In Love and War *** (1996, Sandra Bullock, Chris O’Donnell, Mackenzie Astin) – Classic Movie Review 3395

Chris O’Donnell is nice but lacks fire and steel as reporter-ambulance driver-author Ernest Hemingway, though Sandra Bullock fares better as feisty Agnes von Kurowsky, the nurse who looks after him after being wounded in World War One. While risking his life as an ambulance driver in war-torn Italy, Hemingway is injured and ends up in hospital, where he falls in love with his nurse, Agnes.

Producer-director Richard Attenborough’s handsome, costly 1996 romantic biopic may not be very exciting, informative or dynamic though it is nicely produced, civilised, literate and well meaning.

The sluggish pace and unrevealing script are the main faults, but the movie is attractively shot by Roger Pratt and scored by George Fenton, and smartly dressed by production designer Stuart Craig. The screen story is by co-producer Dmitri Villard and Allan Scott, and the screenplay is by Scott, Anna Hamilton Phelan and Clancy Sigal, based on the book by Henry S Villard and James Nagel.

Mackenzie Astin as Henry Villard, Margot Steinberg, Ingrid Lacey, Terence Sach and Doreen Mantle are also in the cast.

This film is dedicated to Henry ‘Harry’ S Villard… 1900-1996 … In Loving Memory.’ He was a volunteer ambulance driver for the Red Cross in Italy in 1918 who came down with malaria and jaundice at the same time Hemingway was wounded and the two became close friends in the Red Cross hospital in Milan. He was the father of producer and writer Dmitri Villard.

The helpful prologue states: ‘This film is based on a true story . . . Northern Italy 1918. Here, during the final year of World War One, Italy was defending itself alone against a massive Austrian invasion. America was one of Italy’s allies but the US Army was already fully committed in France. So President Wilson sent in teams of Red Cross doctors and nurses to boost Italian morale and help care for the wounded. Young men across America responded to the President’s call for further volunteers to drive red Cross ambulances and work in the front line canteens.’

The equally helpful closing credit runs: ‘Agnes von Kurowsky’s long and distinguished career with the American Red Cross continued until the end of World War Two. She remained unmarried until she was 36 and lived to be 92. Ernest Hemingway won the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature in 1954. One of his great novels, A Farewell to Arms, was inspired by his experiences in Italy during World War One. He married four times and took his own life in 1961.’

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3395

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