A Comparison Of Hemingway And Hollywood

Hemingway and Hollywood

"I try, when I'm writing a screenplay from somebody's original work, to be as faithful to it as I can be, within the limitations of a screenplay and remembering that the novel medium and the screen medium are entirely different" -Screenwriter, Casey Robinson, (Laurence 12).

Hollywood attempted twice, but it still could not produce a film adaptation of A Farewell to Arms that Hemingway considered to do literary justice to his classic novel. The first effort was in 1932 when Paramount producer Frank Borzage used ridiculous publicity stunts to lure audiences, such as sending letters to women stamped REJECTED BY CENSORS. They read:

Dear Madam:

War-time! Suppose you were alone in a dark, drab, Swiss hotel room!

The dangers that ensued from the liberties Hollywood so greatly took to change Hemingway's novels in attempt to create blockbusters was that many people believed the movie depictions to be in congruence with Hemingway's works. This was not as grave as it might seem however because if the public thought Hemingway wrote like these movies then "they would imagine that the novel had rather the same quality of glamorous love in war as the movie, then Hemingway was a writer to like and admire" (Laurence 81). Despite Hollywood's irreverence to accurately depicting the novels, they did bring about new Hemingway fans that would have been unlikely to experience his talent in any other medium, and although some of the movie publicity was embarrassing, "it served to widen his name recognition even within the public that might never have read a word he wrote. In part this may explain why Hemingway was known as a cultural hero so deeply through U.S. society" (Oliver