The Sun Also Rises (1957)

Hemingway's great novel "The Sun Also Rises" has three layers to it. On the surface it is about the lives, adventures and falling out of a group of American and British expatriates in France and Spain after World War 1. At a second level there is a subtext running throughout the book about the search for meaning and authenticity in the aftermath of that horrendous war. And thirdly on a literary level there is the revolutionary style of Hemingway's spare prose where so often less is so much more. This film adaptation unfortunately only addresses the surface level – it is arguable whether any film adaptation could embrace all three. How does it rate on its limited scope? Only Errol Flynn as "Mike Campbell" captures the essence of the book character : bankrupt, dissolute, pathetic but still somehow endearing. His model in real life was dead within a decade. Tyrone Power as the protagonist "Jake Barnes" is stolid but unmemorable. Ava Gardner should be ideal as the reckless liberated 20's female "Brett Ashley" but the film fails to provide sufficient back story to explain her promiscuous dissolution and Gardner does not really convince in the role. Eddie Albert fails to project sufficiently the good-natured ebullience and intelligence of Jake's friend "Bill Gorton". Finally Mel Ferrer is merely adequate as "Robert Cohn" who triggers much of the falling out of the group in Spain. Overall this is a disappointing attempt to film what is probably an unfilmable novel. See it to watch Errol Flynn in one of his finest roles.

This is a ploddingly slow movie that has some nice action sequences thrown in, and some fun humor, but the funniest parts are the close ups of Pedro the matador during the last bull-fight. (Other reviews have addressed the main cast well-enough).I doubt there has ever been a matador as miscast as this one. He neither looks nor acts like one - although in his defense, he appears to be trying really, really hard to look important. His expressions are priceless, with that shiny face, and the band-aid. Very funny. I wondered who it was, but as the cable channel didn't run any end-credits, I looked him up here in IMDb. Turns out it was Robert Evans.(?!) At least it's clear now why he turned to producing...

I've always loved this book. I saw this movie the last time when I was in a college Literature class. My memory was that it was a Cinemascope film on a conventional screen. When Tyrone Power got into bed, the bed was about three feet long, as was his body. Anyway, I now remember that this is pretty much a dull film. It is talky and not very well edited. While the bullfight scenes were interesting, they were narrated by Power so we would know what was going on. The one thing that was personal is Ava Gardner. I couldn't take my eyes off her. Especially when she was in her party girl mode, she is utterly striking. I also enjoyed Errol Flynn, the Hemingway of the story. His character has some life. Power as Jake Barnes is a limp fish in this one. He is so laid back that he wet-blankets every scene. Of course, a war injury has left him impotent and he will never have Lady Brett. This sad fact is there in the beginning and everyone knows, so he has pretty much given up. There are a couple times when he thaws out, but it is hard to feel a lot of sympathy for him. In the book, he is portrayed in such sad terms. I'd forgotten that Robert Evans played the bullfighter, Romero. I am haunted by his cockeyed look as he peers into the crowd. It is the strangest look. One thing that does come out of this is that I have decided not to become a bullfighter anytime soon. This film hasn't been available for a long time, so when it was released, I got it right away. It was just out of curiosity and I have to admit I was disappointed.

Filming Hemingway's introspective, brooding novel "The Sun Also Rises" was a major challenge. Much of the power of Hemingway's story stems from what is not said, what is left out, what is suggested or only hinted at.In Virginia Woolf's novel "To The Lighthouse", the author goes inside everyone's mind and tells you exactly what all the characters are thinking. "The Sun Also Rises" is the opposite: you read what the characters say to each other and do in public, but even Jake Barnes, the narrator and central character, leaves most of his feelings unspoken. He pushes them aside and tries to soldier on in spite of them.This is obviously not something that can work on screen. However, this A-list adaptation succeeds, up to a point, in bringing the novel to life without making too much explicit. Although some of the performers are miscast and are much older than the characters in the book, there are solid performances all around.Those who haven't read the book may find this film slow and rambling. This is not a tightly plotted story; it's more of a character study, as well as a look at a time and place where people were disillusioned and living on the edge of hope. The film does compensate for the loose narrative with spectacular sequences of bullfighting and the running of the bulls at Pamplona.I originally saw this film in 1971 on a small black and white TV with commercial breaks; I may have even missed the first few minutes. It's a real treat to have the color widescreen Cinemascope presentation available on DVD. Despite its weaknesses, I do like this picture and it really needs a good widescreen transfer to fully appreciate it.