Are you a literary buff, or a Hemingway enthusiast? Are you interested in watching movies based on true events? Well, HBOWatch has been given the opportunity to review, HEMINGWAY & GELLHORN coming out today, April 2nd on Blu-ray and DVD.
THE MOVIE
HEMINGWAY & GELLHORN is a lush, grand, expansive look at the relationship between Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, played with electric chemistry by Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman respectively, from the beginning of the Spanish Civil War through their rocky, but passionate marriage. Philip Kaufman uses real footage from that time, that conveys an authentic feel to the material.
The cast which also includes, David Strathairn, Tony Shaloub, Parker Posey, Molly Parker and Rodrigo Santoro are phenomenal in their passion, their strength and keeping with the overall tone of the movie. Philip Kaufman does a good job of making the movie feel like something that might be a feature on the big screen.
THE AUDIO AND VIDEO
The movie comes on Blu-ray and DVD, which are both included in the package. I watched the movie on Blu-ray with surround sound and was pleasantly surprised by the quality and clarity of the battle scenes and the movie in general. The colors were crisp and clean and the transitions from sepia to color weren’t as jarring as I remember it being when I watched it on HBO.
THE EXTRAS
The extras were really disappointing I must say. The DVD version of the movie only has audio commentary with the director Philip Kaufman and editor Walter Murch. The Blu-ray has two behind the scenes featurettes titled, Behind The Visual Effects and Making Hemingway & Gellhorn. I, personally enjoyed the Making Hemingway & Gellhorn over the Behind The Visual Effects just because I enjoy hearing how they made the movie as a whole.
IN CONCLUSION
I think this Blu-ray/DVD package of HEMINGWAY & GELLHORN will be a disappointment for fans of the movie if they were expecting more about the historical backgrounds of the real people portrayed in the movie. It always surprises me when Blu-ray and DVDs come out with little to no extras because that is one of the main reasons I buy the DVD in the first place. HEMINGWAY & GELLHORN is a movie that is easy to watch over again, so it may be fine, but this viewer would have liked to have seen more extras. Buy the Blu-ray/DVD starting today at [amazon_link id=”B0041KKZIW” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Amazon for $15[/amazon_link] (price may change). Or check out the book the movie is based on titled, Hemingway and Gellhorn: The Untold Story of Two Writers, Espionage, War and the Great Depression by Jerome Tuccile [amazon_link id=”1460972589″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]for $13 on Amazon[/amazon_link].
