Customer Reviews

A Farewell To Arms [DVD]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When David O. Selznick undertook to remake "A Farewell to Arms" he was hoping to top Gone With the Wind. Needless to say, every movie he made after GWTW would be compared to it and deemed inferior. Most of his films have merit. However, "A Farewell to Arms" is a bona-fide disaster on most counts. David O. Selznick, who broke up Jennifer Jones and Robert Walker, was only concerned with Jones and her portrayal. Unfortunately, Jennifer Jones with her distracting facial contortions (which the director should have kept in check) is terrible in this film right down to the last reel where we have to endure an interminable child birth scene and her subsequent death. "A Farewell to Arms" could have been a superb film. Instead, it is an overlong, talky, mishmash of romanticism between two characters who are portrayed by good actors who have no chemistry between them. Hudson was perfect. He did the best he could under less than ideal circumstances. But Jones is the flaw in this film. A fine actress if directed properly and that twisted mouth and deep voice inflection distracting kept in check, Jones is horribly miscast. At the age of 38 she is certainly too old to be playing Catherine, a 23 year old nurse. She is supposed to be british but her playing is stilted and forced, not to mention over-intense. Even the musical score is unmemorable. No wonder this film failed at the box office. And no wonder David O. Selznick never made another film. He was an anachronism by this time. Skip this one folks unless you are a die hard JOnes and Hudson fan. I recommend "Song of Bernadette", "Portait of Jennie" or "Love Letters" if you want to see Jones at her best!

There is no question that David O. Selznick was one of Hollywood's greatest producers - anyone can look at his list credits and see that he was responsible for some of the most memorable films to come out of Hollywood. Following his magnum opus, "Gone With The Wind" in 1939, however, Selznick kept trying to out-do himself, striving to create yet another great film on an epic scale. He did make some wonderful movies following "GWTW" ("Rebecca," "Since You Went Away," "Portrait of Jennie") but many of them (like "Since You Went Away" and "Duel In The Sun") were hurt by his attempts at over producing.

"A Farewell To Arms," which was sadly Selznick's last film, is the prime example of Selznick at his worse - attempting to make a simple war love story into an epic production. The sweeping title credits racing across the screen (just like in "Gone With The Wind") should serve as a warning. While the production is an attractive one (exquisite wide-screen cinematography, beautiful locations, lovely score, etc.), it is not enough to warrant a grand scale for such a simple story. Rock Hudson is simply gorgeous in this film - he had to have been at his peak here. Jennifer Jones, as the love interest, doesn't fare as well. She is a beautiful and talented actress and one of the most interesting women to grace the screen, but she is miscast here. At 36, she is too mature to be playing Hudson's love interest (she is in her young 20s in the book) and their scenes together lack chemistry. The film also suffers from being overlong and padded with scenes that could have been easily left out. Thus we get 30 minutes of lovey-dovey between Jones and Hudson in the Swiss Alps followed by a birth scene that seems to go on forever.

That said, the film does look great on dvd and this is certainly the way to watch it. The extras include 3 Fox Movietone Reels - 1) ""A Farewell to Arms" Premiere" showing Selznick, Jones and Hudson, the producers and their wives, and Mercedes McCambridge, waving to the cameras, 2) "Photoplay Awards" showing Rock Hudson accepting his award for Favorite Actor, and 3) "Meg at the Premiere of `A Farewell to Arms'," which shows Princess Margaret attending the premiere. The theatrical trailer is also included.

The 1957 version of A Farewell to Arms is a mixture of the best and worst of David O. Selznick. On the plus side is the no expense spared lavishness of the whole production, with great Italian locations, great production design, a good supporting cast (including an excellent Vittorio de Sica, Alberto Sordi and Elaine Stritch) and a cast of thousands. On the debit side, there's some hokey love scenes and the miscasting of Selznick's private leading lady Jennifer Jones, lisping her way through an awkward British accent while seemingly impersonating a rather large bunny rabbit that somehow got a job as a nurse.

Charles Vidor lacks Frank Borzage's sensual romanticism, but despite some surprisingly clumsy comedy, Ben Hecht's script is much darker and more mature than you'd expect, with the grim retreat sequences and their aftermath far darker than anything in the Gary Cooper version. That said, the gay subtext to Rinaldi's friendship is almost completely absent, something that seems all the more noticeable with Rock Hudson playing the object of his affections (but that's hindsight for you). It's never particularly moving, but it's entertaining storytelling and it looks great in its original CinemaScope ratio.

Extras are limited to the original trailer and brief newsreel extracts.

