Islands In the Stream

This project was originally begun as a trilogy written by Hemingway while he lived in Key West. The project was abandoned during the alcohol-soaked final years of his marriage to Pauline, his second wife, and then re-discovered by his widow, Mary, after his suicide, still stored in the box he had left it in in the back room of Sloppy Joe's, when he left Key West and moved across the Stream to Cuba. The three almost complete books were combined and published post-humously as Islands in the Stream. It was the most auto-biographical of all his works, and reveals a man who is aware of each and every one of his many short-comings, as well as the beauty of each, and every, imperfect life. George C. Scott was born to play Hemingway, just as he appeared to be born to play Patton. He is utterly convincing in the lead role and his performance dominates this movie even as Hemingway himself dominated the settings of his own life. Hemingway loved the Caribbean and the great Gulf Stream that runs through it, and watching the magnificent scenery this movie was shot in makes it clear why. This movie feels like something that was shot in the 1930's and haunts you long after you've watched it, just like the hero Tom Hudson's last words, "I learned that there is no single great thing in life that is true. It is all true". A classic film, and classic Hemingway, and classic George C. Scott.