Line #29 Film/AFarewellToArms


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a_farewell.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: The farewell.]]
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4	''A Farewell to Arms'' (1932) is the [[UsefulNotes/ThePreCodeEra pre-code adaptation]] of the Creator/ErnestHemingway novel of the same name.
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6	Directed by Creator/FrankBorzage, and starring Creator/GaryCooper, Helen Hayes, and Adolphe Menjou, it follows the story of an American ambulance driver, Frederick, who falls in love with a British nurse, Catherine, in Italy during UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne.
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8	Although an adaptation of the famous 1929 Hemingway novel, the film takes a distinct Borzage turn into the romantic and tragic with stellar performances from Cooper and Hayes.
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10	[[DisownedAdaptation Hemingway hated it.]]
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12	The film went on to be one of the highest grossing films of 1932 and was nominated for four Academy Awards (including Best Picture). It won Charles Lang a statuette for Best Cinematography, and Franklin Hanser for Best Sound Recording.
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14	David O. Selznick would go on to make the 1957 remake with Creator/JenniferJones and Rock Hudson but would prove to be a major flop.
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16	!!The film shows the following tropes:
17	* TheAlcoholic: Captain Rinaldi. And Frederick isn’t far behind.
18	* AdaptationDistillation: Much of Hemingway’s novel was shorten down for the sake of the expansion of the love story. For example, the idyllic time spent in Switzerland as per the novel never happens in the movie. Although the film has plenty to say about WarIsHell, it doesn’t quite hit the same notes as the novel.
19	* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: PlayedWith: When Catherine is dying, she asks for her makeup bag, noting that Frederick doesn’t like seeing her “pale,” but by the end, she looks tired and withered, begging to live.
20	* {{Bowdlerization}}: Catherine’s childbirth scenes were much more graphic than what’s in the final cut, but to meet the censorship regulations, her labour groans and other more realistic scenes were taken out.
21	* DeathByChildbirth: Catherine hemorrhages to death after the birth of her stillborn.
22	* DeathIsDramatic: Taken a step further with Wagner’s “Liebestod” playing and climaxing in all its beauty as the armistice is announced while Catherine is dying.
23	* DiedInYourArmsTonight: Catherine dies in Frederick’s arms.
24	* DownerEnding: Catherine and her baby die.
25	* HopeSpot: Catherine and Frederick dream of a home and children after the war.
26	* INeverGotAnyLetters: Happens to both Frederick and Catherine. Frederick’s letters are all censored and unsent (because Rinaldi hates seeing him lovesick) while Catherine’s are all return to sender. When she goes to the post office to see if she’s received any, she faints when all 32 have been returned.
27	* TheLadysFavour: When Frederick returns to the hospital to say goodbye to Catherine, she gives him her necklace of St. Anthony, saying that she hopes it will bring him luck.
28	* ManlyTears: Knowing that Catherine is in labour and in danger, Frederick weeps and prays to God, hoping that he doesn’t take her.
29	* MeetCute: Although they had a passing look in one instance, Frederick and Catherine don’t meet until an air raid when the drunken Frederick mistakes Catherine for a prostitute (and the foot) he was fondling.
30	* MetaphoricalMarriage: The priest knows Catherine and Frederick are in love but can’t marry (army regulations), so he goes through the marriage service under his breath. Although he specifically states that it’s not legal, Catherine and Frederick take it as one and are thrilled by it.
31	* {{Montage}}: When Frederick runs away from the Red Cross, he marches alongside civilians and witnesses up front the horrors of war in a montage of hell.
32	* MySecretPregnancy: When Catherine finds out she’s pregnant, she runs away from the hospital to have her baby without the scandal she witnessed another nurse go through at the beginning of the film.
33	* NotSoStoic: Frederick completely breaks down when Catherine is going through childbirth, and he’s absolutely destroyed when she dies.
34	* POVCam: When Frederick is injured during a bombing raid, his arrival to a hospital is from his POV. His meeting with Catherine is also in his POV and she comes running to him and fills the entire screen.
35	* TheRemake: Remade in 1957 with Rock Hudson and Jennifer Jones.
36	* SecondLove: Catherine was in love with a boy from her hometown, and as she puts it “they blew him to bits” even though she “had it to do over again, I’d marry him… or anything.”
37	* SecretRelationship: Catherine and Frederick must keep their relationship secret because it could a) ruin Catherine’s reputation (they are having sex), and b) it’s against regulations.
38	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Frederick leaves the Red Cross (punishable by death) when he’s sick with worry about not receiving any letters from Catherine. He deserts his station in search of her because the war no longer means anything without her.
39	* SexyDiscretionShot: After their “marriage”, both Frederick and Catherine remark that it’s their wedding night. As such, Catherine kisses Frederick and jumps on the bed. Cue the camera panning to the window and balcony.
40	* StigmaticPregnancyEuphemism: Catherine goes away to Switzerland for her health...
41	* TrainStationGoodbye: Averted: Frederick insists that Catherine doesn’t see him go off and make any type of scene. However, she secretly watches him go because she plans to go to Switzerland to have her baby.
42	* VerbalTic: Rinaldi has a habit of calling Frederick “baby”.
43	* WarIsHell: Love in the time of war may be worse. As Catherine puts it “There’s a war on. Tonight who cares, and tomorrow who knows.”

Context Film / AFarewellToArms