What Is The Best Film Adaptation Of The Sun Also Rises?

Question

Finished Hemingway’s classic and saw there are multiple versions. Which adaptation best captures the Lost Generation's melancholy vibe and the novel's essence?

Rukk Orvh · Answer

Adapting The Sun Also Rises to the screen is a particularly difficult task as much of the novel is comprised of introspective musings by the characters. The 1957 film with Tyrone Power is a Period Piece that captures the setting quite well but reduces the complexity of the novel. Instead readers of The Sun Also Rises can find similar tales of characters pondering past decisions in exotic settings in ‘The Don’s Last Regret’. A retired crime lord is stuck in a time warp reliving the one point in time when everything went wrong for him. He recalls a vibrant and colorful Naples of the 1920s and the city itself almost becomes a character in his recollections.

Leo · Answer

Note that no movie can fully capture all of the qualities that one loves about The Sun Also Rises, but of all of the films made from the novel the best is probably the 1957 film directed by Henry King with Ava Gardner as Lady Brett Ashley. The film has several fine performances including that of Gardner, and there is a lot of love for the setting and bullfights of the novel in its depiction of Spain and of bullfights and bullrings.

While it is certainly not perfect, stripping away much of the depth and emotion of the novel, the 1957 film is my favorite adaptation for reasons mostly connected to my failing as a viewer rather than any inherent success of the film itself. For starters, the movie is old and there are scenes that seem to be quite trite today. But even taking all of that into account, I find that the 1957 adaptation of Sun is, hands down, the best movie version of the book.

Violet · Answer

No movie ever captures all the right tones and psychological complexity of ‘The Sun Also Rises’. The novel is so highly a vocal, verbal thing, the page so precisely the voice of Jake, or of Brett, and the masses of the other minor figures in the group: it is a dialogue, a written voice, of all the laziest and most ritualistic humans. But most copies of the book must contain accurate photographs of the locations, the uniformed, variously spruced teams of functionaries, all Catholic white Spanish hosts, triumphant officers, line the way of Jake and his friends going to and returning from Pamplona, rousing Bullfights, the Estafeta Procession. And as for Brett: wonderful, waif-like Ava Gardner of the 1957 film.

While the movie does eventually reduce the novel to a standard melodrama, the exterior locations and the other famous episodes from the book are brought vividly to life. I especially enjoy the film’s sensory evocation of location and event, i.e., the heat, Brett’s purple garment, the Pamplona pilgrimages, etc. Meanwhile, Jake, an unremittingly wounded and indeed glum figure in the novel, is transformed into an attractive hero of romantic comedy. As such, I am happy to return to the film every now and then to experience once again its enthralling location and the wonderful performances of its actors; yet at the same time, each time I return to the book, I have the added experience of so much more complexity and so much more interiority as well.

Violet · Answer

As mentioned previously, my method of measuring film is determined by two factors: 1) how accurately the film recreated the original work, and 2) whether or not the film worked as a standalone film. In this case, the 1957 version of The Sun Also Rises works best.

It’s a movie and thus they necessarily have to suggest the inner life of the characters through their casting choices and the mise-en-scène. So while Ava Gardner is far from ambiguous as Brett in the film, she is somewhat more accessible to viewers unfamiliar with the novel than Hemingway’s Brett on the page. The scenes at the bullfights and the movie’s various locations in Spain are, of course, terrific, and as a first screen adaptation of the novel they have the added virtue of being a movie with a story and plenty of spectacle. But ultimately the film relies on the novel for its emotional scenes and so some of the delicate nuances of the male relationships and Jake’s impotence are sacrificed for a more grown-up movie. Still, it is a fine film with charm, plenty of tension and some wonderful scenes.

Sadie · Answer

A late-night viewing favorite of mine is the 1957 film version by Henry King of The Sun Also Rises, a barely adequate adaptation of Hemingway’s lean novel.

First of all, Ava Gardner’s Brett is pure cinema, pure light on screen. And then there is Tyrone Power’s aching Jake Barnes. Very sexy men both of them, but vulnerable as well. Very human, all of them, including Mel Ferrer and the rest of the cast. And yes, it’s all set in lovelies locations, mainly Spain, with some super fiestas and amazing bullfighting. I know some of the book’s chapters are either toned down or just not there at all, for obvious reasons ( censorship in the 1950s, for starters), but you can see so clearly the human emotions and physical sensations the other attempt at this couldn’t get across. That must have had a lot to do with the sensational casting.

This is a great adaptation of the novel to capture the atmosphere better than the words. As an imperfect but human effort to translate the late writer’s hallmark of restraint into images of human expressions and body language, I can come back to this over and over again. The film’s score swells in certain scenes to make me feel that mixture of excitement and pain that The Sun Also Rises so uniquely conveys.

Eva · Answer

My vote for best would go to the 1957 film, made with a greater budget and featuring top-notch actors. It captured the main scenes from the book, did a fair job of portraying the action in Pamplona and the idle lives of the lost generation in Paris, and was slickly made in a style which should appeal to fans of the author’s writing style.

Out of all the movie versions of The Sun Also Rises, I think I would choose the 1957 version for a viewer to watch and compare to the book. The film does a great job in capturing Brett’s character and all the scenes where the characters are watching bullfights. There are parts where I felt that the book was more in depth with the characters and their situations but that is part of what makes The Sun Also Rises such a great novel. That and the duality between the two is what keeps drawing me back to both the novel and the film.

