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The true story of Ernest Hemingway's last years and of his tempestuous relationship with his fourth wife Mary as they struggle to deal with his declining powers as a writer.
SYNOPSIS:
My screenplay answers two questions:
• Why was Ernest Hemingway’s last marriage so volatile and yet so passionate?
• Why did Hemingway kill himself?
Seven years before his death, Ernest is drinking heavily, fearing he’ll never again write “one more true sentence.”
Mary kills a lion but suspects that Ernest’s hit was the fatal one. To satisfy his own guilt, Ernest sends Mary to shop in Nairobi and we discover his infidelity with a Maasai girl. Mary is aware of it. While she is away, Ernest risks his life to kill a leopard with a spear.
After the safari, they go on a sightseeing plane ride – which ends with a crash. They are rescued by a launch traveling near the Murchison Falls. Tensions increase when they meet Hannah and Christian, passengers on the launch. Hannah reminds Ernest of his first love, Sophie, and they end up having an emotional affair. Mary sees Ernest kiss Hannah and retaliates by sleeping with Christian.
The Hemingways board another plane and it too crashes. Ernest deliberates whether or not to end his life but gets out just in time and is almost killed. This crash is more serious than the first as Ernest sustains serious head injuries.
The Hemingways return to Cuba in time for the Revolution. Ernest is momentarily happy as he wins the Nobel Prize for Literature but descends into deep depression as he finds it difficult to write and complete any project.
The Hemingways move to Ketchum in 1960 as Cuba is no longer safe for Americans. Ernest goes to Spain alone to complete a writing assignment for Life Magazine. His time in Spain is disastrous: he is unable to cope and is disorientated and confused. Back in Ketchum, Ernest becomes paranoid. Relations with Mary are now increasingly strained and she can no longer cope. Desperate, she decides that Ernest must undergo electric shock therapy. The horrific therapy does him no good. Ernest recalls World War I Italy, and how his first love Sophie nursed him in the hospital. And then he remembers Hannah.
Mary turns to Hannah. Now remarried and happy, Hannah forgives Mary for her infidelity with Christian. Mary tells of Ernest’s suicide attempts and that she has had to move his gun cabinet to the basement and lock the door. Hannah’s reunion with Ernest is bittersweet. He confesses to her that the electric shock therapy has destroyed his brain.
Mary’s sadness deepens; she knows that Ernest would rather die than be unable to write. On 1 July 1961, Mary makes the heart-wrenching decision to leave the basement key for Ernest to find. Early the next morning, Mary awakens to the sound of the gunshot: Ernest has killed himself.
This is all rather exciting, but I think could be improved by focusing on the emotional story. Reading this synopsis I feel "above the action", like I'm reading facts about his life. I'm sure the script has more of the emotional impact. Is it possible to bring that to synopsis? Also The two questions you pose are academic sounding and the truth is - does anyone ever really "know" why someone commits suicide? Is this told in flashback? It might be interesting to show someone "in the moment of decision" and with every good memory he has, he sees how his current body/mind is not that way anymore. If the script "takes us down the basement steps", so with each step: her leaving the house, him discovering the key, opening the basement door, descending the stairs, finding the gun, loading it...it ratchets up the tension and shows a life well lived but destroyed through injury, misguided therapy, and family mental health. I know this story and it is very interesting and emotional, just make sure not to get bogged down in the facts and stick to the emotions. Good luck!
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Thanks so much, Noel for your feedback, I really appreciated it- you are so right about it sounding academic as that's my background and that's not a good thing here! so I will change it! Yes, the script is more emotional - and there is some flashback and my ending is just as you describe. But one thing with Hemingway, suicide had been on his mind for most of his life - his father committed suicide, for example. He was a deeply trouble man and the script is an attempt to show where his decision came from.
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Here's the part that makes me sad: "Mary’s sadness deepens; she knows that Ernest would rather die than be unable to write." I've felt the sting of hopelessness and I don't judge him one bit for what happened. I just wish that he had found fulfillment aside from his writing so that he could have kept going.
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