Ken Burns - Hemingway

[muted reborn]

^ You’re kind of a fucking idiot. Do us a favor and split, kook.

Oh, fuck off. I don’t like his style and would rather watch docs that are more unique and more creative. It’s subjective, no one is an idiot for having different taste. And you know that.

If all the money Burns got for films went instead to young and up and coming doc filmmakers the world would be a better place. Fuck Ken Burns. He ain’t awful, but he’s not what the world needs right now.

[SkiBall]

My Mom is too old for you, find someone yer own age.

Burns is a talented storyteller but visually he’s vanilla. He’s appealing to people who pays his bills: boomers who donate to PBS. He is a boring old school filmmaker.

If he’s making movies to ‘zone out to’, that is a red flag right there. Good long form documentaries should be challenging, especially PBS ones.

It’s TV. It’s for entertainment purposes, so I keep my expectations pretty limited. They regurgitate a lot of he same stuff, so something on Ernie is something I haven’t seen. Reading Hemingway was the good part.

[Woodsy]

Dont feed the trolls y'all

Watched it with my parents ( in their 70s,) 3 nights in a row, It was on when I was visiting for the first time in over a year. my dad was insistent to watch it each night.

Thought it was good and i learned a lot, man was definitely a nracisistic misogynist and a great writer. The end was particularly bad for him as he descended into madness. Your boy at SLate has one particular view and the idea of Hemochrtosis is ludicrous a his liver would have shut down ( my buddy had it and needed a liver transplant at 43 and didnt drink near as much as Papa)

I think it was insightful but not the final or total word, much like i view much of Burns series, or any history I encounter honestly. Like the chronological nature as we as consumers and students ( most of us had at least some Hemingway in school) in the late 20th & early 21st century jump all lover with his major works. I did like the oft repeated message that he changed writing, at least in the US. there is definitely pre and post Hemingway in literature.

Imagine HST without Papa?!?

[fomofo]

Burns fucked up with Baseball, so, my shit detector is always on when watching him.

I watched Burns' Baseball a few years ago when I (kinda) got back into paying attention to baseball. Enjoyed it. Clearly a lot of material to cover, so I'm curious, what in your estimation was wrong and/or lacking with Baseball?

Been a while since I read it, but I recall particularly liking Hemingway's short story Cross Country Snow. Might have to track that collection down and give it another go.



This collection might be better suited to the tough crowd here...

Men Without Women

[Benny Profane]

Baseball was godfawful just for his choices of talking heads. I wanted to Elvis my TV set when Dolores Kearns Goodwin was there telling me how she used to go to Brooklyn Dodgers games with daddy for the fifth time. What the fuck? What did she have to do with anything? Christ, look behind the podium every summer at the HOF induction speech, and there's maybe thirty players who are the best of the best in the sport. Interview them, for gods sake, not her. Or, owners and even locker room managers who are still alive. So much history they could tell. But, we got Billy Crystal, Stephen Jay Gould, fucking George Will (who made this guy an expert on baseball?), and Arthur Ashe (um, wrong sport, Ken). Shit, I could have done a better interview. And there was too much black people got screwed (duh), and too little cocaine and rock and roll and speed and booze, which was seriously the day to day life for even top players for a few decades. Snooze fest.

Come to think of it, he could of found a better lineup of writers to interview for Hemingway. If Shelby Foote was still alive, he probably would have tapped him for the fifth time.

[muted reborn]

Baseball was godfawful just for his choices of talking heads. I wanted to Elvis my TV set when Dolores Kearns Goodwin was there telling me how she used to go to Brooklyn Dodgers games with daddy for the fifth time. What the fuck? What did she have to do with anything? Christ, look behind the podium every summer at the HOF induction speech, and there's maybe thirty players who are the best of the best in the sport. Interview them, for gods sake, not her. Or, owners and even locker room managers who are still alive. So much history they could tell. But, we got Billy Crystal, Stephen Jay Gould, fucking George Will (who made this guy an expert on baseball?), and Arthur Ashe (um, wrong sport, Ken). Shit, I could have done a better interview. And there was too much black people got screwed (duh), and too little cocaine and rock and roll and speed and booze, which was seriously the day to day life for even top players for a few decades. Snooze fest.

Come to think of it, he could of found a better lineup of writers to interview for Hemingway. If Shelby Foote was still alive, he probably would have tapped him for the fifth time.

If you criticize Holy Burns on this site you most be a troll, an idiot, a kook, and also your mom is a slut too. Don’t you dare Benny. Some real doc historians on this site will set you straight.

[Meadow Skipper]

Been a while since I read it, but I recall particularly liking Hemingway's short story Cross Country Snow. Might have to track that collection down and give it another go.

https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...ow-E-Hemingway

[Meadow Skipper]

I just finished the third episode. Well, that was depressing. Sounds like he was a miserable sonofabitch the last 15 years or so, and he made a lot of other people miserable as well.

I hate it when someone that has done inspiring and/or admirable things - artists, athletes, leaders, etc. - turns out to be a raging asshole. I’d often rather that I don’t find that out. I know H was sick, but he was an asshole at the end.

