Lancaster uses his big, strong body so expressively that if this were a stage performance the audience would probably give him a standing ovation. I don’t see how he could be any better.

[Sarandon is] shirtless before she even has a name, but her desire to be ogled is granted dignity and power; gradually and unassumingly, she upstages a terrific Burt Lancaster.

A shimmering success.

Lancaster was never more moving onscreen than when he was lying to himself, and there are shades of his shattering performance as John Cheever’s 'The Swimmer' in Lou’s tall tales of his glory days.