History Film / TheSwimmer

* AdaptationSettingChange: The original short story was set in Westchester County, New York, while the movie instead takes place in a Connecticut suburb.

* AdaptationLocationChange: The original short story was set in Westchester County, New York, while the movie instead takes place in a Connecticut suburb.

* CosmicPlaything: Left ambiguous and played with, to the extent that we don't know to what degree Ned is responsible for his situation. It's made clear the Ned has lost everything in his life: his wife and kids have left him, he's lost his job, his house, his possessions, whatever social status he may have had in his community, and ultimately his sanity. How much of this is his own fault is uncertain - one scene hints at his heavy drinking, and another confirms that he cheated on his wife, but the film never resolves whether these were causes or effects of his downfall. Furthermore, many scenes suggest that his neighbors and former friends are more crass, superficial, and drunken than Ned himself, [[KarmicOverkill implying that there wasn't anything about Ned that made him particularly deserving of his plight]].

* {{Fanservice}}: There are several attractive women clad in swimsuits and bikinis, as well as Burt Lancaster, who is still in excellent shape for a man in his mid-fifties, spending an entire film in swimming trunks. We even get to see his butt in what was a very daring shot for the mid-1960s. But in the latter portion of the film as the day turns colder and it becomes more and more clear that Ned is seriously disturbed, the Fanservice starts to morph into FanDisservice.

* IRejectYourReality: It becomes increasingly clear throughout the movie that whatever kind of mental instability Ned is suffering involves him firmly rejecting how bad things have become for him. It's basically [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Ned's own remarks to Kevin, the boy left alone by his parents next to a waterless pool:

** For that matter, where the hell has Ned been? He shows up at a friend's pool in the morning, wearing nothing but his trunks, tanned and cheerful and ready to swim. But his house has clearly been vacant for years, and most of the neighbors know about the disastrous turn his life has taken.

* StepfordSmiler: It's gradually made clear that Ned is this.

* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: Eventually it's made clear that Ned is in denial so deep that he has had a full-on psychotic break. He has retreated into a fantasy world where his family is intact and happy and he still lives in the fancy house on the hill, when he has lost literally everything in RealLife--he appears to own nothing other than those swimming trunks--and his wife and daughters are gone to God only knows where. Ned seems to have forgotten the last several years, down to thinking that his daughters still need a babysitter.

* HappyPlace: It becomes clear that Ned mentally inhabits a make-believe world where he's still a successful, affluent man with a loving wife and children and many close friends in his local community so that he can hide from a reality where the exact opposite of all of these is true.

* {{Fanservice}}: There are several attractive women clad in swimsuits and bikinis, as well as Burt Lancaster, who is still in excellent shape for a man in his mid-fifties, spending an entire film in swim trunks. We even get to see his butt in what was a very daring shot for the mid-1960s. But in the latter portion of the film as the day turns colder and it becomes more and more clear that Ned is seriously disturbed, the Fanservice starts to morph into FanDisservice.

* NakedPeopleAreFunny: An entirely random gag has the Hallorans, an older married couple, be a pair of nudists. They're sitting on their front lawn porch naked when Ned shows up; ever the gentleman, Ned shucks his swim trunks. (This is proceeded by a phone call in which the Hallorans' daughter refuses to bring her children to visit if her parents won't put clothes on.)

* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: Eventually it's made clear that Ned is in denial so deep that he has had a full-on psychotic break. He has retreated into a fantasy world where his family is intact and happy and he still lives in the fancy house on the hill, when he has lost literally everything in RealLife--he appears to own nothing other than those swim trunks--and his wife and daughters are gone to God only knows where. Ned seems to have forgotten the last several years, down to thinking that his daughters still need a babysitter.

First film score for Music/MarvinHamlisch. Creator/JoanRivers appears briefly as a party guest who is intrigued by Ned. Creator/DianaMuldaur appears as a different party guest who is even more obviously lustful for Ned. Director Frank Perry was fired after a screening of the first cut and replaced by Sydney Pollack, who directed much of the released film, including the entire scene with Ned and Shirley (Janice Rule).

* IRejectYourReality: It becomes increasingly clear throughout the movie that whatever kind of mental instability Ned is suffering involves him firmly rejecting how bad things have become for him. It's [[Foreshadowing foreshadowed]] by Ned's own remarks to Kevin, the boy left alone by his parents next to a waterless pool:

* IRejectYourReality: It becomes increasingly clear throughout the movie that whatever kind of mental instability Ned is suffering involves him firmly rejecting how bad things have become for him.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: A steady parade of hints that things have gone very bad for Ned and there is something seriously wrong with him.

* ParentalNeglect: Kevin (the boy selling lemonade who Ned befriends) is left to live alone with a maid in his house while has parents go off galavanting around the world.

* AbandonedArea: Not only is Ned's mansion empty and abandoned, it has been abandoned for a long time. The gate has rusted, leaves cover the tennis court that he was reminiscing about, weeds and ivy have overgrown everything, and some of the windows are broken open.

** At the Bunkers' pool, another guest makes remarks indicating that Ned lost his job to a younger man. The wrathful "CONGRATULATIONS!" that a horny lady at the pool[[note]]played by Diana Muldaur 20 years before ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'[[/note]] spits when Ned says he's meeting his wife Lucinda indicates that his marriage is over.

* YouCantGoHomeAgain: Ned's TragicDream is to go home. [[spoiler:While he appears to eventually get there, he can't open the door and it's rotten and disused.]]

* HumiliationConga: For Ned over the course of the movie. Various people that he meets confront him with the fact that he has lost his job, he is broke, all his stuff was sold off, and his wife and daughters are all gone, and by the way they hated him. The hot young lady who recounts her PrecociousCrush on Ned recoils and runs off when he tries to make a serious move on her. His former mistress angrily rejects him and claims that she was faking orgasms when they had sex (although the way the rest of that scene plays out hints that she may be lying). And even the common folk at the public pool sneer at Ned for being a deadbeat with juvenile delinquent daughters that can't stand him.