Hemingway 

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• Photo Courtesy Of Florentine Films, Getty Images, And Pbs
• A MAN'S MAN In Hemingway, documentarian Ken Burns closely examines the life and times of American writer Ernest Hemingway, in a three-part series screening on PBS.

What's it rated? TV-14

When? 2021

Where's it showing? PBS

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick direct this three-part PBS series on one of America's most famous writers, Ernest Hemingway, author of classics such as The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms, and The Old Man and the Sea. Narrated by Peter Coyote with Jeff Daniels acting as the voice of Hemingway, the series mixes archival photos, Hemingway's letters and writings, and interviews with various writers and literary scholars as well as Hemingway's second son, Patrick.

I love Hemingway's writing and his larger-than-life persona—a love I know I was supposed to grow out of after college but never did. This deep dive into his life is filled with revelations that help deflate Hemingway's outsized reputation, showing not only his remarkable talent but also his ego, self-aggrandizement, and pettiness. Despite feeling like a true aficionado of all things Hemingway, I learned a lot.

Burns and Novick do an amazing job of breaking his life into three parts, and what was perhaps most interesting to me is their depiction of his waning talent, which was clearly his biggest fear. If he could no longer write, what was he? A drunk and a liar with four wives? Still, even this warts-and-all biography can't diminish my utter awe of his storied life and his way with a sentence. (three 120-min. episodes) Δ