Cooper and Hemingway: The True Gen

This documentary showcased two men whom I thought I knew, yet it made me see both Ernest Hemingway and Gary Cooper in new and surprising ways.

It also made me see the damage that our society's emphasis on rock-em, sock-em masculinity does. Both Hemingway and Cooper obviously spent their professional lives hiding their sensitive interior selves. And, as the documentary reveals, this ended up harming their careers as they aged. Both were locked into images they'd created early on, and could not escape from.

Can't recommend this any higher.

More than s biography yet more than a documentary, this film, in stills and motion, dramatizes the meeting and more than twenty-year friendship of two of the masters of their respective art. Gary Cooper, the preeminently earnest actor, and Ernest Hemingway, the much-imitated realistic writer, are joined in this story of a nearly forgotten America.

Unlike similar biopics this film succeeds in drawing its audience into the life and affairs—not merely sexual—of these men's triumphs, disappointments, fears, and foibles, in a way that is difficult to disengage from. Where others take a didactic, professorial stance "Tru Gen"—the subtitle taken from Hemingway's distinction of "truth from rumor", "the real from the phony"—gives us opportunity to drink from the top-shelf of two top-shelf lives.

It feels superfluous to speak of the films production values. (The narration of Sam Waterston, cinematography, sound, and the rest, are superb.) They match the storytelling as they do the two lives presented. The pacing is goldilocks-perfect, facilitating comprehension of the films many details while preserving the warmth and resonance of each episode and scene.

The sweep of the film in reportage of conduct/behavior and relation of feelings is at times staggering. We do hear from the professors and critics but they are subordinate to the close friends, professional associates, and yes, lovers.

Imagine any of the literary, painting, and film characters of "Midnight in Paris" (Woody Allen, 2010), drawn at length in intimate portraiture, and you have a glimpse of what "The Tru Gen" offers. We are treated to a full-length expose: a feast for the uninformed and the connoisseur. On third viewing the film is as fresh as the first. One cannot guzzle. You must sip and savor.

I saw this at the Quad theater in NYC. Not your normal run of the mill documentary. Intense. Makes you think and dream while you learn. Goes way beyond normal docs. Shows a sense of the times and how different everything was before the 60s. There are so many talking heads that new the men and spent time with them. The interviews make you wish they would come back for a day so you could spend time with them in their world. The complexity of Gary Cooper and Ernest Hemingway is both astonishing and interesting. Looks like they had some great times together meeting all around the world. I re-read "A Farewell To Arms" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls" after, seemed like I had never read them before. Now to watch both films. A must see for either Gary Cooper or Ernest Hemingway fans.

Cooper & Hemingway: The True Gen not only profiles the lives of two of the greatest American icons of the 20th Century, but it also unfolds against the backdrop of world events and American history.

The narrative is skillfully driven by interviews interspersed with with never before seen home films and archival photographs. Perhaps most interesting is the documentary's analysis of the parallel success of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and Cooper's High Noon in 1951. Who knew Hemingway's suicide followed Cooper's death from cancer a mere seven week apart.

Makes the viewer wonder how the loss of his best friend added to Hemingway's terrible depression.

If you're a fan of Gary Cooper, Ernest Hemingway, or both men (or just want to learn more about modern American literature and/or American film history), you'll enjoy this documentary about their unlikely yet fascinating friendship. These two iconic men were total opposites in appearance, personality, temperament, and political views, but were able to forge an enduring friendship based on mutual respect and admiration (though Cooper seemed less starstruck by Hemingway than Hemingway was by Cooper, who exemplified the ideal American male and ideal American hero at the time and was the inspiration for the Robert Jordan character in For Whom the Bell Tolls). Imagine such a friendship between two luminaries in today's polarized and cynical society. This documentary does a great job of exploring the parallels in the two men's lives, and how their respective careers peaked and declined around the same time, and how both also made huge comebacks around the same time that redeemed their careers and sealed their legacies.

Both Cooper and Hemingway are shown as complex, multi-dimensional, and thinking men who were both rugged and sophisticated, outdoorsy and cosmopolitan, and masculine and sensitive, but the differences between the two are also explored. Cooper was calm and friendly, had grace under pressure, grew up on a ranch in Montana but went to boarding school in England, was handsome and well-liked, and was the biggest movie star at the time, but didn't act like a star. Hemingway, on the other hand, was boisterous, liked to tell stories that weren't even true, drank too much, didn't like people, wasn't always nice, and was often jealous of other writers and feuded with them. Honestly, each of these guys could qualify as "the Most Interesting Man in the World." Equally impressive as the men and their achievements were the strong women they were married to (yes, both men had affairs, but I give them credit for being men who were not afraid of strong women).

I enjoyed the interviews with both Cooper's and Hemingway's contemporaries, most of whom are now gone, as well as with their children and the children of their peers. The only reason why I didn't give this documentary 10 stars is that it's a bit long (slightly over 2 hours) and I didn't care for some of the modern special effects, but I still highly recommend it.