Save the Tiger (1973) Review

Save the Tiger

Director: John G. Avildsen
Writer: Steve Shagan
Producer: Martin Ransohoff / Steve Shagan
Studio: Paramount
Stars: Jack Lemmon, Jack Gilford, Laurie Heineman
Length: 100 min
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: R
My Rating: ****
Oscar Nominations: Original Screenplay, Actor (Lemmon), Supporting Actor (Gilford)
Reel Nominations: Original Screenplay, Actor (Lemmon), Supporting Actor (Gilford)

Save the Tiger covers as much ground as it can. Famine, drug use, tax evasion, the effects of war, PTSD, moral corruption, the dissolution of the American Dream, the Flower Child existence, unfair business practices, fraud, the effects of a commercialized culture, and infidelity are just a few of the topics that are given ample discussion throughout its 100-minute running time.

All of these issues are examined through one day in the life of Harry Stoner, a senior partner in a dress manufacturing corporation. This is not a good day for Harry; all of his insecurities and tensions are released in a torrent of emotion by the many stressful aspects of this day, and of his existence in general.

He is living a rather typical upper-class life. He breakfasts in bed, ably converses in Spanish with his Mexican housekeeper, sees his wife off on yet another trip, worries that his daughter might be better off seeking an education abroad, enjoys lunch at the Hong Kong Restaurant in Chinatown with his business partner, talks of fishing trips that he should take but never will, and tries to settle disputes among his employees. All of these activities, these typical excursions and duties that provide Harry with a (false) sense of security throughout the typical days of his oh-so-typical American life, have always given him a sense of purpose and meaning. On this particular day, however, each ordinary circumstance feels charged with a sense of urgency.

This could very well be Harry Stoner’s last “normal” day. The business hasn’t been doing too well lately, and, well, they may have forgotten to pay their taxes last year. This presents Harry with a quandary: should he fess-up like the good American he is, effectively voiding every single one of the accomplishments that he has managed to amass over the last twenty years? Or, should he hire someone to torch his warehouse so that he may collect the insurance money?

This is a dilemma that changes Harry’s perspective on everything. He is already somewhat disillusioned, always ready to reminisce over his boyhood idols, from great baseball players to big band leaders. But this development, which not only rocks the foundation of his own personal dream but also that of the American Dream itself, is enough to send him into his well-worn shell. He retreats back to his memories, to a much simpler time when decisions like these didn’t have to be made by men like him. He sees himself as part of a dying breed, one of those men who made their fortune in an honest way, only to be forced to face the end of their own personal era of wealth without receiving a stitch of gratitude for the opportunities he has given to others. So he tries to survive, but, as he states so truthfully, “survival is now known as fraud.”

All of this is presented beautifully by a subtly introspective script, but that is not Save the Tiger‘s main selling point. Jack Lemmon is.

He was always one of our best and most lauded comedic actors, a reputation that also made him a very underappreciated dramatic actor. The searing honesty with which he portrayed Joe Clay in Days of Wine and Roses was but a warm-up for this portrait of a man at the end of his rope. Every fear and anxiety, every comforting memory seems not to flow from Steve Shagan’s script, but from Lemmon’s soul. We not only know of his deep regret and melancholy, we can feel it. He won his only lead acting Oscar for this tour de force performance, an award won without a single precursor outside of a Golden Globe nomination. It was a surprising, even shocking win at the time, but today it stands as one of the best decisions the Academy ever made.