‘Hemingway’: Ken Burns’ Latest Is An Exhaustive Look At White Male Authorship [Review]
Continuing their attempts to chronicle every foundational moment or figure in American history, Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s exhaustive six-hour documentary, “Hemingway,” traces the historical formation of the titular author. Utilizing Burns’s now routine formal devices – photo pans and zooms, talking heads, Peter Coyote narration – “Hemingway” grafts the author’s life onto his novels in ways that may trouble literary critics who have moved on from biographical criticism but will be captivating for fans of Burns’ particular form of reporting.