Hemingway and Gellhorn - Fact vs. Fiction

Hemingway and Gellhorn– The Film	Reality
In 1936, Gellhorn by chance meets “Papa Hemingway” at Sloppy Joes in Key West.  After some sexual banter, and Hem hitting on her, she shows up at his home and watches an unfinished rough-cut of The Spanish Earth documentary.	Gellhorn had gone to Key West with the intention of meeting Hemingway and “Hooking up with him”  There was no Film screening at his house. But she later thanked Pauline for letting her stay for a week with her and “Hem”.
Impressed by The Spanish Earth. Gellhorn decides to go to Spain in Spring 1937. She has $50 & a knapsack, rides on a  rickety train and arrives at the Hotel Florida in Madrid on a Tank.  By chance she meets Hem –who’s flown over to Madrid on a Pan Am Clipper	Gellhorn spent most of her time in Europe and was obsessed with fighting fascism. She had planned to cover the Spanish Civil War before she met Papa.  Anyway, the two coordinated their trip to Spain-  but went in separate Ocean Liners.  There was no tank - and Hem had a hotel room waiting for her
Hemingway and Gellhorn cover the war together and see much action. The two finally have sex during a bombing raid.  Now a “Couple” – macho Hemingway plays “Russian roulette” with a Russian General when he hits on Gellhorn.	Wrong.  Gellhorn experienced some shelling & a few air raids but was not a combat correspondent. She reported on Civilian life behind the lines. There was no Russian General, and Gellhorn and Papa had started their affair before Spain.
Gellhorn and Hemingway return to the USA to show the The Spanish Earth and lecture against Fascism.  Gellhorn and Papa move to Cuba and write.  Gellhorn is delighted when Pauline grants a divorce and they are married	The movie skips over Gellhorn and Hem’s 3 other trips to Spain after the showing the Spanish earth in 1937.  Also skipped is Gellhorn’s 1938 reporting from Austria/Czechoslovakia. Finally, Gellhorn didn’t want to get married and didn’t care that Hem got a divorce.
In November 1939, Gellhorn goes to cover the Russo-Finnish War.  She returns and finds the house is a pig-sty.  Hem and Gellhorn then go to China in 1941.  First, they meet Chiang Kai-shek and his wife. Then go to a secret meeting with Communist leader Zhou Enlai – and are enraptured,  Later, they warn FDR and the State Department that the Communists will take over China.	Gellhorn and Hem’s trip to China was not only a secret spy mission for the FDR administration – but also for the NKVD (USSR secret service).  The Movie doesn’t mention that both were communist spies.  And Gellhorn was very impressed by Zhou Enlai (after all he was a communist).  However, neither of them foresaw  Mao’s  success and there was NO warning to the State Department.
We flash forward to May 1944. Gellhorn wants to cover D-Day, and is contemptuous of Hem’s “patriotic” U-boat hunting. The two argue and Hem revels he’s stolen Gellhorn’s spot as Collier’s war correspondent. Gellhorn is crushed at the selfishness – because Collier’s magazine only had space for one war correspondent	The film ignores that Gellhorn had visited the Italian front in Jan/Feb 1944. Gellhorn’s claim the Hem “stole her spot” is ridiculous. US Army did NOT allow women to be Combat correspondents in Normandy AND Colliers magazine sent her to the UK anyway. Side-note: Hem had stopped his U-boat patrols by Jan 1944.
On D-Day, Gellhorn fakes her way onto a US Army Hospital ship. She gets ashore at Omaha Beach - and sees combat. Her story is amazing, and gets her on the cover of Collier’s magazine. Hemingway  is livid – since he's stayed in England.	Gellhorn did arrive on  Omaha Beach - after dark. She saw no combat. By this time the Germans had been pushed well inland.  There was a minor air raid, but she never saw the planes or saw the bombs hit. OTOH, Hemingway was in one of the 1st landing craft at Omaha Beach - and Landing craft around were sunk and hit by artillery/machine gun fire. However,  he didn't go ashore.  Its His story that made Collier’s magazine cover - July 22, 1944 issue .  Gellhorn’s D-Day Story was not published till August 5, 1944 & was NOT a Cover story.  She wasn't even mentioned. Her D-Day article started on Page 14 & was entitled "The wounded come home"
Gellhorn is covering the fighting in Normandy when she hears Hem has been seriously injured in an auto accident. She goes to his room to express concern but finds Hem with his new girlfriend Mary. Jealous of her success, he sneers at her for being "The first journalist on Omaha Beach - but unaccredited". Disgusted she leaves. He later begs her to give him another chance. But she refuses and the relationship comes to an end.	Gellhorn was never in Normandy. After D-Day, she stayed In England. Then went to Rome in early July 1944 - and then Paris in late August 1944.  Hemingway's accident occured before D-Day. When Gellhorn arrived in London in Late May 1944, she heard Hem had been injured. Going to his room. she found him in bed, but surrounded by cronies and whisky. Gellhorn laughed aloud at his absurd appearance, making Hemingway hurt and angry.  Afterwards, the two maintained a intermittent  & semi-hostile relationship.  In Nov 1944, Gellhorn asked for a divorce which Hemingway refused- out of spite.  In March 1945 Hemingway returned to Cuba and started the divorce proceedings.  The two never met again

