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It strips away the macho-centric simplicity of language and depth of uncertainty in war and its ramifications, but Frank Borzage’s adaptation is still a winner. One of cinema’s great romantics, Borzage seems an odd choice to adapt a writer of such brusque anti-poetic wording, yet somehow Borzage finds a way into making a “Hollywood” version of the story. Perhaps it’s by downplaying the military battles and strategizing and zeroing in on the central doomed romance at the beating heart of the story.
And he is more than well equipped to tackle this challenge with the help of Helen Hayes and Gary Cooper, not bad company if you can get it. Not only are they formidable actors, but they have an innate gift for being interesting on camera. Hayes, a grand dame of American acting, is right at home in the more melodramatic stretches that the plot takes, yet still manages to invest her character with a grounded sense of noble suffering and heartbreak. Cooper, almost impossibly handsome here, uses the awkwardness of his body to grand effect here. While his exterior may be pure confidence, his twisted body angles or nervous twitches reveal the undercurrents barely contained. By the time the movie has arrived at the rousing climax, in which Cooper holds Hayes in an almost religious manner, this achingly romantic weepie will have earned the tears and emotions it has rung out of you.
Sure, there’s more than a few moments when the age of the thing is glaring obvious, and it can at times feel like a relic of a past era that no longer exists (which, quite frankly, it is). These will be major stumbling blocks for most first-time viewers who are unacquainted with the style of pre-code studio era films. And while I rarely comment upon how good or bad a print is, A Farewell to Arms is in hideously bad shape which becomes harder to ignore the longer it goes on. For a film that relies so heavily upon its dreamy cinematography to help sell the emotion, flecks and scratches often look like a blizzard is occurring in front of the screen. Not to mention that the audio sounds like it was recorded from three rooms down the hall. If you can make it through, and I highly suggest that one does, Arms has many rewards to offer, but time has not been kind to it in many ways.
