"'A Farewell to Arms' hasn't come off. The thing that bothers me is that I don't know why. God knows I gave it everything I could. And yet it didn't come off. Maybe my kind of picture is out of style. Maybe I'm an anachronism. I just can't figure it out." - David O. Selznick Producer

Never read the book. Never seen any other film version of it. Believe me, after watching this wooden, meandering, meaningless version of the classic novel from 1957, directed by Charles Vidor, I don't think I want to. This film isn't just bad; It's long and boring and badly acted and crammed with uninteresting Technicolor images that look like an unimaginative travel brochure. It appears to have been edited by someone who went to work in Television very soon after this debacle.

Let's get one thing straight, however; It's the bad acting that totally annihilates this film. From the first frame of the meeting between the two principles, Rock Hudson and Jennifer Jones, it's obvious there are going to be problems. Jones looks like a nun in her nurse's uniform. Why any man would be attracted to her is anybody's guess. Worse yet, once Hudson hears that she is still a virgin and that she regrets the fact that she didn't fuck her now deceased boyfriend before he left for war, he jumps on her like a dog in heat. Hudson gets his face slapped for his advances but Jones immediately melts to butter and does the deed with him right then and there anyway. No one can guess why. Her motivation is supposedly remorse and regret but Jones acts like a zombie showing no emotion; she only mouths her misgivings and then Hudson pounces like a tiger. Hudson, who doesn't look handsome until the script allows him a smarter wardrobe in the last reel, doesn't really seem to care. But knowing Hudson's sexual predilection now, long after the fact, his desires seem hopelessly false. He can't really muster the interest to emote any desire for Jones whatsoever and we really don't blame him. What we can't understand is why he doesn't just go to the local whorehouse like all of his friends do. Doesn't he have the 20 bucks?

Anyway, it's even more ridiculous when the two race to say good-bye to each other the next day when Hudson ships off. This is WWI and yet he has a nice, modern ambulance to drive off in. Jones rushes to the town square and he promise to come back to her, unlike his predecessor. Jones almost shows a spark of life. The insipid scenes that follow negate any sparks ignited in this footage within mere seconds, however.

The rest of the film is a romantic mess that has the backdrop of war to propel emotion, since the two principles don't really have any to give the film. Hudson can't even make the wrongful death of his superior seem unjust. He can't emote the right feelings to help us understand his confusion and turmoil. He and Jones have been sleeping around together for some time now, and she's pregnant, so, of course, he runs back to her. They escape to Switzerland (I guess this is supposed to be the titular "farewell to arms") where the film ends with a none-too-surprising plot twist.

Ben Hecht adapts Ernest Hemingway's classic novel using Laurence Stallings' stage play for a secondary source. Hecht needs an extra guide here because he apparently can't write his way out of a sit-com script set-up. His dialogue is phony and his plot twist are uninteresting. Of course, he has two bad actors fueling the non-fire. Worse yet is Hecht's use of sub-text, which in this case is supposed to be irony and disillusionment. Note that Jones refers to her dead fiance as being "blown to pieces," then, over 2 hours later, when she's in childbirth, she exclaims, "I'm going to pieces." It doesn't take a brain surgeon to see what's going to happen next. Also silly is an opening dialogue between Hudson, his superior and a priest which sets up the supposed grand mores of the script. The priest even suggest that God will show Hudson something or the other about life or something. It makes little since. And finally note the best of the worst, a silly conversation between the bedridden Hudson and nurse Jones about temperatures. This is the point in the film when one realizes all is hopelessly lost. Hecht just doesn't seem to understand what the source material is about. Seemingly, the moral of the novel might be interesting. There is some statement about life and existence going on here. The disillusionment at the heart of the story also seems rife with possibilities and yet Hecht finds nothing here to work with. Not one thing. This story unfolds like a bad soap opera and not like any sort of grand statement. It's a gigantic waste.

Again, I haven't read Hemingway's book. I've just read about it now in the Encyclopedia Americana after seeing this filmed version. The book is supposed to be about the tragedy and meaninglessness of existence, I guess. It also, the reference book claims, is one of the few novels to successfully blend a war story and a romance. This film doesn't succeed as a treatise on existence, as a war film or as a romance. The script never has the intellect to make it a piece about existence or the human condition. It is, however, successful at pushing the "Hayes Code" to it's utmost limit. (Note that the characters have a little faux marriage ceremony during the first third of the film). This film also isn't a war film. The one major battle scene is nothing more than a muddy retreat. The battle sequences are rather dull, filmed as a General might film them, using wide-angle shots so that one sees everything and yet sees nothing. And, of course, the romance is killed by the unromantic script played out by two wooden, bored, thespians (for lack of a better term).

Director Vidor does little to help any of the proceedings. His one shining moment in the film is the retreat sequence which looks rather muddy and dismal. But, even here, Vidor goes all over the map, to bring us the story. He includes shots of fist-fights and fallen travelers with little time spend or dialogue expended to help us comprehend what is happening. Even at 2 hours and 30+ minutes, Vidor can't seem to find the time to allow his scenes to resonate. Whether he is showing us war or love, Vidor gives us no time to digest the story before he tears off on another tangent. Vidor never hems in his action and he can't seem to unleash his actors. Hudson and Jones are so restrained, they seem catatonic. On almost every level, this film fails to satisfy.

A famous passage in Hemingway's 1929 novel reads as follows: "If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them... those that will not break it kills." There is little chance of the world having to kill anyone to break them now, not when films like this exist. The hopeless banality of "A Farewell to Arms" could break the strongest mans will to live.

Note:

Also starring Vittorio De Sica, Mercedes McCambridge and Elaine Stritch.

Produced by David O. Selznick. Directors of Photography are Piero Portalupi and Oswald Morris. Score by Mario Nascimbene conducted by Franco Ferrara.

Filmed on location in Italy and Switzerland with some scenes filmed at Cinecitta in Rome.

John Huston was set to helm the film but walked off before shooting began. Vidor then came on board. Huston: "It was a case of one Alp and two Hannibals." Selznick: "I asked for a first violinist and instead got a conductor." Vidor: "What Selznick really wanted was a piccolo player."

First filmed in 1932 by Frank Borzage with Helen Hayes and Gary Cooper. Also filmed in 1951 as "Force of Arms" (aka "A Girl for Joe") by Michael Curtiz. Starring William Holden, the setting was changed to WWII.

Jones was Selznick's wife at the time of filming.

McCambridge, who isn't identified by character name in the film (i.e. I don't know who she is), voiced the devil's dialogue coming out of Linda Blair's mouth in William Friedkin's "The Exorcist" a few years after this film.

Review written in 1995

Report Card Script: F Acting: F Cinematography\Lighting: C- Special Effects\Make Up: D Music: C- Final Grade: F

And Help Support Filethirteen! Get Your "A Farewell to Arms" Stuff... Search: All Products Books Popular Music Classical Music Video DVD Toys & Games Baby Computer & Video Games Electronics Software Tools & Hardware Outdoor Living Kitchen & Housewares Camera & Photo Wireless Phones Keywords: