The Snows of Kilimanjaro

source: The Snows of Kilimanjaro

First, I found this movie, like most here, boring. Mainly a Susan fan, but i found her role was almost secondary to Ava's. I think Ava's part was more complex. I could not imagine why Susan chose to be in this one at all, until I read somewhere that she only accepted this role, cause Hedy Lamarr, her pal, was to play the Ava role, but Hedy turned it down, mainly cause of salary dispute. Hedy was in demand at that time because of her big comeback in "Samson And Delilah". Unfortunately, Susan had to go through her commitment. Aside from that, I felt that the flashbacks were intrusive to the story line, and so I got lost along the way. BTW, Peck looked bored as well.

Boring, talkative movie, too long, over-acted movie with dull camera work about a wounded, but dull Hemingway-like writer yakking away in an African plain, remembering his dead first wife, while fighting off death. Half way through you are yelling, "Die Already." When the Hyena shows up, you are hoping that the beast eats the bore. Nobody shines in this movie. Peck is awful. Gardner's character is a cliché. Hayward isn't even interesting. King's direction is stuck in the mud. Big budget bloated bore.

if hemingway was really like this portrayal of him i have to wonder what i saw in his books as a young man. i am sure the makers wished to show him, as harry street, as a tormented man who, at the end of his days, lies questioning his life's direction, but they end up presenting the protagonist as a completely self-involved and puerile victim of testosterone o.d. whining his way thru a gangrenous fever. i can't believe this is the way hemingway thought of himself or wanted to be remembered. i always have some trouble with a film if i absolutely cannot identify with someone in it to some little degree. there was no one in this film to carry the load, no one that didn't strike me as so egocentrically self-involved and somehow wounded by 'fate' that i could even begin to feel a shred of empathy or understanding for them. the performances are wooden when not histrionic. i gave it a five because i did like the mountain.