Superb direction, it's what carries the entire film.

Frank Borzage rescues A Farewell to Arms from the flaws inflicted upon it by Benjamin Glazer and Ernest Hemingway's screenplay through his fabulous sense of style and emotional evocativeness. He turns this tragicomic melodrama into that of consuming, engagingly romantic cinema, fashioning what might have been - with the aid of a sturdier screenplay - one of the great love stories of the 1930s. If the film never becomes truly great, it at least testifies to his directorial competence.

Borzage barely changes a word, but the whole nature of the relationship is much more palatable under his hand. Helen Hayes' natural strength and Cooper's natural gentleness balance out their characters' failings. He'll take lines from the book that come off stone serious like "I'm nothing when I'm not with you" and make them sweet and frivolous, like they're products of frustration and not codependency.

This is pretty great. It doesn't seem to be recognized as a classic, but perhaps that's due to the previously poor quality of the available prints and any differences to Hemingway's novel. You would never know this was a literary adaption. Borzage and d.p. Charles Lang demonstrate tremendous visual style --a highlight is the expressionistic battle scene. Cooper and Hayes really sell their roles as well.