according to john j. o'connor of "the new york times" virtually all nuances that differed from the source were not well executed. "people" fred hauptfuhrer notes that "hemingway purists" may be offended by some of the changes. arthur unger of "the christian science monitor" 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 and 34-year-old ava gardner, 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.