Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure

The following review is based on watching the DVD version of Michael Palin's "Hemingway Adventure", subtitled "On the trail of an American legend". This version consists of a single DVD disc with four programs totaling approx. 3 hours 15 minutes. There is no extra material, but English subtitles can be turned on or off, although I found the on/off setting to be counter-intuitive.

This "Hemingway Adventure" is a set of TV programs originally made for the BBC in 1999. Michael Palin visits many of the places where Ernest Hemingway lived and traveled, displaying a keen interest in Hemingway, mostly as a person rather than Hemingway's authorship.

Program 1:

Spain - running with bulls, bullfighting

Africa - hunting

Program 2:

Chicago - Hemingway's youth, guns, hunting, fishing, Indians

Italy - WW I

Paris - books, sports, injuries

Program 3:

Key West - Hemingway look-alikes, boxing

Africa again - plane crashes

Italy again - duck hunting

Program 4:

Cuba - drinking, fishing

Montana & Idaho - dude ranches, hunting, Hemingway's death

I don't understand this ordering of the programs, as it would make more sense if programs 1 and 2 were reversed. Then the programs would follow Hemingway's life fairly closely instead of appearing to be in almost random order.

As usual with Michael Palin's travelogues, the strong points are the very interesting places he visits and the very interesting people he manages to talk to. And the beautiful photography of the nature and cities and people and wildlife are very good.

I've also read the book that is associated with this TV program, and was disappointed to discover that many of the interesting things featured in the book are not even mentioned in the TV program. Of course, a book that runs 6 hours as an audio book obviously contains a lot more than a 3-hour TV program. (The book is highly recommended, both the printed version with beautiful photographs by Basil Pao and the audio version read by Michael Palin himself.)

This is a very good travelogue, the only negative aspect being that Michael Palin occasionally acts a bit too silly. Highly recommended.

Rennie Petersen

I am only 15 and this series introduced me to a wilder and wider world. I have read Hemingway and this documentary, like Michael Palin, showed the true adventurer.

The lovely Michael Palin ensured that he gave every step of the journey complete enthusiasm and showed the true extent of one person's craving for adventure. OK it wasn't pleasant throughout ie. the Bull fight but Michael Palin gave accurate and true reactions to this and everywhere else he went.

I have since enjoyed the other trips he has gone on and i thank him for bringing out the dromomania in me.

I really enjoyed " Hemingway Adventure" as I did with Michael Palin's Around The World in 80 days, Pole To Pole and Full Circle. This is not quite the same as the previous shows, there is no time limits or travel problems but instead this plots the story of hunter and explorer Earnest Hemingway . If I have to be critical I would say this is the least enjoyable of the 4 but never the less still superb. One thing this series has more than the others is the Michael Palin humour. I can't wait until he is off on his travels again. 8 out of 10

I read a short story by Earnest Hemingway when I was 1st year student of Computer Science and Engineering in 1997. The name of the story was 'Snow of Kilimanjaro'. It touched me. I thought I would read more of his novels stories but then I became too addicted to digital media.

Today 24 years later, I stumbled upon Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure and started to watch this. I think Michael Palin is the one I could easily connect to throughout documentaries. And each episode of the documentary is filled with fun and facts about Hemingway. Even if you are not interested in Hemingway, you will enjoy this documentary.

Used to love his "around the World's" but this was appalling. Staged trite "jokes" no realistic attempt to add anything to Hemingway's legacy / myth. I initially thought "wrong person" to do this, but I'll watch it anyway. How the hell it won an award....