A Farewell to Arms (1957 film) mouth." Hemingway's intuition proved correct as "A Farewell To Arms" opened to low box office receipts and harsh negative reviews after it premiered in 1957. The film would be forgotten by the moviegoing public as an epic in later years. In his review in "The New York Times", Bosley Crowther noted, "Mr. Selznick's picture . . . lacks that all-important awareness of the inescapable presence and pressure of war. That key support to the structure of the theme has been largely removed by Ben Hecht's script and by a clear elimination of subtle thematic overtones . . . [it] is
A Farewell to Arms (1957 film) Hecht script and Selznick's invariable tendency to overkill are equally to blame." In his review of the DVD release, Jeremiah Kipp of "Slant Magazine" awarded the film two out of a possible five stars and stated, "To those willing to endure "A Farewell To Arms": Don't be a hero! . . . We have David O. Selznick to blame for this bloated two-hour-plus Technicolor remake, announcing from the larger-than-life opening credits set against epic shots of sunsets, mountains, and valleys that he's aiming for another "Gone with the Wind" . . . without compelling lovers at the heart of his