Hemingway and Gellhorn (2012) is an HBO's biopic film. The movie is focused on the relationship of Ernest Hemingway; the greatest American writer of his time and Martha Gellhorn , the greatest women war correspondent ever. The backdrop of the movie is largely WW2. It is an amazing biopic, specially the acting of Nicole Kidman is spellbound. That only made me read further about Martha Gellhorn.
I am pursuing my Ph.D. on a feminist hindi writer and my perspective these days have become weirdly feminist. I didn't intent to watch the movie from Feminist's perspective but as I watched the movie all those feminist concerns begin to have meaning. Anyone who would watch the movie it is because Hemingway. He is more popular, the syllabus writer and a gigantic personality for a Literati. But at the end of the movie all you remember is Martha Gellhorn. Who is she?
Born on 8 November, 1908, Martha Gellhorn dropped her graduation to pursue a career as a journalist . Then she became a foreign correspondent .Gellhorn first met Hemingway during a 1936 Christmas family trip to Key West. They agreed to travel in Spain together to cover the Spanish Civil War, where Gellhorn was hired to report for Collier's Weekly. She went to Germany, Finland, Hong Kong, Burma, Singapore and Britain to report war. She was the only woman to land at Normandy on D-Day (June 6, 1944.) She was also among the first journalists to report from Dachau concentration camp after it was liberated. She once said, "I followed the war wherever I could reach it."
Martha Gellhorn was Hemingway's third wife till 1940-45. She resented being his wife because in her interviews her achievements were shadowed by the fact that she was Hemingway's wife. She said in one of her interviews ," I don't want to be a footnote in someone's life." This is an epic statement ; from feminist's perspective; by a lady who wanted to prove her self-worth through her courageous work.
The world of men always want to portray women as frail, fragile , weak, dependent but when a woman challenges it, their ego can not accept. Keeping Gellhorn's above statement in light, it is only an irony that the title of the movie , "Hemingway and Gellhorn" take Hemingway's name first.
However, the movie brings forth Martha Gellhorn as a emancipated woman, who lived they way she wanted to. And although the movie is about their relationship, it seems more meaningful in the light of Feminism and the New Woman. You must watch it if you like Hemingway or Gellhorn either, or if you like the war movies , it is brilliant both ways.
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| via: Google images |
I am pursuing my Ph.D. on a feminist hindi writer and my perspective these days have become weirdly feminist. I didn't intent to watch the movie from Feminist's perspective but as I watched the movie all those feminist concerns begin to have meaning. Anyone who would watch the movie it is because Hemingway. He is more popular, the syllabus writer and a gigantic personality for a Literati. But at the end of the movie all you remember is Martha Gellhorn. Who is she?
Born on 8 November, 1908, Martha Gellhorn dropped her graduation to pursue a career as a journalist . Then she became a foreign correspondent .Gellhorn first met Hemingway during a 1936 Christmas family trip to Key West. They agreed to travel in Spain together to cover the Spanish Civil War, where Gellhorn was hired to report for Collier's Weekly. She went to Germany, Finland, Hong Kong, Burma, Singapore and Britain to report war. She was the only woman to land at Normandy on D-Day (June 6, 1944.) She was also among the first journalists to report from Dachau concentration camp after it was liberated. She once said, "I followed the war wherever I could reach it."
Martha Gellhorn was Hemingway's third wife till 1940-45. She resented being his wife because in her interviews her achievements were shadowed by the fact that she was Hemingway's wife. She said in one of her interviews ," I don't want to be a footnote in someone's life." This is an epic statement ; from feminist's perspective; by a lady who wanted to prove her self-worth through her courageous work.
The world of men always want to portray women as frail, fragile , weak, dependent but when a woman challenges it, their ego can not accept. Keeping Gellhorn's above statement in light, it is only an irony that the title of the movie , "Hemingway and Gellhorn" take Hemingway's name first.
However, the movie brings forth Martha Gellhorn as a emancipated woman, who lived they way she wanted to. And although the movie is about their relationship, it seems more meaningful in the light of Feminism and the New Woman. You must watch it if you like Hemingway or Gellhorn either, or if you like the war movies , it is brilliant both ways.
Hmmm! I think I need to watch it
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. And you would not regret it :)
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