I felt true sorrow and profound sadness as I finished watching the 3rd part. This man was so alone , nobody could reach him really, he gave something to humanity he didn't even know he was giving, and conveyed a message of transcendence that was important at the time and not many understood or understand still. I feel so sorry for him as he suffered his entire life and he couldn't be helped . We can't idolize those with extraordinary gifts but pay attention to what is being given thru them. Wherever he is I pray he is full of love and peace , he gave himself to this world whether he actually knew it or not.
I watched the documentary and learn a lot about Hemingway I didn't know. I was thoroughly impressed by the depth and scope of the work in the documentary.
great interview we are so lucky to have Ken Burns and Lynn Novick to bring light to our great American treasure I worried when Mr. Burns used vocabulary like "toxic masculinity" in such a reductive pigeon-holed political sense because it has become as much if not more of a cliched trope of Hemingway than the machismo. For those not veterans, not hunters, not fishermen afraid of the outdoors these were the guys that stood on the wall and held back the darkness of fascism, the paradox is love cannot exist without hate, the light without the dark and sometimes one must rage against the dying of the light.
Thanks for your HEROIC insights. Now, with the Pandemic, we are all becoming heroes! I am wrestling with my own writing, and HEMINGWAY may have given me a missing link. We all need to IMPRESS others, one way or another way. Without it, we can become ZEROES. Writing, (and speaking) itself, all too often does not often impact others. Much thanks H
Let me add that HEMINGWAY raises questions about real HEROICS that we want. For myself, I see the struggle to controll my ways, my HABITS and my ATTITUDES in life. Hemingway struggled with his ego and his attitudes and habits. WORD EDITING may help. "Action speaks louder than words, but not nearly as often" Mark Twain THANKS MUCH H
It’s about time a discussion exploring the gender issues and struggles all of us have with at some point in our lives about our roles privately and publicly. I always felt that Hemingway’s stories carried an eerie view from what some women might be feeling in the situations that they existed in his narratives.
Hemingway was a robust man's man who lived a magnificent life. He was brave, bold, insightful and could communicate human emotion and essence like few ever could. These three insignificant progressive slugs could never absorb one tenth of Hemingway's depth in all of their lifetimes put together.
Come on Mr. Burns, It is disrespectful to use the American Flag as a seat cover on your creamy couch! Though you may think so, it is NOT accepted protocol as a patriotic display of the colors. Great Hemingway documentary.
That was NORMAL in the times. My Dad, living to 96 two years ago, in a beautiful sepia photograph has thick long sausage curls, in a dress, holding his hand made child's violin he played giving his first concert at the age of three. Los Angeles, California.
I’m watching part 3, I have so many thoughts but given the history of the whole family’s mental issues, his mother’s misguided way she raised her children. So many problems among Hemingway’s children with the exception of Patrick. It seems he was a complex genius. He clearly wanted to rule over man, beast and his women. It’s all fascinating but bottom line he was a lonely man and couldn’t be without a woman. His mother’s depraved dressing him and his sisters as twin boys or twin girls...is it a wonder he wanted some of his wives and he had similar hairstyles at his request. So much to learn about him and it’s really sad. He couldn’t tolerate his father committing suicide...he was appalled..yet he did it too. Heartbreaking.
His father committed suicide because he couldn’t deal with his overbearing wife. His father never stood up to her, and she ruined Hemingway as a child by dressing him up in women’s clothes and making him do all kinds of weird things as a young boy. The big flaw in this documentary is giving his mother a pass because women are never held accountable in the USA.
I’ve seen two parts of this series. I don’t care what anybody says. Hemingway wasn’t a nice man. I wouldn’t want to sit around a table with him for two or three hours.
*Is Burns becoming another 'Jenner?'* *As for Hemingway (the 'darling of New York 'literati' fans) he was a 'closet queen' who fought against it all of his life* *Stephen King could 'out-write' Hemingway without 'breaking a sweat' and his sales PROVE IT!* ( *Were it not for the 'spooky/horror' aspects of King's story-telling, he would be acclaimed "The Greatest Writer Since Shakespeare" and have every literary award there is several times over* ) *Hemingway was the literary equal of 'Paris Hilton'...wandering everywhere and making inane 'comments' of it all* (Read his 'essays' of people & events that were no different than Kipling...Hemingway endorsed the 'White Man's Burden' ethos of 'observe & report' on the doings of 'lesser peoples' than himself which was why he felt most comfortable among them...so he would not be forced into 'compare & contrast' himself among other white males in America) *On a boat doing 'Manly Things in a Manly Way' were his 'meat and drink' both in life and in words on paper* You would think such a 'Man's Man' would've been 'first in line' to serve in the Army during the 'Great War'...instead of actual fighting, he became an 'Ambulance Driver' so he could still claim 'Manliness' without being in the 'trenches with the Great Unwashed' and possibly dying among them...'Play-Acting as Actual Life'. ( *I wonder if Burns knows the story of Earhart and Hemingway* ) *They were 'star-crossed lovers' for a brief interlude in Paris...Ernest was like no other men she knew, and Amelia was a 'free Love' and 'free Thought' adherent long before such things were ever admitted to...her time as a nurse changed Earhart permanently, showing her how easily life can end and the horror of wounds, and from that time on she decided to 'Live life to the fullest measure regardless of risks and reputation' and determined to never bear a child so she would never have to suffer any thoughts of 'what might happen' to them. (Although she did adore children and cared for them in any way she could...such as the 'New York Foundlings Home' to which she donated money and large amounts of her time, always spent with kids)