I saw this film years ago and was curious to see if it is still worth seeing after 50 years. The movie is beautifully filmed; the panoramic views are spectacular. The evacuation of the Italian Army is extremely well done. Rock Hudson as Lt. Frederick Henry, an American ambulance driver in World War I, proves that he can act in addition to being extremely handsome. He is by far the best thing about the movie. Jennifer Jones does not fair as well. One suspects that she may have gotten the part of Catherine Barkley, an English nurse, because she was married to the producer David O. Selznick of GONE WITH THE WIND fame. She says "darling" way, way too many times. Then there are the 50's censors to deal with. Catherine would never say she was "pregnant," but rather is going to have a baby. Had she not informed us of that, we couldn't have been sure that she and Henry actually went to bed together as she's always buttoned up to her neck in her nurse's uniform although Mr. Hudson does take his shirt off from time to time.

I'm not sure how much of this story is really Hemingway's as the movie gets a bit preachy in the end. Henry keeps talking about that he has been bad. I do not know what he has done that is so wrong. Certainly fleeing from a military court martial where he would have certainly been shot is not a bad thing to have done.

The DVD version has some black and white footage of the premiere of the movie, along with a clip of PHOTOPLAY awards connected with it-- certainly interesting from a historical standpoint.

This is a story that is ripe for a remake. Hemingway's love story is worth repeating.

...Hemingway would have nothing to do with this adaption from his novel but the main criticism levied at Selznick is his wife at 38 was too old to play a young British nurse in Italy during WW1 opposite Rock Hudson as the American male nurse.The landscape and battle scenes were good but he was not being realistic casting his wife in this role.Selznick was still lookong for a sequel to "Gone with the Wind" which he had previously just failed with in "Duel in the Sun", but this film drags and the birth scene despite edits, remains too long.So much of the plot seems to have been truncated and reduced to a mere orthodox love story so there is not enough in the plot to sustain the time it runs.Incidentally the year "1932" that hangs as a title above is incorrect.This filmed version was made in 1957.I believe the Gary Cooper version was made in 1932 and in B&W not in colour as here.

This is a beautifully shot movie set in Italy during WWI. It is based on Ernest Hemmingway's novel "A farewell to arms", as well as on the play, also named "A farewell to arms". Rock Hudson's performance is spectacular, he portray life-like realistic emotion which ranges from pure joy to pain and frustration. This story is about love that overcame all possible boundries and survived until death. Rock Hudson is gorgeous and I found myself having to bite my lips at times!! wow what a looker..!! forget renting this one...buy it, trust me YOU WILL LOVE IT!! but just a hint.. get a box of kleenex for the ending, I BAWLED!!

Let's be honest - this movie is far superior to the Gary Cooper/Helen Hayes version. Once again, the much maligned Rock Hudson is better than expected. The book is overated and the movie is underated. You'll spend a good winter's night while watching this classic Hollywood treatment of a bestseller.

David O. Selznick production that is based on a novel by Ernest Hemingway, this is a story of the love between ambulance driver, Lieutenant Henry (Rock Hudson) and Nurse, Catherine Barkley (Jennifer Jones) during World War I Italy. the story is made complex by the interference of Major Rinaldi (Vittorio De Sica.)

Well I have to admit that I have read Hemmingway but not this book. I did however see the Gary Cooper movie first. However, it is a story about Love found - love lost - love found - love never lost.


This version seems a little fuller and a lot more colorful than the 1932 version. However, the story is also filled with slapstick comic relief and conversational filler tripe. This is still a tearjerker. It has been suggested that Jennifer was a tad old for the part of a 23-year-old nurse. I was so busy with the story that I did not really notice. As far as Rock, I thing he was thrown into lots of these movies on his hansom leading man reputation. Vittorio De Sica acted his part quite well; however, I keep seeing him as Cardinal Rinaldi in "The Shoes of the Fisherman" (1968.) See Dr. Emerich (Oscar Homolka) again in The Seven Year Itch (1955.)

The Shoes of the Fisherman

It is an excellent movie. I've always enjoyed it from the day it was released.

This was "GONE WITH THE WIND"'s producer David O. Selznick's last movie. This awful pan-and-scan VHS doesn't do it justice. Sure, Jones and Hudson are too old for their roles, but it's a beautiful production, right down to the "GONE WITH WIND"esque credits set against beautiful Italian locations and even the title "A Farwell to Arms" sweeps across the screen like in GWTW. Come on, Fox, you've done us well with your "Classics Collection" in 2004; let's do the same for 1957's "A Farewell to Arms."