That was an excellent one.

Sorry, this movie sucks

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

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.

Opening with majestic aerial shots that capture the serene beauty of the beach where the title character works, this low key yet potent drama revolves around a thirtysomething lifeguard who begins to question the viability of the job that he loves amid mounting family pressure and a new girlfriend with a young boy to support. "I still wonder what you're going to be when you grow up" announces the main character's father at an uncomfortable family dinner in which the camera tracks back and forth across the table, perfectly capturing the ease and tension in the air at a key point. Thoughtfully shot as the film may be, and thought-provoking as the screenplay by 'Into the Night' screenwriter Ron Koslow certainly is, the key element that drives the film is Sam Elliott's towering lead performance. The way he simply shyly smiles at many points conveys more than words possibly could and fans of 'The Big Lebowski' will likely be interested to see Elliott younger than ever but still possessing the same very natural charisma. Having fallen into obscurity over the years, 'Lifeguard' is a far from flawless film with the drawn-out montages set to maudlin music the most obvious vice, but most aspects of the film work - even an initially awkward romance that develops between Elliott and a teenage beachgoer set on seducing him. There is a lot to be said about the effectiveness of the final few shots of the film too; while one might not necessarily agree with his decisions by the end of the film, it is easy every step of the way to sympathise with the choices he makes.

Saw this when it came out and, though I never had the leisure to share as much beach time as some of the characters in this film, I did know some of the surf-and-sand denizens of the beaches from Malibu south to San Diego back in the 1970's. I thought this film was a not inaccurate glimpse of what that sun-kissed lifestyle was all about. Sam Elliott was well cast as a lifeguard a few years older than the average athlete who perched on those observation stations, looking out at the Pacific's frequently treacherous waves. He looked the part and had the depth needed to make his character's less-than-monumental struggles to come to grips with his life and his career choice about as convincing as any actor probably could. With some fallow periods in the years since, Sam has continued to work quite steadily, though I've often wished he wasn't so often confined to Western roles. (What would he have done without Ted Turner and TNT and all those made-for-TV Western sagas?) With that distinctively macho growl of his, there's no mistaking who's doing a voice-over for one of the commercials he's done. I've always felt that his speaking voice has been his unique asset as an actor, not to mention the awesome mustache he frequently sports. "Lifeguard" is worth a look if you want a glimpse of southern California before it became impossibly overcrowded and overbuilt...when it was still a semi-paradise for the young and feckless.

With a different type of role for Sam Elliott. Has some of my fave actors in it besides him-Anne Archer and Kathleen Quinlan. She is a cutie, Anne is as always class. I enjoyed the theme of doing what you Should be doing for a career VS. what you Want to do. It was something that hit home with myself, having worked some dubby jobs in my twenties ere finally getting that 'Real' career that everyone expects you to have by c.30, roughly the same age Elliott is in this flick.I liked the poignant scenes of his 15 year High School reunion, the scenes of indecision he and Anne Archer undergo, trying to reconnect with what they had in their pasts, and the attempts to do something about it now. It is always hard to 'keep up with the Joneses' in High School, and as hard after too.Overall a good flick, nothing great, hearfelt, well acted, plays like a TV movie(maybe it was? I donno)-but one of the highest order.*** outta **** of course.