A Farewell to Arms (1932): Guts, Romance, and Rain

Okej, so I sat down the other night with a lukewarm kopp kaffe, just me and this old romantic war flick from ’32 – Frank Borzage’s take on Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms.” And you know what? It hit me harder than I expected.

We’ve got Gary Cooper – lång som en björk och twice as wooden, sometimes – and Helen Hayes, who kinda steals the show if we’re being honest. She’s got this fragile strength that totally sneaks up on you. Cooper’s doing his stiff-upper-lip thing, trying to play the American ambulance driver in WWI Italy, but yeah… he’s more stylish than expressive, if you get what I mean. Still, it works. Sort of like having a handsome but slightly confused elk at your side during trauma.

Produced by B.P. Schulberg, one of those dudes who probably smoked cigars bigger than my arm, and directed by Borzage – who knew his way around a love story drenched in melodrama and fog machines – this film feels like someone lit a candle in a bunker and just filmed whatever happened. It’s moody. Poetic. Maybe a bit too tidy sometimes, but that’s 30s cinema for ya.

I’ll tell ya, it brought back this really random memory – back in the 80s, I was stuck in Boden during lumpen, dead winter, reading Hemingway under a bed lamp while some joker snored three bunks over. That mix of cold, boredom and longing just… yeah, the flick caught a bit of that.

The ending? Oof. Kind of walloped me. I mean, I knew what was coming, but still. Felt it. Probably won’t rewatch soon, but I’m glad I did now.

Hard to recommend to someone who needs explosions every five minutes, but if you’re into doomed love and foghorns of emotion… give it a go.

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