Lifeguard (1976)

A sort of Baywatch for adults, Lifeguard (1976) actually predated the David Hasselhoff series by more than a decade.  While also portraying the life and work of an LA County lifeguard, the film takes a more serious and introspective tone than the TV series.  It focuses on one Summer in the life of Sam Elliot's ageing lifeguard, as he assesses his life and his future, attempting to recapture his youth by first starting a relationship with a seventeen year old girl, then rekindling a romance with his High School sweetheart.  Although Elliot's position as a lifeguard gains him attention from various attractive women on the beach, just as 'The Hoff' and his colleagues would later, the film, on the whole, paints a far less glamourous picture of life guarding than Baywatch subsequently did.  While there are rescues, they are far less spectacular than anything on the TV series: no burning boats, jet ski heroics or crashed planes, just drunks and out-of-their-depth swimmers.  Indeed, he and his colleagues seem to spend most of their time time dealing with flashers, voyeurs in the ladies' room, breaking up juvenile fights and ordering surfers out of the water before the beach becomes swimmers only.

The heart of the film, though, is Elliot's crisis of confidence, s he begins to wonder whether those telling him that it is time to get a 'proper', 'grown up' job - who include his father and his old High School love - might be right.  After attending his High School reunion, where he finds tat all of his old classmates seem to have well paid jobs and/or families - he tells them that he 'works for the County' - he starts to consider one old school friend's offer of a sales job at his Porsche dealership.  His High School girlfriend, now an art dealer, also pushes him toward the idea of more conventional, 'respectable' work, so as to fit in better with her lifestyle and social circle.  His rescue of the teenaged girl he slept with when she tries to drown herself on his beach and a job interview with his car dealer friend's business partner, during which the legitimacy and professionalism of his lifeguard position are called into question, prove turning points for him. Rejecting the job offer and buoyed up by the part-time rookie lifeguard he has been mentoring's thanks for teaching him so much that Summer, Elliot decides to continue as a lifeguard for as long as the service allows him to.

There's nothing particularly profound about Lifeguard, but it is well directed by Delbert Mann, maintaining a decent pace with sufficient incident that the film never really flags.  Essentially a character study, the film rides on Elliot's performance in the lead role and he provides a typically laconic and likeable performance.  While on the surface appearing to conform to most observer's superficial impression of a lifeguard simply being some kind of unambitious beach bum leading a slacker lifestyle, his performance also successfully suggests a deeper, sensitive and often intellectual inner character who has made a conscious decision to reject the materialism and social climbing of conventional employment.  Unlike many of his contemporaries, he actually enjoys what he does for a living and recognises that it serves a greater purpose and involves greater responsibility than their jobs: the protection of lives.  The supporting cast includes Ann Archer as Elliot's High School girlfriend, Kathleen Quinlain as the teenage girl and Parker Stevenson (who would later co-star in the first series of Baywatch), as the rookie he mentors.  

It is interesting to compare life guarding in the seventies, as presented in the movie, with life guarding in the late eighties and nineties, as portrayed by Baywatch.  Much seems the same: the red trunks with the county badge, the towers, the red plastic floats and the yellow trucks.  Yet there are differences - the film is notable for the complete absence of female lifeguards, while they often seemed to dominate the TV series, (indeed, a notable aspect of Baywatch was that the majority of its viewers were, in fact, female, apparently attracted to the show because it portrayed women as skilled and responsible professionals, on a par with their male colleagues).  Moreover, the layers of administration and management - the reports requiring filing after every rescue - are absent from Lifeguard, but an important part of Baywatch.  Despite the changes to the job these two portrayals of LA County life guarding  present, the fundamentals of the job - saving lives - remains constant.