The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber bull herself. If this is the case, she wins back her power, but ironically, she destroys the thing she is trying to control. The bullet accomplishes exactly what she was trying to avoid. "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" has been acclaimed as one of Hemingway's most successful artistic achievements. This is largely due to the ambiguous complexity of its characters and their motivations, and the debate this ambiguity has generated. In the estimation of critic Kenneth G. Johnston, "the prevailing critical view is that she deliberately—or at best, 'accidentally on purpose'—murdered him", but there are many, including Johnston
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