Ernest Hemingway's After the Storm: The Story plus the Screenplay and a Commentary [Paperback]

A. E. Hotchner (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0786708379 | ISBN-13: 978-0786708376 | Publication Date: April 27, 2001

A. E. Hotchner did not come to the task of adapting Hemingway's seven-page short story "After the Storm" with apparent disadvantages. After all, he personally knew Ernest Hemingway; he had traveled with him to Paris, Pamplona, Venice, the Riviera. He had studied Hemingway's work and already adapted for the television or movie screen fifteen of the Nobel Prize–winning writer's works, including For Whom the Bell Tolls. Still, in the matter of adaptation, as Hotchner shows in the essay that opens this volume, close familiarity with an artist's work or personality does not necessarily simplify the challenge to the adapter. In addition to Hotchner's essay, which identifies the problems posed by adaptations of works not written for the screen, the book includes the complete texts of both Hemingway's story and the screenplay that converts it into a full-length feature film—making this volume invaluable to film students, movie fans, screenwriters, and Hemingway readers alike.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (April 27, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786708379
• ISBN-13: 978-0786708376
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,667,064 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Enter a writer's mind......, April 6, 2009

By 

SNK "wordfish" (PGH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ernest Hemingway's After the Storm: The Story plus the Screenplay and a Commentary (Paperback)

A. E. Hotchner allows the reader into his process. This is a terrific book for would-be writers, working, but stuck writers and you needn't be a Hemingway fan.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat entertaining, but little substance, April 2, 2001

By 

Craig Childs (Cordova, TN United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ernest Hemingway's After the Storm: The Story plus the Screenplay and a Commentary (Paperback)

This book presents the screenplay for the recent television movie "After the Storm" and the six-page Ernest Hemingway short story on which it was loosely based. The adapter A. E. Hochner also throws in an informative essay on the art of adapting. While this will certainly interest would-be playwrights and Hemingway afficionados, there is little else of substance here.

The short story is little more than a premise--a poor Bahamian fisherman finds a sunken luxury yacht and tries unsuccessfully to scavenge it-with no supporting characters and an unsatisfactory resolution. Hochner adds villians, conspiracies, and two love triangles to spice things up. The result is a better-than-average TV movie, due to solid performances by Benjamin Bratt and Armand Assante, but it is still too slow and formulaic to meet the standards of a feature film.