The Prince of Tides (1991) on Netflix
Tom Wingo coaches football in South Carolina. His mother sends him to New York to speak with the psychiatrist treating his twin sister Savannah after a suicide attempt.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.8/1021,715 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes68%
Trailer
Plot summary
Tom Wingo and his twin sister Savannah grew up in South Carolina, in a house on a tidal plain, with a shrimper father, Henry, who was distant and abusive, and a mother, Lila, most concerned with appearances and social standing. Savannah is now a poet in New York; Tom still lives on the coast outside Charleston with his wife Sally and their three daughters. After Savannah's latest suicide attempt, Lila asks Tom to travel to New York and speak with Savannah's psychiatrist, Susan Lowenstein, about the family history. Tom dislikes New York and is slow to share the Wingo troubles. Her husband, the concert violinist Herbert Woodruff, is self-absorbed and condescending, and their son Bernard resents the life the two of them have planned for him.
Cast
- Maggie Collieras Lucy Wingo
- Brandlyn Whitakeras Chandler Wingo
Show all 20 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Prince of Tides (1991)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film was nominated for Best Picture but Barbra Streisand was left out of the Best Director race. At the following year's Oscar ceremony, host Billy Crystal sang, to the tune of "Don't Rain on My Parade", "Did this film direct itself?"
- Pat Conroy gave Streisand a copy of his novel inscribed "To Barbra Streisand: The Queen of Tides", calling her a great teacher, one of the greatest to come into his life, and thanking her for taking care of the book with such great seriousness and love.
- Composer John Barry walked away after Streisand asked why he was not moving to Los Angeles and said she liked to know what was going on. Barry, who lived in New York, refused, saying he could not work with someone over his shoulder; he later retitled his theme "Moviola" for his 1992 album.
SPOILER
In the novel, the second Wingo brother, Luke, is vitally important and his death is a major plot point, and the title comes from Savannah's poem about him. In the film Luke appears only intermittently, his death is only vaguely described, and the title belongs to a book of poetry Savannah dedicates to Tom.- The film turns up in The Sopranos: in the season 5 premiere "Two Tonys", Tony and Valentina watch it, and Tony is drawn to Nolte's portrayal of a manly man with a sensitive side.
- At an early stage of development, Jay Presson Allen was reportedly paid between $500,000 and $750,000 just to draft a screenplay.
