elvircorhodzic
THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO is one skillful combination between African sensationalism, human melodrama and vivid acting. A film that does not capture the quality, but the story of a writer and his hostility against life is pretty interesting. As a writer lies wounded and dazed in an African camp at the foot of the snowy slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, remembers events from his own life, returning to the past. Writing, women and hunting determined his life. In pursuit of them traveled the world of salons of bohemian Paris, the Spanish battlefields to the African plains. Now, in the shadow of the great mountain and impending death due to gangrene, trying to make sense of his life's failures.The main hero is presented in different states and moods. Despite solid well realized flashbacks, it's really hard to determine what state of mind is the real thing. Love intrigues and personal disappointment as the main character pushed into despair and depression. It is fascinating to see three different romance that eventually come to the same - disappointment. Exactly how much the hero respects himself. The protagonist does not like any of his wives. Simply, women are need. Now, all of a sudden he punishes himself for his mistakes in the past, although it is next to him a woman who truly loves him. It's a bit confusing, vague and unconvincing. However, the pictures stimulate and fascinate. Therefore, African mountains, isolation, pain, sadness and emotion have a special charm. Gregory Peck as Harry Street is temperamental writer who is lost in a melancholy mood. This situation also leads to some critical melancholia and depression. Performance of Mr. Peck is pretty solid, but I really bothered by the fact that his appearance in the film does not change. Ava Gardner as Cynthia Green is beautiful. One impulsive character but her role is unclear. Susan Hayward as Helen is the wife who is cold and gentle at the same time. Both with a reason.I will boast of the music, because it makes sense.In this film has plenty of action and romance.
ElMaruecan82
I'm ashamed to admit it, but I've never read Ernest Hemingway, I saw film adaptations, I'm familiar with Hemingway's tumultuous and adventurous life, his body of work, his monumental legacy on the field of literature, and it's out of respect to the writer, and to the Man, with a major M, that I start this review with a confession. If there is one thing I learned from Hemingway, and which "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" clearly states, is that no one should speak about what he doesn't know. I could use Wikipedia to establish some parallels between Gregory Peck's character as novelist Harry Street and Ernest Hemingway, about all the biographical elements of the story, but how could that ever replace the 'reading' experience?I've never been such a purist and if I had to read all the books before their adaptations, it would never end. But now, it fits both the author's and the film's spirits, which is that writing is not a profession, it's a condition, a choice a man makes to be the privileged witness of his world and sharing it with passion, understanding and humanism. You can call it 'existentialism', it might be even simpler than that, let's just call it honesty and sincerity. No one who hasn't faced the atrocities of war can ever write about death, no one who has ever lived an unfulfilled passion can write about love; no one who hasn't been jailed can write about freedom, no one who hasn't traveled around the world can ever give a universal dimension to his oeuvre. And when Harry decides to become a writer, the only encouragement he gets from his Uncle Bill (superbly portrayed by Leo G. Carroll) is a shotgun, to go hunting. It's only in hunting that a man can find the meanings of life and death, of danger and heroism, they don't mean anything special when you got them, but their lack is hugely insufferable. This is why 'Hunting' is what a writer's life should be in microcosm, a sort of quest to find a meaning that might never be given, a thirst to discover every place in the world, to challenge life and succumb to any of its temptations: drinks, women, lust without abandoning such male virtues as courage and responsibility, before finally extracting from experiences stories' raw material. And the film opens with Harry's voice-over exposing what is perhaps the greatest enigma of life: "Kilimanjaro is a snow-covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude."Thankfully, we never get the explanation. The riddle is only a metaphor about finding our own truth, by reaching the ultimate limit of our efforts. And as the movie opens, we find Harris, suffering from a thorn prick, his infected leg attracting both vultures and hyenas. The disillusioned Harris, with his girlfriend Helen played by Susan Hayward, contemplates what seems to be a true failure, for his efforts never allowed him to become the accomplished writer he dreamed to be, the 'leopard in the summit'.For the sake of adventures, he abandoned the premise of family life with Cynthia Nixon, played by Ava Gardner in a performance all in sensitivity and emotion, contrasting with her adventurous and wisecracking attitude in "Mogambo". And after Cynthia, it's a cold but sexy European rich lady who introduced him to all the artistic European elite, anyway, Harris obviously lost his track and tried to find it out by reaching Cynthia who became an inaccessible Holy Grail, replacing an unclear dream, but ironically guiding him to a perilous trip during Spain's Civil War, before meeting Helen in Paris, the setting of his romance with Cynthia.Peck's performance is wooden and deliberately cynical, like a man who doesn't think much of himself, but it succeeds in embodying the tragedy of someone who never exactly knew himself, where he stood for, and perhaps, that is the worst failure an adventurer writer can ever make: becoming an intellectual malcontent. On his deathbed, his Uncle doesn't talk much about hunting but rather leaves him the Kilimanjaro riddle, implicitly acknowledging that it's up to each one of us to meet with our destiny, and to understand our world, according to our own sensitivity. "The Snows of Kilimandjaro" raise very important question that might hit sensitive chords in the hearts of wannabe artists, but it also helps to embrace life in a more mature way, what is it that we seek: success? money? Harris got them but he lost self-respect. Love and passion? Sometimes, they can undermine the very road to destiny, but lacking them is even worse. We all have to find out the remedy of our own existential malaise and pray for that they wouldn't be worse than the evil.On a more personal level, I learned from the film that only experience forges conscience and only conscience can guide the words the closest to truth. I love to write, but I never wrote anything significant in my life, however, I've never wrote as well as when I narrated my trip to the Toubkal, which is the second highest mountain in Africa. I could describe the effect the wind had on my eyes, the sensation of feet being mired into the freezing snow, and the exhilaration of being on the top of the mountain. I could because I lived it, and no one could get that experience off me.And oddly enough it was before I ever knew about that riddle, that I concluded the story with a quote from another significant author of XXthe century, Khalil Jibran who seemed to have his own answer to the Kilmanjaro riddle… and to life."…when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb"
Armand
nice adaptation, inspired cast, beautiful images. but after decades, only thing real important is good intention. because the film seems be long story, too long, about nothing. the rhythm is slow, the gestures - ash of snow. and the feelings is to view a kind of Casablanca. Cizen Kane copy. sure, it is difficult to say than it is bad but it is vapid. or only good instrument to remember great names of cinema. but is it enough ? after its end, the impression is strange. a so praised movie and you are unhappy ? a unique adaptation and you expect more ? a so clever story and you do not a brilliant remark ? it is not reasonable. but, this is truth. old lance. and boring moments. and a lot of good intentions. a trip in past. and, sure, slices of a legendary title.
