quackzy-97101

This is one of the few really good movies that John was in before he died so young. It's really well-made, John is perfect in it, and it's truly funny not just poo poo joke funny. It plays fairly often; give it a try. I don't watch movies usually more than once, this one I must've seen three times.

It is done pretentiously, whether you except it's premise or not. Beyond that it makes the often heard heard claim that our screens are making us less intelligent and are bad for us. They have no data to support any of this. The IQ rate of the world is going up, they even say that. If you look at total books sold, e-books included, the rate of books sold this year is 4% higher than last year. More people are reading more books. The reservoir of ignorance left in our country (30 some percent) is a real danger. This film wants to warn us about dangers that don't exist.

Ken Burns has done so much wonderful stuff that I think we may be reluctant to be as hard on this biography as it deserves.

The uncompromising voice of Peter Coyote drills Hemingway down year-by-year Without sympathy, without forgiveness, and almost without wonder at the artistic achievements of this man's life.

There are things to be learned from it, and there are some amazing moments in it, but I wonder if Mr. Burns, once he had his hands fully around the character he was about to portray had any misgivings about the portrayal he would make.

Halfway through the last hour I had to turn it off. Hemmingway could be a real jerk, but if the only thing he had ever written was the old man and the sea, then we should not be so quick to judgment.