Product Description

Jack Lemmon won an Oscar. for this dramatic performance, considered by many to be his finest. Lemmon plays Harry Stoner, a man caught in violent collision with his past and present life. He believes there is nothing significant in his life except survival, and that instinct pushes him beyond moral conduct. He'll juggle the books, supply women for clients... and even set fire to his own dress manufacturing factory. He is drawn to an America when life not only had values and heroes, it all seemed worth living and building. But Harry is frightened to break away from the emptiness of his seemingly successful life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18449 in DVD
• Brand: LEMMON,JACK
• Released on: 2005-10-25
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 100 minutes

Amazon.com
There are several films for which Jack Lemmon deserved to win the Oscar--The Apartment and Days of Wine and Roses among them--but it was this low-key entry from 1973 that garnered the gold (following a supporting award for Mister Roberts.) Harry Stoner is a Watergate-era man in the gray flannel suit--even if his is "Italian silk." Sure, he's got the Beverly Hills manse, complete with maid, but business is hanging by a thread. When it starts to unravel, he risks losing everything. And finances aren't his only problem. After 30 years, he's still haunted by the war and only wants to talk baseball and big bands. His wife urges him to see a therapist. Phil (Jack Gilford, a fine foil) is Harry's garment-manufacturing partner. Neither is a model of business ethics, but when Harry suggests torching a factory for insurance money, Phil is mortified. He suggests they turn to the Mob, but Harry would prefer a quicker fix. As in The Swimmer, another painful portrait of the American Dream gone bad, John G. Avildsen (who picked up his own statuette for Rocky) takes a revealing snapshot of a dying breed. Like much of Lemmon's best work, it can be hard to watch, but just as hard not to. In retrospect, Harry looks like a dry run for the even more nakedly desperate characters of Glengarry Glen Ross and Short Cuts. If you ever wondered how they got that way--Save the Tiger is your answer. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews

Memorable performance by Jack Lemmon
Interesting story with great performances by both Jack Lemmon and Jack Gilford. Lemmon won the Best Actor Oscar for his intense portrayal of a businessman and WW2 vet contemplating insurance fraud and arson, who is having a nervous breakdown while longing for the clarity of the past. Forget the critics who gave this a lukewarm reception, this is an excellent movie with memorable performances.

Classic drama with great performance finally on DVD. Includes commentary track
Harry Stoner (Jack Lemmon) isn't having a good day. He's burned out on his seemingly successful life. He's in hock up to his eyeballs and is an example of Paul Simon's observation about the "quiet desperation" of American lives. Lemmon picked up a deserved Academy Award for his portrayal of Harry with its echoes of other Lemmon characters throughout the latter part of his life.

"Save the Tiger" looks particularly good. Paramount has done a nice, crisp and clean transfer here. While the film occasionally looks soft with noticeably grain in some sequences that's the result of age, the film stock and lighting conditions for the film. The 2.0 audio has nice clarity and presence.

I didn't see this mentioned anywhere when this was released (or on the box that I received with my preview copy) but there is a great commentary track from producer/writer Steve Shagan and director John G. Avildsen ("Rocky"). Both recall the difficulties they had in making the film and Lemmon's consummate professionalism in shooting this film. It's a pity that Lemmon wasn't tapped to provide a commentary while he was alive (and it's a pity that this wasn't issued earlier to take advantage of that) but having Shagan and Avildsen (much less any commentary track) relate their stories about the making of the movie is a delight.

An essential drama with a great performance by Jack Lemmon, "Save the Tiger" looks exceptionally good in this transfer from Paramount. Featuring a nice commentary track by Shagan and Lemmon, "Save the Tiger" is an enjoyable movie and fans will savor having this classic on DVD.

Lemmon In One Of His Most Profound Roles
Even though Save The Tiger May not of been a commercial sucsess
it still shows how great filmaking was once made. Basically
the story is about a day & a half in the Life of Harry Stoner
owner of a garment manufactuing company who's going through a
midlife crisis is in debt considers arson to his warehouse as a way of his troubles and manages to commit adultry. Jack Lemmon's
amazing performce which earned him a well deserved oscar plays
with sheer brillance and belivablity that he is pratcally in every scene of this film. One great scene was when Harry litterly
breaks emotinally thinking back to his army days seeing his friends wounded & killed when giving a speech at a fashion show.
No Matter how dated or strange this film may be today it's still
a great film it's defintely not a film for visual & special
effcts nuts but a film with certain amount of intelligence
and should be held as a clasic film.