
Title
Love and Death in Hollywood: Desertion and Redemption in Film Adaptations of A Farewell to Arms
Document Type
Article
Annotation
Two Hollywood versions of A Farewell to Arms heighten their nature as more love story than war story. Wright traces how each departs from the source novel, but is mostly interested in focusing on how they gingerly treat and transform Frederic's desertion. Both inject religious overtones into the plot line, Wright argues, while closely analyzing their cinematic imagery. And both lead to a spiritual redemption for Frederic, a conclusion missing from the novel and which may be the essential difference between Hemingway's vision and Hollywood's needs: "Hemingway resorted to resignation and despair, while
Published in
Literature/Film Quarterly
Volume
48
Issue
4
Date
2020
Pages
1-8
Citation
Wright, Geoffrey A. "Love and Death in Hollywood: Desertion and Redemption in Film Adaptations of A Farewell to Arms." Literature/Film Quarterly 48, no. 4 (2020): 1-8.