[fomofo]

Baseball was godfawful just for his choices of talking heads. I wanted to Elvis my TV set...

Tell us how you really feel.

OK, I get it. A little too (ok, a lot too) PBS-y for ya. I do get that, but although it could have for some reason it didn't rub me that wrong way. I guess I just settled in and went along for the ride, and got completely swept away enjoying the baseball history.

Anyway, this might clean your craw out...

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3445270

Damn good.

https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...ow-E-Hemingway

"There's nothing really can touch skiing, is there?" Nick said.
"The way it feels when you first drop off on a long run."
"Huh," said George. "It's too swell to talk about."

“...to know someone who thinks & feels with us, & who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.”

Cheers.

[Benny Profane]

I have talked about this before. If I was rich, I'd start up an alternative Hall of Fame somewhere in upstate NY. I'd have to be rich, because I would need a legal staff to fend off the lawsuits. I was inspired after my first visit to Cooperstown, another snooze fest, although worth visiting for every fan. Mine would be a bar, of course. I would have a Hollywood model maker make a realistic Ted William's head encased in a clear container with fake dry ice smoke coming out of it, and make that the centerpiece of the bar. Maybe it would talk a little for ten bucks in a slot. Since my HOF would be near Saratoga, because I like Saratoga, a place that is 50-50 Yankee/Red Sox country, we'd have cage matches once a month between the more loyal fans of either. Of course there will be a cocaine wing, and a steroid wing. It would be fun, for sure.

[plugboots]

Don’t forget to have a jar of greenies at the door for a buck a piece as you enter.

[fomofo]

Mine would be a bar, of course. I would have a Hollywood model maker make a realistic Ted William's head encased in a clear container with fake dry ice smoke coming out of it, and make that the centerpiece of the bar. Maybe it would talk a little for ten bucks in a slot.

The further down the road I get, the less interest I have in seeing people bash each other's brains out. However I would gladly belly up to your bar and feed a ten in.

Perhaps to avoid legal entanglements you could just call your head "Shred Billiams" or some such, maybe give it a mustache.

[Woodsy]

Come to think of it, he could of found a better lineup of writers to interview for Hemingway. If Shelby Foote was still alive, he probably would have tapped him for the fifth time.

I kept thinking this all the way through, werent there other writers he could of interviewed?

[TBS]

I just finished the third episode. Well, that was depressing. Sounds like he was a miserable sonofabitch the last 15 years or so, and he made a lot of other people miserable as well.

I hate it when someone that has done inspiring and/or admirable things - artists, athletes, leaders, etc. - turns out to be a raging asshole. I’d often rather that I don’t find that out. I know H was sick, but he was an asshole at the end.

Just finished Ep3
I thought it was interesting- I knew nothing of the women in his life so that part was informative on its own
And Yep it was kinda depressing at the end. Mental illness is not pretty, esp. someone with a strong personality.

Reminded me of that thin line between genius and insanity...

[Benny Profane]

I kept thinking this all the way through, werent there other writers he could of interviewed?

The absurdity of Mario Vargas Llosa, a Nobel Prize winner, addressing the interviewer in Spanish, when he can speak fluent English, talking about one of the English language's most influential writers, and being super critical of Hemingway at times, was pretty much nuts. Why did that happen?

[glademaster]

I have talked about this before. If I was rich, I'd start up an alternative Hall of Fame somewhere in upstate NY. I'd have to be rich, because I would need a legal staff to fend off the lawsuits. I was inspired after my first visit to Cooperstown, another snooze fest, although worth visiting for every fan. Mine would be a bar, of course. I would have a Hollywood model maker make a realistic Ted William's head encased in a clear container with fake dry ice smoke coming out of it, and make that the centerpiece of the bar. Maybe it would talk a little for ten bucks in a slot. Since my HOF would be near Saratoga, because I like Saratoga, a place that is 50-50 Yankee/Red Sox country, we'd have cage matches once a month between the more loyal fans of either. Of course there will be a cocaine wing, and a steroid wing. It would be fun, for sure.

If you're looking for investors, I'm in.

[Benny Profane]

Don't expect your money back. Like I said, legal fees will soak that up. But, free beer on cage fight night!

[glademaster]

Don't expect your money back. Like I said, legal fees will soak that up. But, free beer on cage fight night!

I'm still in. I can think of worse ways to piss away money in Saratoga.

[concretejungle]

I just finished the third episode. Well, that was depressing. Sounds like he was a miserable sonofabitch the last 15 years or so, and he made a lot of other people miserable as well.

I hate it when someone that has done inspiring and/or admirable things - artists, athletes, leaders, etc. - turns out to be a raging asshole. I’d often rather that I don’t find that out. I know H was sick, but he was an asshole at the end.

In his defense he seems to be an asshole since the get go.

[Meadow Skipper]

In his defense he seems to be an asshole since the get go.

Probably. He just didn’t seem as full of himself earlier.

[stuckathuntermtn]

Is there no way to watch this now without being a PBS member?

I don't understand why broadcast networks have adapted so poorly to the internet. I can watch it for free over the air but not online?
I guess Hulu and others fucked up network TV going online, but PBS?!