Cooper and Hemingway: The True Gen

Cooper and Hemingway: The True Gen (2013)

In many ways it was the perfect match: Ernest Hemingway whose heroes personified his definition of courage - "grace under pressure" - and Gary Cooper, the man who often portrayed those characters on screen. Yet in other ways-politically, intellectually, and personally- Hemingway and Cooper were a study in contradictions. The story of this extraordinary 20+ year friendship is the focus of this documentary, the film narrated by Sam Waterson, features interviews with such Hollywood luminaries as Kirk Douglas, Charlton Heston, George Plimpton, and Patricia Neal.

Date of release
2013-09-27
TMDB
10.0 / 10 (1)
Runtime
3h 0m
Genres
Documentary
Director
John Mulholland

Interesting facts

Cooper & Hemingway: The True Gen is a 2013 documentary film about the 20-year friendship between writer Ernest Hemingway and film actor Gary Cooper. Written and directed by John Mulholland, it is narrated by actor Sam Waterston with actor Len Cariou as the voice of writer Ernest Hemingway.

Production history

In researching Gary Cooper's friendship with Ernest Hemingway for an article in the Idaho Press-Tribune, writer/director John Mulholland grew increasingly fascinated by their unlikely friendship. The documentary, Cooper & Hemingway: True Gen, grew out of Mulholland's research for the article.

Prior to commencing production, Robert Osborne interviewed Mulholland on the documentary at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City.

Gary Cooper's daughter, Maria Cooper, discussed True Gen with the Idaho Mountain Express before a rough cut screening in Sun Valley: "Though Ernest Hemingway’s extraordinary life and career has been exhaustively covered (too often the tabloid-sensationalism of this coverage has over-shadowed his unrivaled literary legacy), less thoroughly examined has been his fascinating friendship with my father, Gary Cooper".

The documentary was produced over a five-year period and features on-camera interviews with 30 subjects, including Jim Harrison, Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal, Elmore Leonard, Robert Stack, Budd Schulberg, Bill Blass, Patrick Hemingway, and George Plimpton.

While researching True Gen in Cuba, Mulholland spoke on Cuban radio in Havana.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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