4 - The Ethics of Ageing in Frank Perry’s The Swimmer

Summary

In this essay I explore Frank Perry's film The Swimmer (1968), which is based on John Cheever's 1964 story of the same name. The film, I suggest, is a profound exploration of middle age. Ned Merrill, the central character of the film, is in a state of crisis brought on by the way in which – itself typical of middle age – his past is catching up with him. I explore his flight from self-knowledge, his desire to hang on to the past and his efforts to reinterpret his past according to the view of himself that he would like to have. I suggest that he is lost in the time of his life and that this dream-like dislocation of time is central to any understanding of the ethics of middle age.