“They Have Rewritten It All”: Film Adaptations of A Farewell to Arms

This essay examines the 1932 and 1957 film adaptations of A Farewell to Arms, not to argue for a particular interpretation, but for a way of analyzing them that can move knowledgeable readers of Hemingway’s texts and experienced viewers of the films away from a critical tradition that has dichotomized film and literature. The essay resituates the adaptations in the cultural contexts that shaped their production and reception, including national discourse about censorship, as well as some of the documents of film history—regulatory codes, production notes, reviews, memos, and letters.