In Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure, our guide follows in Hemingway's footsteps through Europe, Africa, and the United States in an effort to learn more about what made the literary giant tick. Beginning in the suburbs of Chicago, then heading to Italy, Paris, Pamplona, and Cuba, Palin soaks up the atmosphere--and a daiquiri or two--in many of Papa's favorite haunts. He has an obvious affection for his subject, but he remains as irreverent as ever, whether he's trying (and failing) to shoot ducks in a freezing Italian lake or trying (and failing) to get an audience with Fidel Castro in Havana.

Although it lacks the "Will he make it?" excitement of the earlier series, the relatively leisurely pace of this journey allows Palin to dig a little deeper into his subject. He has an extraordinary knack for finding fascinating people on his travels, and his unassuming style encourages them to open up in front of the camera. The Hemingway trail offers particularly rich pickings, including a centenarian boxer who sparred with Hemingway and a gathering of portly, bearded Papa look-alikes in a Key West bar. Moving easily from the hilarious (tales of Hemingway sailing sans underwear) to the moving (describing the writer's last days from the room where he died), Palin is the perfect travel companion, and this is his most personal journey yet. --Simon Leake

  Customer Reviews  

On the trail of an American legend
Rating: 4
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This "Hemingway Adventure" is a set of TV programs originally made for the BBC in 1999.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

With this new program, "Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure," despite many interesting moments I think he has produced one of the most unfocused television programs I have seen. I think it would have been more coherent if Mr. Palin had begun his program at the start of Hemingway's life, namely Oak Park, Illinois, and gone on in chronological order instead of starting in Spain and visiting places haphazardly.

I found Mr. Palin's hunting expedition in part two to be ridiculous and bizarre. To his credit, hunting certainly does not seem to be in Mr. Palin's nature. The segment in which he went shooting will always remain with me as an example of the inane quality of hunting. It seemed that Mr. Palin was obliged to shoot at anything that moved, be it a rabbit or a pheasant. Was this supposed to prove that Mr. Palin could hit something? It seems to me that Palin is trying to live up to some ideal, image of Hemingway and has some difficulty rationalizing the less ideal parts of his life. Good old Papa, and that sort of thing.

I was disappointed enough in this series, having seen only half, to forgo the rest. ....