slightly short on that one. I liked the trickiness and intricacies of the plot, the unbearable arrogance of local cops, the thickness of the local accent, the superb local streetcars called Desire, but I didn't see one alligator, too bad. They must have been gone on vacation, or maybe they had been substituted with caimans or crocodiles, who knows, but I would have enjoyed a bowl of alligator soup in a Rue Royale restaurant. Run to that film, it is funny, more strange than ah ah. And girls are just what they are supposed to be, big traps with long teeth, but they bark more than they bite.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID

The movie is just as exciting to day as first viewed by me in 1975. Great acting by all.

After facing smoke and fire in the Towering Inferno, Newman's next film seemingly have him facing water. But that's what deceptive about this film, the title, The Drowning Pool, really have nothing to do with anybody being drowned in a pool. It is a lame and tired blackmail plot and Newman is trying to found who is doing the blackmailer and why. Like all two fisted detective tales, our hero was bound to run into some mysterious and eccentric characters (as well as run around half naked on the beach to show how virile he still is). Well, he did, in a way....a boatload of bores. The only interesting bit here is a very young Melanie Griffith (in her natural brunette locks) playing an oversexed Lolita.

The end, which I will not spoil for you, is quite ridiculous. Something about filling a room with water.

I am sure the book, which this movie is based, was much better. Why else would they even consider making the book into a film?

This movie was almost funny it was so bad. Imagine 'Chinatown' with worse acting, cliche one liners, cliche characters, cliche plot, cliche social tensions -you get the idea. For example: Paul Newman is a California private eye who goes to Louisianna for a job, so of course his west coast-hood runs into the cops and their southern-hood, a standoff of exchanging one line dialogues. But smooth ol' city boy talks his way good and doesn't get killed or shipped out of the state. The whole time I'm watching this, I couldn't find any way to take the police's threats seriously. The only thing that made me sit through this movie was I had never seen Paul Newman before, and it looks like I'll have to try another one if I want to see a character with some depth and less predictable personality.