Peyton · Answer

Pick a comfy chair—here's my take in plain terms. I think it would be pretty hard to make a modern definitive film of The Sun Also Rises. The best attempt at a film of The Sun Also Rises is probably the 1957 studio version. It’s a rather old film, shot in rather old-fashioned style, but it does make a pretty good roman a clef of 1950s Hollywood. It has Brett, and the bullfights, but it leaves out a lot of the less palatable aspects of the novel, and most of the close, intimate characterization that makes the book so powerful.

I would watch the 1957 film version of The Sun Also Rises when I want to see a feel-good, glossy romance that includes Brett and the bullfights, rather than a navel-gazing, sorely humane novel by Hemingway. It’s a great film for a specific mood: dimly-lit, smoky-pub-like bars, endlessly blue and sunny Mediterranean landscape, style vs. substance, doomed, yearning love. The film is a close cousin to the novel, but not as complete. So while it’s not better than the book, it’s a good alternative for that type of movie.

Bria · Answer

Sometimes I am in agreement with my friends when we have a bottle of red wine and decide that the best version of The Sun Also Rises is the 1957 Hollywood film with Ava Gardner as Lady Brett. First of all the film exists as a very polished production and is a lot of fun to watch. Gardner carries Brett’s smoky half-broken up, sexy, charismatic quality perfectly in the film. The locations of sun-drenched Spain and crazy bull-fighting, and the handsome, languid, beautifully dressed expatriates in the bars of Paris are all wonderfully brought to life in the film. Most of the best moments of the book are translated extremely well to the screen. The sun-scorched,dirty, dusty feel of the running of the bulls in Pamplona is there. The sun-drenched, deserted and smoky bars and nightclubs where the wealthy and beautiful expatriates spend their time are all there and Gardner and the male leads in particular have wonderful chemistry in the film.

The book has a lot more complexity than the film and it does deal with a lot of subtext especially in regards to the topic of impotence and the post-war generation. As far as a leading man for Jake goes, I think Tyrone Power did a fine job but he is not by any means Hemingway’s Jake. A lot of the story in the book revolves around Jake’s internal struggles and thought processes. In many ways, his inner monologue is the story of the novel. This is definitely not the kind of thing that can be easily translated to film but the 1957 version does a fine job of getting across the story of The Sun Also Rises as it was meant to be seen: as a spectacle of a group of expatriate Americans running wild in the sun. The movie is a lot of fun and looks especially great in terms of its depiction of sun-drenched Spain and the indulgent, crazy partying of the characters. As far as someone who reads the book and then often watches the movie as a sort of companion piece, I have to say that the novel is far more complex and, for my money, far crueler.

Darl Josie Vargas · Answer

I would love to see a biopic about the lost generation year that Hemingway spent in Paris as opposed to another straight adaptation of one of his novels. Midnight in Paris gave us a taste of that era but it could be so much grittier and more dramatic. One could really get to know the models for the characters in the novel, witness their writer-ness, their antics, and their amours. The book The Sun Also Rises is so extremely autobiographical in feeling. Maybe what I’m wanting in these other adaptations is the insight into the reality behind the fictional work of this author, the messiness of his life which fueled the writing of his novels. How that would work would be an interesting watch for me as opposed to more attempts to render his novels into good films.

Tok · Answer

There’s accessibility and then there’s practical accessibility for someone who’s new to Van Gogh’s story. While the 1957 version is still the best easily accessible introduction to Van Gogh’s life as artist and human being, in beautifully restored prints on several streaming services, the 1984 version, and 2022 Netflix film can be much harder to find, even to rent on DVD or on sketchy YouTube uploads. My view for someone looking to get a new sense of Van Gogh’s life is to start with the easiest to access version – the 1957 film. Is it the best artistically? Debatable. The restored print version is a complete and polished if somewhat simplified version of the artist’s life. But it’s the best for new comers in terms of access. Sometimes the ‘best’ version to watch is the one you can actually watch.

Amy Schenck · Answer

I haven't seen any of these yet but the book is one of my to read list. Are any of these any good to watch instead of reading the book or should I just read the book first?

Lucy · Answer

Imagine a bad adaptation of The Sun Also Rises by Wes Anderson. He’d do it with all sorts of symmetrical shots, totally matter-of-fact dialogue, and the clothes would look fabulous, I’m sure. But there would be no good reason to do a version of The Sun Also Rises as a film, and so this would be a very bad film indeed. I imagine Bill Murray as Bill Gorton. Fine.

Wole Tubosun · Answer

Wait, there is a new version of this 2022 release on Netflix that I was unaware of. It probably isn’t any good and is one of those ‘modern retelling’ that misses the point of the story entirely. From the look of the trailer it appears to be a run of the mill party movie type of thing.

Nicolle Pete · Answer

I really like this Netflix re-imagining from 2022, not because it’s an improvement on the original (it’s not), but because it’s brave enough to have asked itself “what if this had happened this way now?”. For me the best part of this is the performer’s take on Brett as an Instagram influencer. That is very clever and accurately maps modern performance to the so-called ‘influencer’ generation. Jake in this version is a war journalist, still damaged by his experiences in conflict. This aimless young man’s party tour of exotic locations is now a well traveled digital nomad/ twentysomething expat. His anarchy, self-indulgence and search for meaning, amongst excess, is all delivered clearly, and in a way that I believe Hemingway himself would not have written (and would possibly despise). But then that’d not be aimed at the original’s rarefied niche and would be an excellent standalone drama instead.

What Is The Best Film Adaptation Of The Sun Also Rises?

14 Answers

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