A Clean, Well-lighted Place

The form of the film for the most part does fit the content, but the very last scene did not fit very well. In the short story, it clearly stated that the waiter has insomnia, but in the film adaptation, it simply shows him walking back home in the stroke of dawn. Also, the British accents did not match up to the story. I thought the story was based in Cuba, as Hemingway always stayed there and also because there was Spanish in the text.

Even though the film has a few minor differences, I still think it is true to Hemingway's intent for the story. The old man represents a darker side of life, and Hemingway's existential-nihilistic ideas are shown through the old man's attempt at suicide and the repetition of "nada", which means nothing in Spanish. Hemingway believed that there was nothing beyond death, and the repetition of "nada" implies the idea. Even though in the film it said "nothing" instead of "nada", I thought it still put the same point across.

As I said before, the key element that has been altered is the ending and the accents. The ending in the film still worked, but that was because the bar scene and the actor's ability in portraying somebody who is wide awake. I personally did not like the film ending. If I did not read the short-story beforehand, I would have been confused. The film should have had the waiter lay on his bed, wide awake, staring into nothingness just like the short-story.

I thought the filmmakers did an excellent job in adapting the bar scene. I actually thought it was a lot stronger than on the page. I needed visual representation for the scene, and the film showed me a good number of people in the bar, referring back to the need of a well-lighted place. Hemingway's message comes of just as strongly in the film as in the short story, but only because of the strong bar scene.

If I had made the video, I would have first of all gotten a new set of actors that don't have British accents. I could not understand a good amount of dialog until I got used to it.  The filming itself was very poor. The filming angles put me to sleep. I wanted to see the actors' faces more. That is one of the reasons why the bar scene stuck out for me. The waiter's face just screamed out that he was not tired, which was the point.

I do not think the majority of the actors casted were fitting to play the key characters in the novel. I portrayed the young man to be more irritated. He seemed irritated but not irritated as in the short story. I also portrayed the old man to be more drunk and imposing. He didn't even look drunk. He just kept saying "another brandy", but never used his body language to make it imposing. The only actor that did his job correctly was the old waiter, who showed his apparent insomnia well.