"Hemingway": PBS Bio Film 4/5/21

Burns probably delved deeply into the gore because Hemingway (and those around him) made a point of documenting his passion for hunting & fishing, in a comprehensive manner. And of course, his penchant for violence did inform his literary output...


But Hemingway's fixation/obsession with killing defenseless animals, in my opinion, hasn't aged particularly well through the years.


Now, his writing --- on the other hand --- is an altogether different animal.

 

Welles on Hemingway -

 

Episode 2 included a few comments on Mark Twain, so that made me happy. Stephen Crane is another name I would've expected to hear though.

I also had the thought that he brought reality to his fiction, yet had a lot of fiction in his reality. Looking forward to the final ep tonight! I do hope the PBS station I get stops putting the 'ad' to find all the episodes on their website where it covers subtitles sometimes! D'oh... unforced error there KCTS 9!

 

Well said at the end about Hemmingway not being himself at the end and not to judge him on that basis... in my opinion.

 

Not a book reader but I had to watch the first episode just to see what the big deal was about this guy. From what I understand he recreated the way to write a book or story in a more natural "write like you talk" form. That I could really identify with after having to read densely written books like "The Divine Comedies" along with H.G. Wells and Agatha Christie novels in high school. It's what motivated me to find other creative and entertaining avenues like cartooning, graphics for school newspaper and high school annual as well as playing trombone in our school marching band.

One quote I thought was impressive from Hemingway was his description of how he felt when a bomb went off close by while he was a military medic during WWI when he said it felt like his soul left his body like quickly pulling a silk kerchief from his pocket. It flew around a bit and then came back after he quit dying. Now that's how to describe dying! Kind of explains why he preferred to go out with a bang.

Still don't feel like reading any of his books though.

 

I don't recall reading any of his work, but enjoying the PBS documentary. Actually, anything by Ken Burns is top shelf to me. Not that much into sports, but thoroughly enjoyed Baseball.

 

Yep. Freat movie. I got the blu ray when it came out. One of those I like to rewatch a few times a year.

 

Coincidentally I started re-reading Islands a few days before I heard of this series. I read most of his works a few years ago, and this was my favorite. Not a lot of "action" but the writing and the dialog is brilliant and keeps one interested. One to read slow and appreciate the details and skill. I cannot get into bullfighting and don't care too much for war novels, so those novels are lower on my list. I appreciate the appeal of big game hunting way back then (not now), so I loved Green Hills of Africa. To Have and Have Not is great too and so are many of his short stories.

 

I would say there is a matter-of-fact face value quality to Hemmingway writing, and it looks deceptively simple on the surface but the effect is pure magic. An almost wonderful bluntness and economy expressing different characters. It's not all gold I suppose, but those are the best moments. Not just reportage, but there is a vérité feel that puts one in up close. Of course, he was a successful newspaper and magazine reporter for many years as was Twain.

 

I’m recording the episodes to watch later, but to date my favorite filmed critique of Hemingway was the reaction to the ending of A Farewell To Arms by Bradley Cooper’s character in Silver Linings Playbook:

 

They could all probably be converted to graphic novels without editing.

 

Another interesting series on Hem is the 1999 PBS Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure, in which Palin travels the world to the main spots where Hemingway lived and wrote. The episodes are available on YouTube.

 

My beef with the ending to AFTA was that it was written too abruptly, not what actually happened. But who cares anyway, it was the opening that was pure magic.

 

Enjoyed episode 1. Episode 2 was a little tougher - all the dead animals, his shocking journalism ethics, and his latest round of marital woes. On the other hand Mario Vargas Llosa was hysterical - I won't say more. Overall I could have done with more Patrick Hemingway, and less of the experts, especially the sibilant Irish lady.

Disclaimer - haven't read any of his books, but have seen 5 of his homes (Cuba, Key West, Chicago x2, and the Idaho death house) + his grave.

 

Why?

 

I've seen at least five of his documentaries, and I find them often misinformed and/or biased (in varying degrees, probably based on the subject matter). Biased in that he too often sees the world in terms of black and white - often literally - and shoehorns his "evidence" to fit his narrative. In this respect, he reminds me of Oliver Stone.

As an example of misinformation - which appears to me to be intentional - he tries to paint John Coltrane as someone who went from the extreme of drug abuse to entirely giving up all vices, including smoking. I have video of Coltrane smoking off camera during a performance with Miles Davis in the early 1960 (long after Burns said Coltrane made this spiritual transformation). Also, Thelonious Monk was able to find work after he had his cabaret card suspended. His studio albums during that period attest to that. Brilliant Corners was not some sort of breakout album after years of inactivity at the hand of prejudiced law enforcement, like Burns indicates. Also, using the lack of player movement in the immediate aftermath of the baseball strike as proof that free agency had no effect on the length of time players stayed with their teams is at best highly misleading (and I would bet intentionally so). During that period, players were still under contract (preventing them from switching teams) and there was proved owner collusion preventing player movement as well.

I certainly don't have encyclopedic knowledge of any of the areas Burns covers, but the misinformation about things of which I am aware adds up. I don't trust him as a documentary filmmaker (though I thought he restrained his biased impulses enough in his Civil War documentary to make that a worthwhile watch).

Then there's the biased nature of his filmmaking, like his attempt to recreate Chick Webb's victory over Benny Goodman in their "band battle" by selecting two studio songs done by both where Goodman's version is (intentionally) slow and bluesy. Not a legitimate comparison. There are more examples - and the annoying overuse of the pan and zoom technique for still photographs - but frankly my fingers are tired and I have to get back to work.

If one likes Burns, that's fine. I don't. It bugs me because I wouldn't mind seeing an objectively researched and produced documentary on Hemmingway. But I no longer trust Burns to cover any subject anymore without allowing his personal prejudices and simplistic world view to interfere.

 

I was a little disappointed by Burns' censorship of the so-called "n-word" by redacting it in the manuscripts. Maybe there's no need to say the word, but it doesn't need to be blacked-out.

 

I disagree. If the f-word is censored, the n-word should be too. It's way more offensive.

 

Yes, the censorship of the f-word was jarring too.

 

There is definitely a tendency to simplify to up the drama in Ken Burns docs. I saw it in Empire Of the Air. It's not so much the main real dramatic moments in lives covered as the in-between bits where things are exaggerated, like they are worried about keeping people watching. I noticed in Hemingway ep. 3 they created some drama by pitting readers reactions against each other. You know, The Old Man And The Sea was a masterpiece or it was kindergarten stuff. That's a pretty extreme contrast in readings.

An amazing and unusual person, amazing he could write so much during the meds and shock therapy recovery periods. I'm pretty sure shock therapy, never mind multiple applications of it, would not be the best thing for someone with so many head injuries. Burns & Novick take pains to document each and every injury over the course of this series but then allow the viewer to dot that particular i. Losing his home and possessions and pets due to Castro I think could play a part in his final decision, but it seems pretty obvious he was not in his right mind, was the opposite of mellowing with age, but he must've been coping with a lot of this stuff all along.

 

The Edwin Newman piece was unusual in that he didn't edit it and left it stand as is, with the 'shotgun accident' intact.

 

"Man alive! And I thought I had it bad in the 1960s!"

 

"The 358 words you can't say on TV, and not one of them was in my original seven! Go figure . . ."

 

The DVD/Blu might have it intact. When PBS aired the Doors documentary aired a decade ago the channel took out some f-words and blurred some breasts.