The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) - Video On Demand

The Snows of Kilimanjaro - Movie Review

The 1952 film titled The Snows of Kilimanjaro is based on the short story of the same name by Ernest Hemingway. The film version of the short story was directed by Henry King and starring Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner. Considered by Hemingway to be one of his finest stories and the film was nominated for 2 Oscars, The Snows of Kilimanjaro was first published in Esquire in 1936 and then republished in The Fifth Column and the First Forty-nine Stories 1938.

The story centers on the memories of a writer (Gregory Peck) who is taking a safari in Africa. He develops a gangrenous wound from a thorn prick, and lies awaiting his slow death. This loss of physical capability causes him to look inside himself - at his memories of the past years, and how little he has actually accomplished in his writing. He realizes that although he has seen and experienced many wonderful and astonishing things during his life, he had never made a record of the events; his status as a writer is contradicted by his reluctance to actually write. He also quarrels with the woman with him, blaming her for his living decadently and forgetting his failure to write of what really matters to him, namely his experiences among poor and interesting people, not the predictable upper class crowd he has fallen in with lately.

Unlike the original story, our hero Harry does not die - from the unwanted attentions of the local witch doctor, perhaps, or maybe his own will to live and correct his mistakes - whatever the cause, it results in his living to see the morning come. He watches a tree full of vultures gather while he lay ailing in the evening, as he recaps his life and converses with his latest wife - first, telling her about his past experiences; then arguing, then coming to realization about his attitude, and finally reaching a sort of peace, even love, with her.

As the sun rises on the next day, he and his wife note that the tree has emptied, the hungry birds seeking a meal elsewhere. Thus our hero has survived the night, and is redeemed.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro - Cast & Crew

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