Aventures de jeunesse

1st watched 2/6/2010 - 7 out of 10 (Dir-Martin Ritt): Well executed drama about the life of a young man and how he became an adult thru his various experiences. The movie is based on some of Earnest Hemingway's stories and is somewhat autobiographical(which it seems like most of his stuff is). Anyway, this one is about a 19-year old boy named Nick Adams, played by Richard Beymer of West Side Story fame, who runs away from home in an attempt to get to New York and become a newspaper writer. He has no idea what he's getting into but he knows his experiences will help him somehow be what he wants to be. He eventually makes it there(after a couple of adventures with various characters), but is turned down by the newspaper companies saying he needs more experience of the work and life kind. He then ends up volunteering for the Italian army as an ambulance driver(mostly for the life experience but also because a pretty girl initiates the request) and gets more than he ever expected. People die near him, he falls in love and loses her to death, he gets wounded and all of the sudden you have a very experienced man by the time it's all over. The acting is first-rate throughout the whole movie and the direction is perfect for the story -- letting us follow it without too much added un-necessary touches. It's done very simply without much of a soundtrack either making it like we're watching life unfold before our eyes. The story overall is not that uplifting but it's real -- which is usually pretty hand to find in American productions. An overall very well made movie that keeps you interested throughout with many well laid-out characters on this Hemingway story turned to film.

Hemingway's Adventure's Of A Young Man was still in the making when word of Papa Hemngway's suicide broke on the world. We'll never know what he would have thought of this film, he was not fond of most of the films done from his work. In fact since it's initial release, this film has not been exhibited too often for some reason.

The film is based on Hemingway protagonist Nick Adams and his coming of age as an ambulance driver in World War I. Ernest Hemingway's first experience with love and death came during those years when he was serving on the Italian front in their army as an ambulance driver. Watching this film you'll see the origins of the stories in The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell To Arms.

Hemingway's sparse style has always really been difficult to capture on film and the same is true here. Richard Beymer is the callow Nick Adams who is from a small town in rural Michigan which even today is as rural as you can get in the USA. Beymer does his best, but the part seems to have been tailor made for the late James Dean had he only lived. Hemingway's Adventures Of A Young Man would have been a well remembered classic with Dean in the title role.

The rest of the cast has some well placed cameos along Beymer's journey of life. Juano Hernandez and Paul Newman play a trainer and a long past his prime boxer who Beymer meets while bumming it to New York. This rarest of Newman films affords his fans a chance to see him in something totally different than anything he ever did before or since. Newman had done The Battler for a television film based on that particular Nick Adams story, but this is still a revelation.

In war Beymer's two closest companions are Ricardo Montalban his commanding officer and Eli Wallach as his interpreter/orderly. They will also be memorable as will Susan Strassberg in whom the origin of Catherine Barkley from A Farewell To Arms is found.

As they do with just about all film adaptations Hemingway purists will find fault with this film, but Hemingway's Adventures Of A Young Man will give one a good introduction to what was the origin of Papa.

Beautifully produced version of Hemingway's saga of his early journey towards manhood. Amazing supporting cast is a mix of veterans and rising talent of the time with assured direction. The entire cast does well but there are a few standouts. Paul Newman does good character work as a punch drunk has-been boxer, Eli Wallach has some fun with his conscripted soldier and Arthur Kennedy offers his usual thoughtful work as the lead's goodhearted but dominated father. Also kept an eye out for a blink and you'll miss her appearance by Sharon Tate in her screen bow.

The problem lies in Richard Beymer in the lead. He's not bad but he's just sort of there lacking the charisma to anchor such a pageant over its extended running time. Someone with the ability to hold the camera's gaze is needed, either Steve McQueen or Albert Finney who were the proper age at the time would have been better casting. As it stands the film is good but missing the key element that would have made it more.

A naive young from Middle America named Nick Adams , Ernest's pseudonym : Richard Beymer undertakes a voyage to learn about vital experiences . He asks for a job as a reporter at a known newspaper but he is rejected . He then gets a job as a barman and at a drafting convention takes a decisive decision . In order to get some life adventures he decides to join the armed forces during WWI. As he was drafted into the Italian Army as a Lieutenant. Eventually , he falls in love for a beautiful girl : Susan Strasberg , who meets and heals him after being injured .Young Man in a Hungry Hurry . For the young men of all generations .. and the young women who love them..

This is a semi-self-biography of the great and restless adventurer writer from his rural Michigan to the Italian front . Along the way he grows to camaraderie, manhood , comradeship and friendship . Richatd Beymer gives an acceptable acting as the stubborn , inmature young who embarks on an eventful cross-country trip and subsequently enlisted in the Italian front against the Austrian army , as an ambulante driver .Support cast is frankly magnificent such as : Arthur Kennedy as an upright but weak father , Jessica Tandy as domineering mother , Paul Newman as a deformed and punch-drunk boxer , Joaquin Martínez as his coach , James Dunn as a likeable telegrapher , Dan Dailey as a drunken advert-man for a burlesque show run by Fred Clark , Corinne Calvet as a Countessa , Elly Wallach as a soldier colleague and Ricardo Montalban as an Italian General, among others.

Thus thoughtful motion picture was well directed by Martin Ritt . This great director was an expert on well-crafted dramas , such as : Stanley and Iris , Nut , Norma Rae , The Front , The sound and the Fury , Black Orchid . Although he also made other genres, including films as The Spy who came in from Cold , The Great White Hope , Mafia. And he worked with Paul Newman in three Westerns : Hombre , Hud , Outrage and this one in which he plays splendidly a beaten boxer. Rating 7/10 . Better than average . Notable

This film attempts to compile all or most of Hemingway's Nick Adams stories into one complete whole. The effect is a coming of age story that ends on a bitter/semi-sweet note. Along the way you see a series of stories populated by well known actors and actresses.

There is a sequence that reminds one of Farewell to Arms (wounded ambulance driver falls in love with nurse, who eventually dies in his arms).

There is the overbearing, controlling, religious mother and the anguished father (who eventually takes his own life).

There is the hard boiled newspaper editor, who gives sound hard boiled advice.

I liked the movie, but I am unsure whether I would recommend it to someone else.