The Legendary Life of Ernest Hemingway

There are men who, during the span of their lifetimes, are able to magically idealize their fears and obsessions; mutilated heroes who transform their existence into a colossal, yet ultimately pathetic, performance. Ernest Hemingway was one of these heroes, a man who, in his own words, "can be destroyed but never won". This Film traces the legendary author’s life, from the images and memories of his early boyhood, to his tragic suicide at the age of sixty-two. We first meet Hemmingway as a young boy dominated by the virile figure of his father, Clarence, a doctor devoted to hunting and fishing. When his father commits suicide, young Ernest is so traumatized by the event that its memory will haunt him for the rest of his life. Hemmingway next appears as an 18-year-old ambulance driver during World War I who is wounded on the front of Piave. During the World, he meets and fall in love a young Red cross nurse who will later become the model for his heroine in "A Farewell to Arms". We will meet each of Hemmingway’s four wives as well as his close friends and fellow expatriates in Paris: novelist and poet John Dos Passos; Ezra Pound, always generous with encouragement and advices; Gertrude Stein, the living symbol of literature and artistic genius who introduces the author to the greatest artists, among them Pablo Picasso; and Antonio Ordonez, the "Matador" who teaches Hemmingway that only those without fear have courage.