ANNIVERSAY ISSUE 0717

M
ulholland was fascinated to
learn that both men were
highly influential to the
nation as a whole—not just
as icons, but specifically as
males. “For better and worse, both Cooper
and Hemingway are responsible for defining
what American masculinity meant in the first
half of the twentieth century,” Mulholland
elaborates. Both men put forth an image of
being strong, silent, and ready to face danger,
yet never vulnerable. Mulholland’s film
shows how such cultural pressures were at
points damaging to their careers, as well as to
American men as a whole. Mulholland was
also intrigued whenever he discovered things
about these men that were unexpected.
Some of Hemingway’s lesser-known works
belied the image the world had of him. His
stories “Cat in the Rain” and “A Canary for
One” deal with marital dysfunction, while
“Up in Michigan” focuses on date rape—and
he did not approach these topics in way that
would a misogynist. The supposedly unintelligent
Cooper, in turn, had many artistic and
intellectual friends, entirely outside of the
realm of Hollywood. In different ways, both
Hemingway and Cooper were forced to
repress their more empathic, sensitive sides
for the American public at large.
There is so much that can fit into a two hour
and fifteen-minute documentary. However,
when the film is focused on two people and
the relationship between them, it can be a
struggle to balance all the information on
both. “There was much I shot that ended up
on the cutting room floor,” Mulholland notes.
“For example, they were seemingly opposite
politically—Cooper a Republican, and
Hemingway a Democrat. However, they were
closer aligned than people realized.” One of
Mulholland’s favorite anecdotes is about how
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