Movie · 1932 · Drama, Romance, War · 1h 29m · NR · English
Curator score: 4.6/10 (15K ratings)
Every woman who has loved will understand
Overview
A tale of the World War I love affair, begun in Italy, between American ambulance driver Lt. Frederic Henry and British nurse Catherine Barkley. Eventually separated by Frederic's transfer, tremendous challenges and difficult decisions face each as the war rages on.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.6/10
IMDb: 6.4/10
Letterboxd: 3.35/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
TMDB: 6.1/10
Director
Frank Borzage
Production
Paramount Pictures
Cast
Helen Hayes, Gary Cooper, Adolphe Menjou, Mary Philips, Jack La Rue, Blanche Friderici, Mary Forbes, Gilbert Emery, Henry Armetta, Herman Bing, Agostino Borgato, Marcelle Corday, Gino Corrado, William Irving, Doris Lloyd
Where to watch
Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, MGM Plus, Philo, Pure Flix, FlixFling, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A lush, highly stylized pre-Code adaptation that often feels more like Borzage’s feverish romantic melodrama than Hemingway’s hard-edged war story. Its visual invention and emotional sincerity are the main attractions, but the film can feel dated, uneven, and only partially convincing as either romance or war drama.
Best for
viewers who love classic Hollywood melodrama
fans of pre-Code cinema and expressive studio-era visuals
audiences interested in wartime romances with a tragic bent
people curious about early adaptations that significantly reinterpret the source material
Skip if
you want a faithful Hemingway adaptation
you prefer modern pacing and psychological realism
you’re allergic to heightened old-Hollywood sentiment
you need the war material to be as strong as the romance
Overview
Frank Borzage turns Hemingway’s story into something softer, dreamier, and more openly romantic than the novel’s reputation might suggest. The result is less a literal adaptation than a passionate reimagining, one that leans into sensuality, spiritual devotion, and the idea that love can briefly shelter people from history’s violence.
Worth noting
That approach gives the film its best moments: the intimate scenes have a surprising charge, and the battle and hospital passages are shot with a haunting, expressionistic intensity. The production design and location work also give the film a scale that feels impressive for 1932.
Bottom line
Still, the movie can feel old-fashioned in its rhythms, and viewers expecting a tougher, more unsentimental war drama may find it frustrating. What remains compelling is the clash between Hemingway’s bleak material and Borzage’s belief in romance as a redemptive force.
Top Letterboxd reviews
fatima (2.5★) · 168 likes
tag urself im the guy who kept calling gary cooper baby
eely (3★) · 110 likes
helen hayes back off my 6’3 man with your short ass!! loving gary cooper is a tall people only event!!
Mike D'Angelo (4★) · 99 likes
73/100
A nearly complete betrayal of the novel, from what I can gather (my high-school English class predictably went with The Sun Also Rises), but Borzage's romanticism surely packs as much of a wallop as Hemingway's cynicism. Lovemaking scenes are exquisite (and surprisingly frank, even for pre-Code; he's actually allowed to express surprise that he's deflowered her); battle montages are gorgeously nightmarish; expressionistic flourishes abound, my favorite being the first-person shot of Cooper in the hospital that finds Hayes pushing… more
Carlos Valladares · 72 likes
Now that's what I call romanticism. Frank Borzage is a curious character to enter this stage in my life, as my own romanticism blooms. He truly puts one's beliefs (in the greatness of humanity, in the beauty of life, in the presence of a spiritual Otherness) to the test. His romantic (the oft-peddled Borzagian adjective, to the point of becoming a trite soundbite) impulses are so extreme, they truly scare me.
In softening the sharp-angled edginess of Hemingway's A Farewell… more
1996 · Drama, Romance, War · 2h 42m · R · Curator 6.6/10 (320.2K ratings) · Where to watch: fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium
A sweeping wartime romance with memory, longing, and separation at its center, though more expansive and modern in style.
Topics
pre-Code, World War I, romantic melodrama, tragic love story, expressionist visuals, classic Hollywood, war hospital, literary adaptation, sentimental tone, 1930s cinema