A FAREWELL TO ARMS

US, 1932, 80 minutes, Black and white.
Helen Hayes, Gary Cooper, Adolphe Menjou.
Directed by Frank Borzage.

One of the earliest film version of a Hemingway novel. For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Snows of Killimanjaro were major films of the forties and fifties. A Farewell to Arms was remade with Jennifer Jones and Rock Hudson by David Selznik in the fifties. Islands in the Stream was a warm film of the seventies. This version is very brief, directed by Frank Borzage who was at the peak of his career in the thirties. A young Gary Cooper is impressive in the central role and Helen Hayes is very warm as the nurse. She was to win an Oscar as the best actress of 1932 for The Sins of Madeline Claudot. She also won Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Airport In 1970. A good example of early sound film and an interpretation of Hemingway.

1. The reputation of this story, film, sequel? Hemingway and his stories, place in the American heritage?

2. The film an an example of early sound style: the photography, dialogue, acting, stars?

3. The quality of the techniques and the black and white photography, the re-creation of Italy in World War I, the stylish shots and angles etc.? The scope of the story and the themes within a short time? An atmosphere for Hemmingway’s hero and heroine themes?

4. The significance of the title, the initial caption and the focus on disaster, on war and heroism? The importance of the war in 20th century history, American involvement? The themes of antiwar and the title?

5. How well did the film re-create the atmosphere of the war and inform the audience about Italy and the clash with Austria? The place of the volunteers, their fighting, suffering? The opening with the ambulances going up the hill setting a tone for what was to follow?

6. The importance of the ambulance work and the way that this was sketched out in various sequences? The status of the volunteers and their motivation? Frederick and his presence in Italy, Cathy and her joining in England? Rinaldi and his surgeon's work? The various examples illustrating this world? Frederick’s arrival at the beginning, the nurse being rebuked, the social aspects of enjoyment with the nurses, the nurses at work, the various crises? The personalities of the various nurses and assistants, head nurse, chaplain?

7. Gary Cooper's Frederick? The American hero, his place in Italy as a volunteer, his capacity for work, a man's man in this kind of world? Friendship with Rinaldi and being on the town with him? Rinaldi calling him baby and the particularly American focus? The encounter with Cathy and the change of attitude? the humour of the shoe and the leg? Their falling in love, the equivalent marriage with the chaplain? The importance of the child? The love for Cathy changing his perspective? The irony of his being wounded accidentally and his being thrown together with Cathy despite her transfer to Milan? The injury and the farewell? The irony of the letters being returned, his desperation? The discovery of the truth, the moral crisis and the turning against the war, his willingness to desert in order to go to his wife and child? The final rowing and presence at Catherine's death? A rounded portrait of a complex Hemingway hero with strength and sentiment? Audience identification? Acceptance of his behaviour?

8. Catherine as a heroine? Helen Hayes’ performance and style? Her work, personality, friendship with Ferguson? Her immediate love for Frederick, response, the marriage ceremony in the hospital room, the kindly concern of the priest, comforting Frederick, wishing they were married, quietly speaking the words of the ceremony, Mary's imagining orange blossoms and music, the priest happiness that they were married? the child? The pathos of their leaving and her following Frederick to the station? her going to Switzerland, the pain of her letters returned, the hospital sequence and the caesarean operation, the experience of her death?

9. A love story: the portrayal of the tenderness and love, the sadness of death and the portrayal of this?

10. The complexity of Rinaldi’s role, friend, his skill as a surgeon, his ordering Catherine away, the returning of the letters, his motivation in this? His final acceptance of Frederick and helping him? How much was he to blame for what happened?

11. Themes of patriotism, duty, loyalty, love? The particularly American tone because of the characters and out of their American setting in Italy, in the war?