| Cooper & Hemingway: The True Gen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | John Mulholland |
| Written by | John Mulholland |
| Produced by | Richard Zampella |
| Narrated by | Sam Waterston Len Cariou |
| Cinematography | Alex Eaton |
| Edited by | William Wells Elwaldo Baptiste |
| Music by | Byron Janis |
Release date |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Cooper & Hemingway: The True Gen is a 2013documentary film about the 20-year friendship between writerErnest Hemingway and film actorGary Cooper. Written and directed byJohn Mulholland,[1] it is narrated by actorSam Waterston with actorLen Cariou as the voice of writer Ernest Hemingway.
In researching Gary Cooper's friendship with Ernest Hemingway for an article in theIdaho Press-Tribune,[2] writer/director John Mulholland grew increasingly fascinated by their unlikely friendship.[3] 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 theMuseum of the Moving Image in New York City.[4]
Gary Cooper's daughter, Maria Cooper, discussedTrue Gen with theIdaho Mountain Express before a rough cut screening inSun Valley: "ThoughErnest 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".[5]
The documentary was produced over a five-year period and features on-camera interviews with 30 subjects, includingJim Harrison,Charlton Heston,Kirk Douglas,Patricia Neal,Elmore Leonard,Robert Stack,Budd Schulberg,Bill Blass,Patrick Hemingway, andGeorge Plimpton.
While researchingTrue Gen in Cuba, Mulholland spoke on Cuban radio in Havana.[6]
Prior to the film's release, Mulholland spoke about his Cooper and Hemingway documentary and its expected late 2013 release: "In the final analysis, what distinguishes the film is access—access to the colleagues and members of Ernest Hemingway’s and Gary Cooper’s inner circle that have never been assembled to discuss the lives of these two men, as well as film footage, photographs and other material that has never been seen."
On October 11, 2013,Cooper & Hemingway: The True Gen had its theatrical premiere at TheQuad Cinema in New York City.[7] The film is a feature-length documentary about the friendship betweenErnest Hemingway andGary Cooper. It was directed and written by John Mulholland and produced by Richard Zampella.[8]
Film critics hold diverse and wide-ranging opinions of the film.
The film was reviewed byThe New York Times film criticAndy Webster on October 11, 2013 and was named an NY Times Critics’ Pic[9] byManohla Dargis,A. O. Scott andStephen Holden. Webster said the picture was proof that the work of these two men "endures and so does what they stood for".[10]
James Van Maanen, film critic forTrust Movies, called the film "a first class, dual celebrity bio-doc".[11]
Michael Nordine of theVillage Voice said that the film was informative to a fault,[12] while Robert Abele of theLos Angeles Times said, "There's an intriguing investigation to be made of the unlikely bond between an easygoing, friendlyHollywood conservative and an intemperate, hard-drinking arts-and-letters liberal who chewed on heroic ideals for a living."[13]
In author and scholar Ron McFarland's 2014 book on Ernest Hemingway he writes: "True Gen, written and directed by John Mulholland, is exceptional, aNY Times Critics Pick, it opened in 2013 to considerable fanfare in NYC ..."[14]