Ah yes, good ole Lifeguard - I was 13 when this came out and cut school on a Wed in Flushing Meadows NY cause that's when movies came out back in those days, on Wed. A decent drama and generally considered a chick flick, it deserves a little better than that and to me plays like a really good TV movie. Kathleen Quinlan was 21 when they shot this, playing a 17 yr old and it's one of her most admired performances. She plays the lovesick high schooler with perfect honesty and openness and carries a lot of this film although casting is spot-on through out. Regardless of what you think of Sam Elliot, it's hard to take your eyes off him, that charismatic charm, he owns the picture. Pinewoods Rating System - Three Pinewoods....The Horror!!
Every 70s Movie: Lifeguard (1976)
Based on its title alone, to say nothing of the film's wretched poster, Lifeguard should be a sleazy sex comedy. But instead, it's a somewhat well-observed character piece about an iconoclastic man wrestling with other people's perceptions of his prolonged-adolescent lifestyle. Sam Elliot, his signature sweet 'stache already firmly secured on his upper lip, plays Rick, an L.A.
Lifeguard (1976)
A year-round California lifeguard, Rick Carlson (pre-gray Sam Elliott) has resisted the pull of others' expectations longer than most of us do. But in the 1976 quiet character study Lifeguard, set during the summer of his 15-year class reunion, he finally wrestles to answer the perennial questions: What do you want?
Above - Original Trailer
Below - scene w Elliot & Quinlan
THE HORROR!!
