--- title: "A Farewell to Arms: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/a-farewell-to-arms/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/a-farewell-to-arms" critics_score: 82 critics_reviews: 9 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # A Farewell to Arms (1932): what the critics said Critics' score 82 from 9 reviews: 8 positive, 0 mixed, 1 negative. Most critics take warmly to Frank Borzage’s adaptation, and the praise clusters around the same things: the frankness it manages in the years before the Production Code, the pairing of Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes, and the intensity of the direction. Several single out the climactic hospital scene as the film’s high point, and a few point to particular shots, the subjective journey on a stretcher into the hospital among them, as evidence of a director working ahead of his time. Reviews from the first release and from the later reissues broadly agree. The spread is narrow apart from one outlier. The Guardian is cooler, finding the collision between Hemingway’s fatalism and Borzage’s romanticism awkward as well as interesting. The New York Times, writing in 1932, is the lone negative voice, judging that the film loses the novel’s power and that the camera effects come at the expense of the story. Where reservations appear, they concern fidelity to the book rather than the craft. ## The Times — Kevin Maher Rating ★★★★★. 20 August 2021. This landmark pre-Code romance offers a bittersweet glimpse of the moral complexities classic American cinema might have sustained without the 1934 Production Code clampdown. The critic highlights the film's mature handling of themes including unwanted pregnancies, erotic elements, feminist grievances of nurses and a nihilistic worldview in the Gary Cooper-Helen Hayes love story. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/a-farewell-to-arms-1932-review-complex-love-story-before-hollywood-went-priggish-xbzv0tzkj) ## Time Out — Tom Huddleston Rating 5/5. 28 May 2014. The review deems the film remarkable for kicking against early Hollywood conventions with its flawed, complex characters. It singles out the unforgettable climax and other distinctive scenes as standing out in cinema. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/a-farewell-to-arms-2) ## Sight and Sound Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 30 May 2014. The critic calls Borzage’s film a masterpiece and one of the director’s finest achievements, worthy of rediscovery. They single out the expressive intensity of the mise-en-scène and the astonishing, truthful climactic Liebestod sequence. [Read the review](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/farewell-arms-greater-film-hemingway-knew) ## The New Yorker — John C. Mosher Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 10 December 1932. The screen version preserves the essential temper of Hemingway's story and stands as the most satisfactory Hollywood love story to date. Borzage's skill with closeups and pictorial detail enhances the intensity of the lovers' feelings. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1932/12/17/a-hemingway) ## Variety — Variety Staff Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 31 December 1931. The film is a corking adaptation that deftly handles delicate situations. Borzage's direction makes the central romance believable and palatable while highlighting strong performances from the leads. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1931/film/reviews/a-farewell-to-arms-1200410641/) ## Film Comment — Kent Jones Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 1 September 1997. The critic celebrates Borzage's distinctive romantic sensibility across his films and positions A Farewell to Arms as a key example of his lush, emotionally charged style. He singles out an innovative subjective tracking shot that follows the wounded protagonist on a stretcher into the hospital as emblematic of the director's visual poetry. [Read the review](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/the-sanctum-santorum-of-love-frank-borzage/) ## Slant Magazine — Dan Callahan Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 27 July 2006. The critic praises Borzage’s version for transforming Hemingway’s pessimism into a testament to eternal romantic love that transcends death. He singles out the transcendent hospital bed finale and the perfect pairing of Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes for particular praise. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/a-farewell-to-arms-2311/) ## The Guardian — Steve Rose Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 29 May 2014. Borzage's reissued 1932 adaptation of Hemingway creates a fascinatingly awkward contrast between the author's spare fatalism and the director's Hollywood romanticism, resulting in a dated yet bracingly modern WWI epic. The critic singles out the film's intriguing avant-garde touches, such as an imitated POV shot of ceiling frescoes and a staggering montage of frontline combat. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/may/29/a-farewell-to-arms-1932-review-hemingway-gary-cooper) ## The New York Times — Mordaunt Hall Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 18 December 1932. The adaptation is earnest and occasionally affecting with beautiful photography and sincere acting, but it lacks the vitality and power of the original novel. Borzage focuses more on artistic camera effects than a strong conception of the story. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1932/12/18/archives/a-hemingway-novel-in-film-form-farewell-to-arms-has-beautiful.html) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/a-farewell-to-arms.md