Customer Reviews

Lifeguard

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Based on the screenplay for the 1976 movie of the same name, this 157-page paperback sports a photo of Sam Elliott (in red swim trunks) on the cover along with a list price of $1.50. Bound between pages 64 and 65 is an ad for Kent cigarettes. Not surprisingly, this novelization -- competently written by Thom Racina -- faithfully uses the plot and characters of the movie and thus will have its primary appeal to those who enjoyed the movie and who wish to re-live it in a slightly different fashion. The only major deviation from the movie comes on page 106 when "Rick Carlson," following the annual lifeguard race, gets drunk with some colleagues and defiantly performs a dangerous stunt on the end of a half-collapsed pier. No such scene occurs in the movie. It might have been filmed but then cut before the movie's release, perhaps because it put the movie's hero in a bad light. This book does include the now politically-incorrect episode in which Rick spends the night with high-school girl Wendy who's eager to lose her virginity. Like the movie, the book offers no details on just what went on during the course of that night, but readers are free to come up with their own scenarios.

The 1976 movie, "Lifeguard," hasn't achieved "cult" status but it has acquired a certain reputation, fed by those drawn to its quiet philosophy of personal fulfillment in the face of peer pressure. The fact that Sam Elliott, as the flawed but likeable "Rick Carlson," seems the perfect embodiment of this philosophy significantly adds to the movie's appeal. Thom Racina's 157-page paperback -- based on Ron Koslow's screenplay -- transfers "Lifeguard" to the printed page in professional style. Its only deviation from what's on the screen occurs in a sequence, following the lifeguards' annual competition, in which Rick gets drunk and performs a dangerous stunt on the edge of a pier. Apparently this sequence was edited out of the final print or, perhaps, never even filmed. The cover of the paperback features a muted color photograph of Sam Elliott, in profile, wearing his red swimsuit. This photo reminds us how closely Elliott resembles the character described on the printed page except for one key point. There's no mention in the book of Rick being hairy-chested whereas Elliott's torso, as we all know, is gloriously hirsute.