Hemingway and Gellhorn (2012)

Plot: HBO Biopic about  Martha Gellhorn and her relationship with Earnest Hemingway.
Stars: Nicole Kidman, Clive Owens, Robert Duvall
Best Quote: Done by noon... drunk by 3:00. That's my philosophy.
Most Annoying Prop:  Clive Owens constantly smoking a cigar. Hemingway didn't smoke. And it makes Owens look like Groucho Marx.

Borderline adequate Biopic about two extremely interesting people.  H&G suffers from the usual Biopic problems:

• The movie is chained to actual events and people - which can be a problem. Unlike fictional characters, real people have an unfortunate tendency to be undramatic, unromantic, and contradictory. Nor do their lives follow a dramatic arc. 
• The actors are often less intelligent and charismatic then the Biopic subjects. 
• "Real people" are often selfish/nasty - we need lots of "whitewash"to make them into heroes. 

In addition,  H&G can't decide what it wants to be. Is it a love story, a "You Go Girl" Feminist tale, or a Spanish Civil War drama?  And it fails at all three. Clive Owns and Kidman have zero chemistry, they don't even seem to like each other. The feminist angle is undercut by showing Kidman as subservient to Hemingway and softening her character. And the Spanish Civil war is reduced to an exciting adventure that allows Hem and Martha to show how brave and politically "woke" they are. The poor Spaniards are caricatured as either simple peasant folk or cartoon revolutionaries.

The dialogue is poor.  The scriptwriter even butchers Hemingway's quip about Gellhorn. "Marty loves mankind, its people she can't stand" is transformed into a clunky "That woman loves humanity, but can't stand people".

The Softening of Martha Gellhorn

Gellhorn was a good looking, charismatic, intelligent woman who never lacked for friends or lovers. She lived life her own way, and loved to go alone on adventures. But Gellhorn didn't believe in religion or marriage, and she had zero qualms about going after married men.  If a woman couldn't keep her man - tough.  Nor was she interested in being polite or "nice" to anyone not a friend. Tradesmen were stiffed, servants fired, storekeepers insulted. She didn't "suffer fools gladly" and anyone who bored her was cut out immediately - forever. This also applied to politics.  Anyone who criticized Israel, more than once, was gone for good.

Gellhorn even called her adopted son a "loser" and a "Bore" and didn't speak to him for 5 years. She was also a communist/hardcore leftist, and never said a bad word about Stalin, Mao, or any other Communist dictator.

The movie tries to make her more likable and mold her into a spunky - but nice - movie heroine. 

• In the movie, the "Hem and Marty" have a chance meeting in Key West and later in Madrid. Hemingway chases her, hits on her, and finally she she gives in.  In reality, Gellhorn went after him, had sex with Hemingway straightaway and in 1937 followed him to Spain.
• In the movie, Kidman is delighted when Pauline grants Hemingway a divorce. In reality, Gellhorn didn't care, and didn't care about getting married. 
• In the movie, Kidman hurries to Hemingway's bedside when he's injured and is full of concern. In reality, Gelllhorn had no sympathy for Hemingway's "idiocy" and burst out laughing when she saw his head dressed in an "absurd" bandage
• In the movie, Kidman is shocked at Hemingway's cruel treatment of Dos Passos when communists execute his friend. In reality, Gellhorn was even more cold-blooded the "Papa" about the need to overlook Communist atrocities.
• In the movie, Kidman wants to keep their relationship going. In reality, Gellhorn had tired of  Hemingway and decided on divorcing him before she went to England in May 1944.