Though he didn’t die until nearly a decade later, 1952’s novella The Old Man and the Sea became Ernest Hemingway’s last noteworthy work. This tale leapt to the big screen via 1958’s cinematic adaptation.

Elderly Cuban man Santiago (Spencer Tracy) works as a fisherman. Down on his luck, he’s not landed much for months, but he continues to try every day.

This situation changes when he hooks a massive marlin. The Old Man gets into a battle of wills in this fish vs. man conflict.

I admit that I’ve not read Hemingway’s work since high school, but that aversion comes from my lack on interest in the texts I saw back then. Hemingway’s terse style always felt dull to me.

Would I like Hemingway’s approach now all these years later? Maybe, but I doubt it, as I still find his “matter of fact” writing to seem too basic.

My screening of Sea bolsters that vibe. Though it attempts to gussy up the story to some degree, it still comes across as a simple story told in a simple manner, and it fails to connect with me.

Part of the problem stems from the fact that the cinematic Sea uses an awful lot of narration. Occasionally it feels like commentary shot to explain everything we see, which I view as a counterintuitive way to make a movie.

Granted, I understand that because the majority of the movie simply shows Santiago alone in a boat, the film needs a way to generate narrative. However, Sea relies on this technique well before Santiago goes fishing, and it pervades the entire tale in an intrusive manner.

After all, cinema offers a visual medium. Sporadic narration can work, but we find too much here and it becomes an annoyance.

We also find endless soliloquies from Santiago on his boat. Poor Tracy must utter unnatural lines such “Thank God they are not as intelligent as we who kill them, though they are more noble!”

I get that Sea offers a fable, but it doesn’t fit the literal setting of the movie screen. Techniques that work on the printed page can become awkward and silly when filmed.

And that turns into the case here. Hemingway’s dialogue feels clunky when stuck in the mouths of actors, and his metaphors flop when rendered on celluloid.

Even at a mere 87 minutes, Sea can’t fill its space with compelling material. Slow and tedious, the movie fails to achieve much impact.

The Old Man and the Sea appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This was a positive presentation despite some issues with the source.

Because a lot of the movie used process shots to place actors in locations, this created distractions. These scenes tended to look a bit on the soft side and came with haloes around the actors on occasion.

Still, the disc replicated the original film well, and much of the movie appeared well-defined. While these moments meant parts of the film became less than attractive, they became unavoidable given the nature of the photography.

I saw no signs of jagged edges or shimmering, and the only edge haloes I detected came from those process shots. Source concerns also failed to materialize, so this became a clean presentation, and grain felt natural.

Colors tended to emphasize the warm Cuban setting, albeit with blues dominant out on the boat. Those process shots occasionally rendered the hues as a bit thick, but overall they appeared reasonably full.

Blacks were deep and firm, and shadows looked clear and smooth – well, outside of some day-for-night shots, as they demonstrated the usual darkness. Nonetheless, the transfer held up well.

Given its age, I also felt reasonably pleased with the DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack of Sea. The mix didn’t excel, but it was more than acceptable given its age.

Speech consistently seemed intelligible. The lines could become a bit edgy at times, but they remained largely well-reproduced.

Music tended to be a little thin but seemed acceptably vivid and bright. Effects were fairly clean, with only a little distortion in some louder moments.

Don’t expect much range from the track, but matters seemed acceptably broad for an affair from 1958. While I didn’t find anything here to applaud, the mix lacked overt issues and essentially satisfied.

In addition to the movie’s trailer, we find a program called The Legend and the Sea. It runs three minutes, four seconds and brings notes from documentary filmmaker Allen H. Miner.

We see shots of Ernest Hemingway on a fishing trip Miner filmed for a planned documentary. Though brief, this becomes an intriguing reel.

Perhaps if I went into The Old Man and the Sea with fondness for the work of Ernest Hemingway, I could find something enjoyable here. Unfortunately, the stiff and awkward adaptation fails to sway me, as it delivers a dull experience. The Blu-ray comes with generally positive picture and audio as well as minor bonus materials. I guess Hemingway fans enjoy it, but this Sea bores me.