Ernest Hemingway's life was magnificent, troubling, and contradictory. This film shows many sides of the man. For fans of his writing, he gave us an undeniable gift; a window into worlds we might never have known about otherwise, certainly not through his lens, told in his tactile, hard earned, innovative style with symbolic highlights. I am a fan of his writing.
Some aspects of his life I knew vaguely about before seeing this documentary is that he spent time in Paris, Africa, and Cuba, as well Madrid as a journalist who wrote extensive reports of the Spanish Civil War. The compelling coverage of this period of his life in the film has set his novel For Whom The Bell Tolls back on my 'to read' list, having last read it as a teen. I still think of this line from it ~ "If we win here we will win everywhere. The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it."
It seems unwise to idolize someone because of their art. There are several artists, filmmakers, and musicians whose art I revere, though I may have moral disagreements with or discomfort about some action they have taken. Also, one's life story can be easily misrepresented in the telling of it; I believe the only one who holds the full truth is the person to whom that life belonged. That being said, there are some shocking anecdotes, letters, and more in Ken Burns' fascinating documentary about Ernest Hemingway that are hard to ignore. Among accounts of a troubling childhood, spousal abuse, and other sorrowful tales, it's especially difficult for me to stomach killing animals for sport. I try to imagine that this was how he was raised and conditioned, but I can't get past the brutality of this unnecessary macho carnage.
Another aspect of his story that disturbs me is that doctors gave Hemingway a plethora of medications; he got multiple, overlapping prescriptions for psychiatric drugs, and his problems worsened; this piling on of these substances would undoubtably cause negative effects. Bad psych drug effects often lead to misdiagnosis based on the very 'personality labels' the drugs have caused. People are then treated by more drugs, and in Hemingway's case, by electroconvulsive 'therapy' (ECT) several times.
There are anecdotes by people who experience ECT as a positive, failed, or horrific intervention for themselves or their loved ones. Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) was first administered in 1938. The first study, in 1951, showed that people who had had ECT fared worse than those who hadn't. The first time ECT was attributed to his recovery.... but did he recover? The second time he suffered devastating short-term memory damage, which rendered him unable to think or write, took away any quality of life for him, and led to his suicide.
Ken Burns' and Lynn Novak's three part 'Hemingway' is an emotionally compelling and to me somewhat depressing documentary about the life of the great writer Ernest Hemingway. I appreciated Jeff Daniels' contribution in speaking as Hemingway. It was fascinating to hear the interview with Hemingway's son and to see clips of the author himself. My few thoughts about it here hardly convey the scope of the project. I write to process what I have seen; the parts that disturbed me have lingered.
Some aspects of his life I knew vaguely about before seeing this documentary is that he spent time in Paris, Africa, and Cuba, as well Madrid as a journalist who wrote extensive reports of the Spanish Civil War. The compelling coverage of this period of his life in the film has set his novel For Whom The Bell Tolls back on my 'to read' list, having last read it as a teen. I still think of this line from it ~ "If we win here we will win everywhere. The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it."
It seems unwise to idolize someone because of their art. There are several artists, filmmakers, and musicians whose art I revere, though I may have moral disagreements with or discomfort about some action they have taken. Also, one's life story can be easily misrepresented in the telling of it; I believe the only one who holds the full truth is the person to whom that life belonged. That being said, there are some shocking anecdotes, letters, and more in Ken Burns' fascinating documentary about Ernest Hemingway that are hard to ignore. Among accounts of a troubling childhood, spousal abuse, and other sorrowful tales, it's especially difficult for me to stomach killing animals for sport. I try to imagine that this was how he was raised and conditioned, but I can't get past the brutality of this unnecessary macho carnage.
Another aspect of his story that disturbs me is that doctors gave Hemingway a plethora of medications; he got multiple, overlapping prescriptions for psychiatric drugs, and his problems worsened; this piling on of these substances would undoubtably cause negative effects. Bad psych drug effects often lead to misdiagnosis based on the very 'personality labels' the drugs have caused. People are then treated by more drugs, and in Hemingway's case, by electroconvulsive 'therapy' (ECT) several times.
There are anecdotes by people who experience ECT as a positive, failed, or horrific intervention for themselves or their loved ones. Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) was first administered in 1938. The first study, in 1951, showed that people who had had ECT fared worse than those who hadn't. The first time ECT was attributed to his recovery.... but did he recover? The second time he suffered devastating short-term memory damage, which rendered him unable to think or write, took away any quality of life for him, and led to his suicide.
Ken Burns' and Lynn Novak's three part 'Hemingway' is an emotionally compelling and to me somewhat depressing documentary about the life of the great writer Ernest Hemingway. I appreciated Jeff Daniels' contribution in speaking as Hemingway. It was fascinating to hear the interview with Hemingway's son and to see clips of the author himself. My few thoughts about it here hardly convey the scope of the project. I write to process what I have seen; the parts that disturbed me have lingered.