THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO - A CLASSIC MOVIE REVIEW - IMMORTAL 'PAPA' HEMINGWAY

The Snows of Kilimanjaro -   A Classic Movie Review - Immortal  'PAPA'  Hemingway

     

     

              

The writer is a huge, huge fan of Ernest Miller Hemingway. If you ask me, there is no other writer in this entire universe like Hemingway – popularly known as “Papa” Hemingway - who influenced me. There are 1952 and 2011 versions of movies based on Hemingway’s 23-page work “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”. This story of Hemingway is an autobiographical literary masterpiece. When I talk about Hemingway my throat sores with emotions and the heart pounding in my mouth. Hemingway is such a phenomenon who finds instant cult figure status.

I have decided to write a review of the movie “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” which was produced in 1952 Hemingway’s role immortalized by Gregory Peck, the tall handsome, rough, and rugged “Papa” Hemingway best suited for a big game hunter, a bullfighter or an army man rather than a frail novelist or a writer. Gregory Peck, the Prince Charming lifts the role with his own controlled aggression, poise, and poignant caricature.

 

 
The wounded writer Harry Street (Gregory Peck) after an African safari hunting adventure nursing his deeply wounded leg blood soaked through the bandage and attracting the birds (vultures) in his campsite at the height of snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro attended by his wife Helen (Susan Hayward) and a team of African attendants.

 
The opening paragraph of the literature is copied in the movie which goes like this –


“Kilimanjaro is a snow-covered mountain 19,710 feet high and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called ‘Nagaje, Ngai’ the House of God. Close to the western summit, is a leopard's dried and frozen carcass. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude.”

 
 

This was the riddle or puzzle the dying father of Harry who was well-built and a hunter, trekker and adventurous traveler himself handed out to him.


Harry Street through his agonies stint recalls his life’s other two women in flashback. In pursuit of all three, he has traveled the globe from the salons of Bohemian Paris to the battlefields of Spain to the plains of Africa. Now in the shadow of the great mountain and his own approaching death from gangrene. Gangrene is a potentially life-threatening condition that happens when body tissue dies.

 
Harry Street was lying on his deathbed, in a cot, at the camp under a mimosa tree and as he looked up there were three vultures squatted on them and a dozen flew across above the trees leaving their shadow on him. He yells for whisky and soda to escape from the pain and the odor that the blood-soaked wound discharges.

 

 

Harry in his autobiographical life of writing, big game hunting, and women in love with him glances through a series of flashbacks. His first love Cynthia (Ava Gardner) finds him not ready to settle down and enjoy wildlife adventures and leaves him and one day she meets with her death. However, Harry could not forget his first love and pondered with the memories of her.

The second love, a filthy rich countess finds him not in her clasp of Octopussy and tantrums and loses him. The adventure-seeking Harry did not have any problem whatsoever to abandon her.

The third one is Helen to whom he gets married and starts his life’s journey with her. She was a kind and nice person always motivating Harry to cling on to his life and fight his wounds. She serves him soup and dresses his wounds after denying him whisky and soda which would have given him only a temporary reprieve. A devoted wife nurses him well gives him courage to fight for life and makes him wish for God's gift the invaluable treasure of life.

 

  

In one of the sequences, an oracle and black magician performs the native African rituals to cure Harry with pieces of bones and skull and bite carrots, and finally, an irritated Harry drives him away.


Helen along with their African servants are hoping to see a private jet that will land on their campsite to rescue the wounded Harry and her to America.

 

 

In another horrifying sequence a hyena smells the odor of Harry’s wound and almost attacks him in the lighted tent if not just in time Helen suddenly wakes up from the vigil and shouts and scares the animal away along with camp inmates.

 

 

The film has excellent cinematography and best art direction. The movie is a classic and survived the period of 72 years after its release. It is still a major attraction to moviegoers. The romantic, sentimental, qualities embedded in the fine script are driven home by the background score. Harry shooting African wildlife with his camera amid grave danger is eye candy. The script has done justice to the literary masterpiece and makes the movie a compelling viewing.

Gregory Peck is charming and lifts the role with consummate ease. Both Ava Gardner and Susan Hayward have done justice to their characters.


The hunting and war sequences have been brilliantly photographed and the African safari is an eye-pleasing sight.

 

 

IMMORTAL “PAPA”   Hemingway

Before you act, listen.

Before you react, think.

Before you spend, earn.

Before you criticize, wait.

Before you pray, forgive.

Before you quit, try.

        -            Earnest Hemingway

                       

              

This twenty-three pages sketch of life written by Hemingway and the great literature it produced is marvelous. It is the American writer Hemingway’s forte to caricature human life in a simple yet brilliant and inimitable style. The Nobel Prize winner author had many imitators but no parallel. He wrote in an extremely unique, concise style to create an unparalleled masterpiece. He utilized a notably typical style to write his books which was highly ostracized by the writer community in his times. However, the students of literature over time found him a genius and possessing unmatchable talent.

 
The timeless movie gives a spectacular eye treat and lingers in the minds of moviegoers, an experience not faded away and remains an all-time classic.