Hemingway

"Hemingway" (2021 release; 3 episodes of about 115 min. Each) is a new documentary about Ernest Hemingway. As Episode 1 "The Writer (1899-1928)" opens, we get some introductory remarks of various experts and talking heads. As writer Michael Katakis puts it: "Despite all of his flaws, he seems to understand humans." Someone else puts it more succinct: "I hate Hemingway the myth, as it obscures Hemingway the man." We then go back in time, to the early years of Hemingway's upbringing in Oak Park, a comfortable Chicago suburb, with his 5 siblings and his parents. At this point we are 10 min. Into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest project from Ken Burns, co-directed by Burns and his longtime collaborator Lynn Novick. Here they tackle the man, the myth that is Ernest Hemingway. Despite his notoriety and reputation, I must admit I knew virtually nothing of his life, let alone much of his work. To say that Hemingway had an interesting life would be the understatement of the year. There are 3 episodes in this series. Besides the afore-mentioned Episode 1, there is also EP 2 "The Avatar (1928-1944)" and EP 3 "The Blank Page (1944-1961)". If Episode 1 is an indication of what is yet to come (and why wouldn't it), the film makers have meticulously researched Hemingway in order to present to us who he really was, going beyond the myth, the legend. The fascinating part of Episode 1 is that Hemingway struggled, and struggled long, to become a respected and eventually successful writer. Basically an "overnight success that was years in the making". The amount of (B&W) pictures and even some archive footage that Burns and Novick were able to dig up is impressive. Bottom line, this is a thoroughly insightful, educational and yes, entertaining reassessment of the life and times of Ernest Hemingway, and I can't wait to check out the remaining two episodes.

"Hemingway" premiered this week on PBS and is now available on PBS On Demand, Amazon Instant Video, and other streaming services. If you have any interest in Ernest Hemingway (even if you don't really know much about him--as was for case for me), or are simply a fan of Ken Burns, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

UPDATE 4/10/21 I've now seen the other 2 episodes, and they only confirm all of the good that appeared in the first episodes. All around a terrific documentary series.

This is an excellent bio of an iconic figure in American literature. However, the choice of Jeff Daniels to voice Hemingway as he read excerpts from his novels and short stories left me scratching my head and turning on the mute feature. His reading was monotonous and one-note with absolutely no voice inflection whatsoever. The bio's narrator Peter Coyote would have been much more effective, or Liev Schreiber or Adrien Brody, for example, who all have rich, masculine voices. If you could get past Daniel's bland reading, Hemingway's life history done by Ken Burns was well done, informative, and enlightening.

Despite the 6-hour running time, this documentary skips along the surface of Hemingway's life like a piece of flint.

Great writer? Yes. Great man? No. Hemingway was a narcissist, a liar, a brute, a womanizer, and a blowhard.

Hemingway basically lived off his wives and lost the friendship of everyone he ever knew. And while this documentary skips along with fleeting mentions of Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, John Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, etc., it totally neglects an important Paris connection: Robert McAlmon.

It was McAlmon who published Hemingway's first book: "Three Stories and Ten Poems" thru his Contact Publishing. It was McAlmon who accompanied and paid for Hemingway's first trip to Spain to watch the bull fights. And it was McAlmon who was among the first people Hemingway turned on after his success with "The Sun Also Rises."

The novel's character Robert Loeb is based on Harold Loeb and also McAlmon. Hemingway turned on McAlmon and called him a gossip after he learned that McAlmon was "telling tales" about his his sexual proclivities and punched him out in a bar screaming. "Now tell that to your goddamned friends!"

McAlmon later got revenge in his memoir "Being Geniuses Together," and their relationship was further examined in "Letters from Oblivion," a novel by Edward Lorusso.

Great writer, yes. But Hemingway was one nasty piece of work!

This was broadcast this week in 2-hour time slots on three consecutive nights on PBS. It is very well done and I can't imagine anyone watching it and NOT learning a lot new about the man. His life certainly was not one of a role model and perhaps his many, many faults, both personal and interpersonal, were a necessary part of developing the writing style that made him indelibly famous.

Perhaps even less well known are Hemingway's four rules for writing well:

USE SHORT SENTENCES.

USE SHORT FIRST PARAGRAPHS.

USE VIGOROUS ENGLISH.

BE POSITIVE, NOT NEGATIVE.

Back in my working days I took a course on effective writing, the essence was the same. I would add "use active voice, not passive voice" when you can.

He died before I was 10, and I've never read any of his books, though I've seen the movie adaptations. Heard all my life of his machismo and the suspected underlying homosexuality.

This documentary filled in a lot of the gaps - how he gained his reputation, abused his wives and children (basically everyone in his orbit), his genius for - and perseverance in - writing; his obvious late-life mental illness.