Alan24 Posted 2 July , 2021 Share Posted 2 July , 2021 (edited) I don't know if anyone saw the Ernest Hemingway documentary (in several parts) on BBC4 this week? There was a section on his service in Italy with the American Red Cross. The whole piece, which probably ran to 10 mins, was filled with pictures of British and Australian soldiers on the Western Front. I'm no pedant nor an expert but even I could tell the whole thing looked wrong. All the 'classic' clips were used. Makes you wonder how accurate the rest of the programme was. Edited 3 July , 2021 by Alan24 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 2 July , 2021 Share Posted 2 July , 2021 The programme was given a good review here https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/jun/29/hemingway-review-a-gripping-portrait-of-a-literary-legend To get Hemingway's own take on his service in WWI you can read his correspondence covering this period in 'The Letters of Ernest Hemmingway, Vol.I, 1907-1922' edited by Spanier & Trogdon, CUP [ISBN 978-0-521-89733-4] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan24 Posted 2 July , 2021 Author Share Posted 2 July , 2021 6 hours ago, michaeldr said: The programme was given a good review here https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/jun/29/hemingway-review-a-gripping-portrait-of-a-literary-legend To get Hemingway's own take on his service in WWI you can read his correspondence covering this period in 'The Letters of Ernest Hemmingway, Vol.I, 1907-1922' edited by Spanier & Trogdon, CUP [ISBN 978-0-521-89733-4] It was certainly very interesting about a man whose name is very well known but little did I know of him. Of course, the irony about post 1 is the fact that his own stories of his WW1 escapades were not always quite what they were in reality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxi Posted 2 July , 2021 Share Posted 2 July , 2021 All the episodes are available on the BBC iplayer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 3 July , 2021 Share Posted 3 July , 2021 16 hours ago, Alan24 said: the irony about post 1 is the fact that his own stories of his WW1 escapades were not always quite what they were in reality. Hence my recommendation of his letters: unembellished by later 'thoughts' on the subject. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry_Reeves Posted 3 July , 2021 Share Posted 3 July , 2021 The images are only intended to be representative. You can't expect the "perfect" fit on the relatively new media of film, nor indeed from active service photography in the early 20th Century. Some of the most well known images, moving or otherwise, were staged, simply because of the limitations of the equipment. In the case of Italy and the American Red Cross, it it maybe that there were no suitable images available to the picture researcher TR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dai Bach y Sowldiwr Posted 3 July , 2021 Share Posted 3 July , 2021 On 02/07/2021 at 08:38, Alan24 said: Ernest Hemmingway documentary (in several parts) on BBC4 this week? I'm no pedant nor an expert Nor me. On 02/07/2021 at 11:43, michaeldr said: The Letters of Ernest Hemmingway, Vol.I, 1907-1922' Can't find anything by an author of that name... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 3 July , 2021 Share Posted 3 July , 2021 Wouldn't have been so bad, if I hadn't already spelt it correctly twice in the same post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan24 Posted 3 July , 2021 Author Share Posted 3 July , 2021 24 minutes ago, Dai Bach y Sowldiwr said: Nor me. Can't find anything by an author of that name... Guilty as charged, corrected for posterity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunner Bailey Posted 5 July , 2021 Share Posted 5 July , 2021 Saw the first episode yesterday. 266 shrapnel woulds to the leg followed up by two bullets must have been pretty painful. The format is very 'Burns'. solid slow paced narration, but by the end of the first episode I wanted to read some of Hemingway's books. I think the only Hemingway film I've seen was The 'Old Man and the Sea' with Spencer Tracy. A wonderful film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Len Trim Posted 5 July , 2021 Share Posted 5 July , 2021 I have always been a fan of Hemingway’s writings. At one time or another I have owned and read all his books and a few biographies as well. I first noticed his loss of favour about forty years ago when some librarians and school teachers wanted to remove his books as they were ‘bad’. Too macho, too bloody, too insensitive? Who knows? With hindsight it might have been the beginning of Wokedom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil andrade Posted 5 July , 2021 Share Posted 5 July , 2021 On 03/07/2021 at 17:05, Terry_Reeves said: The images are only intended to be representative. You can't expect the "perfect" fit on the relatively new media of film, nor indeed from active service photography in the early 20th Century. Some of the most well known images, moving or otherwise, were staged, simply because of the limitations of the equipment. In the case of Italy and the American Red Cross, it it maybe that there were no suitable images available to the picture researcher TR Agreed.....the idea was to give an evocation of the Great War as a whole, and the vignettes of the Western Front are always wheeled out. The commentary was pretty good, in my opinion, and gave quite a meticulous account of how, where and when Hemingway was wounded. Let’s forgive the inclusion of British troops in the fields of France and Flanders : after all, the horrors of the Isonzo front were all too similar. Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Open Bolt Posted 6 July , 2021 Share Posted 6 July , 2021 (edited) The IWM of course gives us some scenes of Italy... Some Italian films http://www.grandeguerra.rai.it/categorie/tutti-i-video/1039/1/default.aspx Edited 6 July , 2021 by Open Bolt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Open Bolt Posted 6 July , 2021 Share Posted 6 July , 2021 Ah... some more film https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060022752 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Filsell Posted 7 July , 2021 Share Posted 7 July , 2021 The Western Front shots certainly did the material no favours. Burns is normally superb in selecting appropriate images. But nevertheless the. Documentary was both interesting and highly watchable. As for Hemingway, a great author, and a man of great infidelities of facts and of women, I have the same feeling of distrust about him as I do of TEL's authourship and have a a degree of moral mistrust about both these skilled self publicists - deserved or undeserved. Strangly my favourite Hemingway work still Islands inthe Stream which is not one of the most well thought of of Hemingway's works. Nevertheless anther great piece of wok by Burns an his team. Regardd David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 18 July , 2021 Share Posted 18 July , 2021 Worth a look https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/jul/18/ken-burns-i-felt-that-hemingways-uber-masculinity-was-a-mask Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John(txic) Posted 18 July , 2021 Share Posted 18 July , 2021 Far too long at 9 episodes - worth 2, max, IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry_Reeves Posted 20 July , 2021 Share Posted 20 July , 2021 (edited) Ken Burns is a favourite documentary maker of mine. Research for his series various, takes between four and five years, I don't know of any other documentary maker who takes so much time in preparation. So the battle bowlers and trenche appear to be from the Western Front - no big deal. Get hold of his CDs. Below is a list of his work - not all of it available in the UK unfortunately: https://kenburns.com/the-films/ TR Edited 20 July , 2021 by Terry_Reeves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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