Themes: Existential Crisis, Haunted By the Past, Home From the War
Main Cast: Tyrone Power, Ava Gardner, Mel Ferrer, Errol Flynn, Eddie Albert
Release Year: 1957
Country: US
Run Time: 129 minutes
Plot
For its time, The Sun Also Rises was a reasonably frank and faithful adaptation of the 1926 Ernest Hemingway novel. Its main concession to Hollywood formula was the casting of star players who were all too old to convincingly portray Hemingway's "Lost Generation" protagonists. Tyrone Power heads the cast as American news correspondent Jake Barnes, who, after incurring a injury in WW I that has rendered him impotent, relocates to Paris to escape his troubles. Barnes links up with several other lost souls, including the nymphomaniacal Lady Brett Ashley (Ava Gardner), irresponsible drunkard Mike Campbell (Errol Flynn) and perennial hangers-on Robert Cohn (Mel Ferrer) and Bill Gorton (Eddie Albert). In their never-ending search for new thrills, Barnes and his cohorts trundle off to Spain, where they participate in the annual Pamplona bull run and act as unofficial "sponsors" of handsome young matador Pedro Romero (played by future film executive Robert Evans). Additionally, Lady Brett pursues a romance with Jake, despite her engagement to the dissolute Campbell. Filmed on location in Pamplona, Paris, Biarritz and Mexico, The Sun Also Rises was budgeted at $5 million; like many "big" pictures of the era, it tended to be hollow and draggy at times. The film's best performance is delivered by Errol Flynn, though it can be argued that, in taking on the role of the hedonistic, hard-drinking, burned-out Mike Campbell, he was merely playing himself. A vastly inferior version of The Sun Also Rises was produced for television in 1984. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Mark-Lee Kirk - Art Director, Lyle Wheeler - Art Director, Miguel M. Delgado - Consultant/advisor, Charles LeMaire - Costume Designer, Fontana Sisters - Costume Designer, Henry King - Director, William Mace - Editor, Alexander Courage - Composer (Music Score), Hugo W. Friedhofer - Composer (Music Score), Lionel Newman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Ramon Hernandez - Musical Direction/Supervision, Jack Obringer - Makeup, Leo Tover - Cinematographer, Darryl F. Zanuck - Producer, Paul S. Fox - Set Designer, Walter Scott - Set Designer, Jack Stubbs - Set Designer, Peter Viertel - Screenwriter, Ernest Hemingway - Book Author
