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.

I can understand how this movie can compile a variety of feelings, pro and con. I had to really think about how to rate this film and where to go in my review of it. Sometimes a film does not require a linear story to make its point, nor does it require a definitive plot. In the case of this lavishly filmed study of Hemingway's semi-autobiographical stories, I drew my inspiration for my feelings towards it from my love for stories that simply give us slices of life. Richard Beymer, an actor who I felt has been mostly maligned in reviews I've read, gives what I consider a truly admirable performance as Nick Adams, a handsome young man desperate to find himself after rather rough beginning. That is because of the contrast of his parents-an extremely religious, but basically unloving mother (Jessica Tandy) and a weak-willed, hen-pecked father (Arthur Kennedy) who has given him the only love he's ever known. Tandy's performance is brilliant because she shows the hypocrisy of a woman so into God that she's forgotten about humanity, and Kennedy is outstanding because he shows a man so filled with love that God's grace shines over him, not his unknowingly empty-hearted wife. The son cherishes his father but silently wishes he would open his eyes to the emptiness of love in their home. This causes him to decide to go out into the world and seek life elsewhere.Out in the world, Beymer encounters an interesting group of eccentrics, finds himself closer to God when he becomes an Ambulance driver in Italy during World War I, and finally returns home to confront the truth about his family. The cast is filled with many famous names in cameos. I did not recognize Paul Newman at all (!) as the mentally challenged prizefighter. He gives a truthful performance, and is wisely supported by Juano Hernandez. Two former leading men of 20th Century Fox's history (James Dunn and Dan Dailey) come on to give little bits of Americana; Dunn as a wise telegraph operator, and Dailey as an alcoholic vaudevillian. In Italy, there are some brilliant performances by Eli Wallach and Ricardo Montalban who provide some wonderful human moments of kindness in a horrible situation. Susan Strasberg, as Beymer's Italian love interest, is excellent.The conclusion is a tragic revelation that explodes into a major confrontation between Beymer and Tandy, and brings the story full circle. What has transpired in this circle is that Beymer left his small Michigan town a young man and came back fully grown up determined to seek his own ideal of what his destiny is. This is a lushly filmed epic with a beautiful music score and a haunting message that will touch those who open their hearts to find it. Those who only know Beymer from his rather wooden performance in "West Side Story" will find him more engaging here, playing a role that Montgomery Clift might have been played a decade before.

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.

Susan Strausberg at her best. The story is taken directly from Ernest Hemmingways's life. Nick Adams plays Ernest.Music by Franz Waxman is excellent. Jessica Tandy great performance. Arthur Kennedy is great as well. Paul Newman, don't know why he did this part, but I admire his risking, to allow us to see him, stupid and ugly.I learned a lot from this film, as I was growing up in the Midwest and understood the coming of age agony. "Splender in the Grass" goes well with this type of film, as they are the wounded human soul, and its power to withstand all pain, and be transformed into a hero. The price of wisdom is your innocence, as always.I have seen this film 30 times and still enjoy its charming bitter sweet story. BRAVO Ernest.