''The Sun Also Rises'' is a 1984 television miniseries adaptation of

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...

's 1926 novel ''

The Sun Also Rises ''The Sun Also Rises'' is a 1926 novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, his first, that portrays American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the b ...

''.

Hart Bochner Hart Matthew Bochner (born October 3, 1956) is a Canadian actor, film director, screenwriter and producer. He has appeared in films such as ''Breaking Away'' (1979), ''Terror Train'' (1980), '' Rich and Famous'' (1981), '' The Wild Life'' (1984), ...

Jane Seymour Jane Seymour (c. 150824 October 1537) was Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII of England from their marriage on 30 May 1536 until her death the next year. She became queen following the execution of Henry's second wife, Anne ...

Robert Carradine Robert Reed Carradine ( ; born March 24, 1954) is an American actor. A member of the Carradine family, he made his first appearances on television Western series such as ''Bonanza'' and his brother David's TV series, '' Kung Fu''. Carradine's fi ...

Ian Charleson Ian Charleson (11 August 1949 – 6 January 1990) was a Scottish stage and film actor. He is best known internationally for his starring role as Olympic athlete and missionary Eric Liddell in the Oscar-winning 1981 film '' Chariots of Fire''. ...

and

Leonard Nimoy Leonard Simon Nimoy (; March 26, 1931 – February 27, 2015) was an American actor, famed for playing Spock in the '' Star Trek'' franchise for almost 50 years. This includes originating Spock in the original ''Star Trek'' series in 1966, th ...

have starring roles. It aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

on Sunday, December 9, and Monday, December 10, from 9–11 pm.

Plot

American

expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...

s journalist Jake Barnes (

), war veteran Bill Gorton (

Željko Ivanek Željko Ivanek (né Šimić-Ivanek; ; ; born August 15, 1957) is an American actor, known for his role as Ray Fiske on '' Damages'', for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award. Ivanek is also known for his role of Ed Danvers on '' Homicide: Life on ...

), and novelist/boxer Robert Cohn (

), take advantage of the Paris night life. Barnes meets former paramour Lady Brett Ashley (

) who is about to divorce her husband to marry Scotsman Mike Campbell (

). Barnes' attraction to Ashley causes him to follow her movements and Gorton and Cohn follow as Cohn becomes enamored as well. Ashley expresses continuing interest in open relations. The group ventures to see bullfighting in Pamplona, Spain, where Ashley develops an appetite for matador Pedro Romero (

Andrea Occhipinti Andrea Occhipinti (born 12 September 1957) is an Italian film producer and distributor. He is the founder of Rome-based film company Lucky Red. Since 1987 he has distributed and produced international independent films, introducing Italian audien ...

). Cohn pummels Romero upon discovering her latest conquest although it does not impress Ashley. A bruised Romero enters the bullring as the curtains come down.

Cast

as Jake Barnes *

as Brett Ashley *

as Robert Cohn *

as Bill Gorton *

as Mike Campbell *

as Count Mippipopolous *

Stéphane Audran Stéphane Audran (born Colette Suzanne Dacheville; 8 November 1932 – 27 March 2018) was a French actress. She was known for her performances in award-winning films such as ''The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie'' (1972) and ''Babette's Feast'' ...

as Georgette *

as Pedro Romero *Élisabeth Bourgine as Nicole *Hutton Cobb as Chaz * Jennifer Hilary as Frances Clyne *Arch Taylor as Lew Braddocks *Renata Benedict as Eve Braddocks *

Julian Sands Julian Richard Morley Sands''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, ...

as Gerald

Production

NBC had to acquire the production rights from

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

, which produced the 1957 film adaptation. Like the source, the work is set in France and Spain. In an attempt to be true to the 1920s setting, some

Pamplona Pamplona (; eu, Iruña or ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. It is also the third-largest city in the greater Basque cultural region. Lying at near above ...

scenes were shot in

Segovia Segovia ( , , ) is a city in the autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Segovia. Segovia is in the Inner Plateau ('' Meseta central''), near the northern slopes of t ...

and some

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

scenes were shot in

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...

, because Paris and Pamplona did not look as they had 60 years earlier.

Critical commentary

According to John J. O'Connor of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' virtually all nuances that differed from the source were not well executed. ''

People A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...

'' Fred Hauptfuhrer notes that "Hemingway purists" may be offended by some of the changes. Arthur Unger of ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

'' described this production as "a minor literary classic, which has now been turned into a major miniseries disaster". Stephen Farber of ''The New York Times'' recounts numerous elements depicted in the film that were not in the source material such as

A grieving Jake Barnes attends the funeral of a prostitute he had visited several times before being wounded and rendered impotent in World War I. Pedro Romero, the handsome young Spanish bull fighter, uses his sword to murder a vindictive count who has threatened the life of Lady Brett Ashley. Jake's best friend, Bill Gorton, takes an airplane, goes up on a daredevil flight and crashes to his death.

Screenwriter Robert L. Joseph defends the addition of mortally wounded characters as necessary for dramatic depiction. While the 1957 film starred a 43-year-old

Tyrone Power Tyrone Edmund Power III (May 5, 1914 – November 15, 1958) was an American actor. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Power appeared in dozens of films, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads. His better-known films include ''Jesse James'', ' ...

and 34-year-old

Ava Gardner Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' attention in 1946 with her perform ...

, the 1984 adaptation starred a 27-year-old Bochner and 33-year-old Seymour, who the filmmakers thought could better depict the youthful characters of the source novel.

Earlier version

A earlier film version of the novel, directed by Henry King, was released in theater by

in 1957.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sun Also Rises, The 1984 films 1984 drama films 1980s American television miniseries American drama films Bullfighting films Films about journalists 1980s English-language films Films based on works by Ernest Hemingway Films based on American novels Films set in the 1920s Films set in France Films set in Spain Films shot in France Films shot in Spain Films directed by James Goldstone 1980s American films