I don't remember if I've mentioned my strange relationship with Ernest Hemingway on this blog. My first experiences with Hemingway were in high school when I read some of his short stories, The Old Man and the Sea, and The Sun Also Rises. I categorically did not like him or his writing. I thought he was a womanizing, animal-killing, arrogant jerk and I found his writing spare, boring, and pointless. Then in college I was assigned The Sun Also Rises again and I loved it. And from then on I enjoyed reading Hemingway's sparse prose and teasing out the meaning from it. I even came to dislike (more and more, it seems) writing that gave away too much (which nearly all modern books I've read in the past ten years do) and assume that the reader is just too darn stupid to figure things out for herself.

It has been awhile now since I read The Sun Also Rises, so I thought I'd search out a film version for fun. Lo and behold, I found one made in 1957. It seemed so familiar as I watched it that I suspect I watched it or parts of it in school at some point. I'm getting to the age where I suddenly find myself becoming more and more like my parents, who keep a list of films they've seen so that they won't accidentally rent them again. As I live with a man who can quote at least half the lines of any given movie after just one viewing, I'm sure my developing forgetfulness is cause for concern. After all, our vernacular is in large part based on films we've seen together. But I digress.

Whether I had seen it in part or in whole before, the 1957 version of The Sun Also Rises was typical of the time in which it was made.

The lead male role, that of Jake Barnes, the newspaperman who was rendered impotent by an injury sustained in the Great War, was played by Tyrone Power. This was his second to last credited film, followed by Witness for the Prosecution (aside: I was in that play in high school, so there's my connection to Mr. Power). He had been in film since the 1930s, apparently known for his swashbuckling. My main impression of him as I watched The Sun Also Rises was that his eyes had only one setting: wide. He had a fairly surprised look on his face for most of the picture. Which is strange because I never really thought of Jake being all that surprised by anything.

Ava Gardner played Lady Brett Ashley, and played her very well. She exhibited a wide range of emotions and is so striking to look at. She's gorgeous. My only complaint regarding her is really directed to the costume designer. The story takes place in the mid 1920s (a contemporary novel when it was written) and they have Brett wearing clothes that are much more at home in the 1950s when the film was made. What a waste, when 1920s costumes are so fun.

Brett is the woman whom Jake loves. They met when Jake was in the hospital and Brett was a nurse. Sound familiar? Apparently Hemingway was prettty fixated on this experience in his own life, as this is the second time in reading his novels I've run into it, the first being A Farewell to Arms. Of course, Brett and Jake cannot be happy together because Jake can't perfom and apparently that's a deal breaker for Brett. So Brett spends the movie/book chasing after other men.

Flynn with Hemingway

One of these men is her fiance, an Englishman named Mike Campbell, played by the very entertaining Errol Flynn, also a swashbuckler nearing the end of his career, and, as fate would have it, the end of his life. He died at the age of 50 just two years after this film was made. He has portrayed Robin Hood, Don Juan, princes, captains, and kings, but in this film he plays a rip-roaring drunk who's lost his family fortune and couldn't care less about it. Though I imagine his character is supposed to elicit pity or perhaps some judgment, Flynn played it so amusingly that I found myself liking him very much and enjoying his stupid exploits.

The other supporting roles of Robert Cohn and Bill Gorton were also well played by successful actors with long careers (Mel Ferrer and Eddie Albert, respectively). The most baffling casting choice by far was Robert Evans as bullfighter Pedro Romero. He was terrible and didn't look remotely attractive. Today he looks pinched and tragically tanned, and he didn't look much better in 1957. This photo is actually quite flattering, but he didn't look that way in the film. Perhaps the make-up department is to blame. Who knows. As a viewer I just could not believe that Lady Brett Ashley would fall for him.

I was not surprised to see that his page on IMDB was light on content. He apparently failed as an actor not long after this movie and worked for the clothing company his brother cofounded (Evan-Picone, which I think makes fairly nice clothes), later returning to the movie world as a producer, to which I'm sure he is better suited.



As a whole, the movie was faithful to the book and it was especially faithful to the bullfighting scenes (and actually, extremely educational). Animal lovers beware, however, because this was filmed before the strict standards of animal care were in place in the movie making business, and it appears they filmed actual bullfights in Spain, where, of course, the point is to make the animal suffer and die (so very strange).