"Save the Tiger" is not for everyone. If you are a fan of great acting and writing, and not bothered by a slow pace then this is a movie for you.

The film takes place all in one day and tells the story of a businessman on a downward spiral. Jack Lemmon (in a well deserved Oscar winning role) plays the owner of a clothing manufacturer. He is losing money and his mind. He has decided to hire an arsonist to destroy the business so he can collect the insurance money, much against the wishes of his partner (well played by Jack Gilford).

The film follows him that day as he comes to many life decisions while trying to avoid the nervous breakdown that is hauntingly close.

This is a film of raw power that never reaches out to us so strongly that we feel smothered by it all. It's pace is slow which makes the film all the more powerful. Two scenes that stand out are when he is to speak at a luncheon. As he speaks he begins seeing the audience not as normal, everyday people but as soldiers from the war he fought in. He is so overcome he can't finish his speech.

The other standout moment is when he meets the arsonist at the porno theater. The arsonist has been there and back 100 times and knows his business. He knows the right way to destroy a man's dreams for profit. To say the scene is frightening is an understatement. But it's a testament to the brilliant (and Oscar winning) screenplay by Steve Shagan.

This is one of those rare films for adults. Frightening, powerfully thought provoking. A must see for the true cinema buff.

This was definitely a tour-de-force performance for Jack Lemmon.

I believe the strength of this film is that his performance allows it to strike a multi-generational cord with viewers...a key theme of the movie is the way the world has changed since they way we remembered it when we were younger, which I think is a pang that all of us get, no matter what age. The world always seems darker and more complicated now and concept that needs no real transposition between eras.

Harry Stoner is a man of his times...swing bands, baseball, and World War II. His life is still influenced by all three, but only in quick flashes of fond memories or flashbacks of a beach in Italy. Lemmon gives us a character that does what he has to do in order to maintain what he has worked for, and that rationalizes that which may or may not be quite on the up-and-up.

Jack Gilford is excellent as his partner in Capri Casuals, representing a voice of conscience that is not quite as blind to circumstance as Jack's character, and there are several other good performances in the film. Jack Lemmon stands out, as he does in most films, and richly deserved the Academy Award for this one.

Save the Tiger is about lost illusions of youth and the things some of us have to do to merely keep treading water. Jack Lemmon is the head of a garment factory which has suffered some losses over the past few years and he and partner Jack Gilford see few options that will save them from bankruptcy or worse.

The best of these options is to start an arson fire in their factory and hope the insurance payoff will cancel their debts and afford a fresh start. Gilford is against it on moral principles, but Lemmon is a guy who can't afford morals at this stage as George Bernard Shaw once put it.

Still he looks back on his youth and the things and people that moved him back in the day and wonders how he got in the mess he's in. It's not supposed to be like this for people like him who've had ideals and tried to play by the rules.

In his facial expressions, his vocal intonations, in every move of his body and soul, Lemmon becomes Harry Stoner the latest convert to cynicism. It's what got Jack Lemmon his Second Academy Award, this time for Best Actor. Interesting that this very cynical film came out the year that a whole lot of Americans became very cynical as Watergate was unfolding before them.

Arson fire is a tricky business and Lemmon puts himself in the hands of Thayer David who I think gives his best screen portrayal here as the professional arsonist. Listening to him, as creepy as he sounds, he comes off as a man who knows his business. He even at one point offers to return the down payment given him when he explains that insurance will never pay off with all the fire regulation violations Lemmon and Gilford have in their place. It's a business with him and no fatalities must occur, otherwise it's a Law and Order episode.

Jack Lemmon was one of the best around, could do all kinds of comedy and drama with equal skill. Building on the characters he created for Billy Wilder, he's an older man now who's in no position to start from scratch again. Lemmon plays a character that all of us over 40 can definitely relate to.

Save the Tiger is a serious and thought provoking drama about choices each and every one of us could face some time in our lives. It's universality of theme will make it an enduring classic.