Film Review

A Farewell to Arms is a 1957 American DeLuxe Color CinemaScope drama film directed by Charles Vidor. The screenplay by Ben Hecht, based in part on a 1930 play by Laurence Stallings, was the second feature film adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's 1929 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. It was the last film produced by David O. Selznick. An earlier film version, A Farewell to Arms starred Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes.

Frederick Henry is an American serving as an ambulance driver for the Italian Army during World War I. While recovering from a wound in a British base hospital in northern Italy, he meets Catherine Barkley, a Red Cross nurse, and the two engage in an affair. Frederick's friend, the doctor, convinces the army that Frederick's knee is more severely wounded than it actually is and the two continue their romance but never get married. Catherine discovers she is pregnant but after sneaking alcohol into the hospital for Frederick. She informs Frederick's superiors that he has fully recovered from his wounds and is ready for active duty. During their separation, Catherine comes to believe Frederick has abandoned her. Following the Battle of Caporetto, Frederick and his close friend Major Alessandro Rinaldi assist the locals in fleeing the invading German/Austrian armies. When the two ambulance drivers are finally able to report to a local army base, the commandant assumes they are both deserters from the front. Rinaldi is executed by the Italian military; enraged, Frederick knocks out the kerosene lamps and flees, jumping into the river. Wanted by the Italian army, Frederick evades capture and meets up with Catherine. They flee Milan to hide out on a lake on the Italian-Swiss border. Claiming to be tourists trying to evade the war, the two are allowed to remain in neutral Switzerland. Catherine's pregnancy progresses but due to the conditions around them, the pregnancy becomes complicated and Catherine is hospitalized. Their child is stillborn, and Catherine dies shortly afterward. Frederick leaves, shocked, and wanders the empty streets.

I’d like to point the story line which is represented in the film. In comparison with the book, we see different way of how they depict Rinaldi. They make him out to be a backstabber who tries to keep Lt. Henry and Catherine apart. This entirely not the case in book. This is not to mention the inconsistency of this line. 

As for the actors performance, I expecte4d something more from the main actors, although, their performance satisfied me. Excellent photography of the Italian Alps as Selznick wanted to create a momentous canvass of War and its aftermath. The film is not as good as it should have been and not as poor as some have made it out to be. Miss Jones, edgy, intelligent and driven as an Actress is quite good. If you see this movie, pay close attention to Jennifer Jones' excellent portrayal of a reluctant lover who is perhaps suffering from too many demons to actually fall in love completely, the way she wants to.

Speaking about directing, Charles Vidor, who took over the direction in Italy after John Huston walked off the job, has managed to give the film pictorial excitement in a number of beautiful Italian and Swiss locales, even though there is not much significance in the central characters.

All in all, Very long and very melodramatic! Good actors and a realistic story, but it was too melodramatic for my taste. This film, for all its size and color, doesn't do much more by Hemingway's book than was done by the sentimental version of it played by Helen Hayes and Gary Cooper some twenty-five years ago.