''Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself'' is a 2013 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by Tom Bean and Luke Poling about the writer

George Plimpton George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 – September 25, 2003) was an American writer. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found ''The Paris Review'', as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. He was also known for " ...

, who was a co-founder of ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Phil ...

'' and contributor to the participatory journalism genre.

Synopsis

''Plimpton!'' tells the story of writer, editor and amateur sportsman, George Plimpton. Starting with his getting kicked out of Exeter, the film follows Plimpton as he joins ''

'' as its first editor and the creation of the "Art of Fiction" series. Plimpton also starts writing for ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

'', undertaking various participatory journalism attempts, including pitching against an all-star major league baseball line-up, including

Willie Mays Willie Howard Mays Jr. (born May 6, 1931), nicknamed "the Say Hey Kid" and "Buck", is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Regarded as one of the greatest players ever, Mays ranks second behind only Babe Ruth on most all-tim ...

, taking the field as an NFL quarterback with the Detroit Lions and skating with the

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team has been in existence since 1924, making t ...

as a goalie. All of these adventures were turned into books, including ''Out of My League'', '' Paper Lion'', and ''Open Net''. The film also examines Plimpton's private life, including his wrestling

Sirhan Sirhan Sirhan Bishara Sirhan (; ar, سرحان بشارة سرحان ''Sirḥān Bišāra Sirḥān'', born March 19, 1944) is a Palestinian Jordanian man who was convicted for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy, a United States Sena ...

for control of the gun, moments after the assassination of

Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...

. The movie uses excerpts from interviews and lectures and readings by Plimpton as narration, with interviews with his friends and family to tell his story. It also features never-before-seen photos and video, including Robert F. Kennedy talking about George on the campaign trail, and photos of Plimpton's various participatory attempts.

Production

The film features Plimpton as principal narrator and interviews with Hugh Hefner, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr,

Mel Stuart Mel Stuart (born Stuart Solomon; September 2, 1928 – August 9, 2012) was an American film director and producer who often worked with producer David L. Wolper, at whose production firm he worked for 17 years, before going freelance. Ea ...

Walon Green Walon Green (born December 15, 1936) is an American documentary film director and screenwriter, for both television and film. Career Green produced and directed documentaries for National Geographic and David Wolper, including ''The Hellstrom Chr ...

Philip Gourevitch Philip Gourevitch (born 1961), an American author and journalist, is a longtime staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' and a former editor of ''The Paris Review''. His most recent book is '' The Ballad of Abu Ghraib'' (2008), an account of Iraq's ...

James Salter James Arnold Horowitz (June 10, 1925 – June 19, 2015), better known as James Salter, his pen name and later-adopted legal name, was an American novelist and short-story writer. Originally a career officer and pilot in the United States Air For ...

, Christopher Cerf,

Jonathan Dee Jonathan Dee (born May 19, 1962) is an American novelist and non-fiction writer. His fifth novel, ''The Privileges'', was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Early life Dee was born in New York City. He graduated from Yale Unive ...

Jay McInerney John Barrett "Jay" McInerney Jr. (; born January 13, 1955) is an American novelist, screenwriter, editor, and columnist. His novels include ''Bright Lights, Big City (novel), Bright Lights, Big City'', ''Ransom'', ''Story of My Life (novel), Sto ...

Gay Talese Gaetano "Gay" Talese (; born February 7, 1932) is an American writer. As a journalist for ''The New York Times'' and ''Esquire'' magazine during the 1960s, Talese helped to define contemporary literary journalism and is considered, along with ...

Peter Matthiessen Peter Matthiessen (May 22, 1927 – April 5, 2014) was an American novelist, naturalist, wilderness writer, zen teacher and CIA Operative. A co-founder of the literary magazine ''The Paris Review'', he was the only writer to have won the Nation ...

, Ken Burns,

Mike Milbury Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and document ...

Robert Silvers Robert Benjamin Silvers (December 31, 1929 – March 20, 2017) was an American editor who served as editor of ''The New York Review of Books'' from 1963 to 2017. Raised on Long Island, New York, Silvers graduated from the University of Chicago ...

, Taylor Plimpton and

James Lipton Louis James Lipton (September 19, 1926 – March 2, 2020) was an American writer, lyricist, actor, and dean emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University in New York City. He was the executive producer, writer, and host of the B ...

, amongst others. The film was produced by Bean, Poling, Adam Roffman and

Terry McDonell Robert Terry McDonell (born August 1, 1944) is an editor, writer and publishing executive. Most recently, he is the author of Irma: The education of a Mother's Son', and a co-founderbr>The Literary Hub His memoir, ''The Accidental Life: An Editor' ...

. It took filmmakers Bean and Poling five years to make the film, as they searched through archival material and assembled the film's story. Their goal was to have Plimpton posthumously act as the film's narrator. Poling said the archival material was in the form of "audio tapes, video tapes, 8mm film reels — every type of format you could think of both currently in use and long extinct — that we had to go through to find the footage for the film." The filmmakers also uncovered Plimpton's notebook from his time with the Detroit Lions, a time that would eventually become '' Paper Lion'', one of Plimpton's best-known books. Bean described the first pages of the notebook as, "a journal, him packing and getting on a plane to go to Detroit to join the Lions, it mimics, really closely, what became the first page of the book.” Talking about the film in interviews to promote its theatrical release, the filmmakers said, "Making our movie was an adventure, and a wonderful one at that. We often said that if you simply had to think about and study one person for years and years, George Plimpton was a pretty good guy to pick."

Release

The film debuted at the AFI SilverDocs film festival in Silver Spring, MD in June 2012, before playing festivals around the world. It opened theatrically in New York City in May 2013, and also played in Los Angeles, Boston, Denver, Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, Palm Springs, Providence, Washington DC and other cities. The film debuted in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

PBS America PBS America is a British free-to-air television channel derived from the American public television broadcaster PBS. Similar to the BBC and Channel 4, it is a joint venture between entrepreneur David Lyons and PBS Distribution, a joint venture ...

on February 16, 2014. The film debuted on US television on ''

American Masters ''American Masters'' is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and those who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the ...

'', on May 16, 2014.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has an approval rating of 96% based on reviews from 27 critics. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

the film has a score of 74% based on reviews from 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

called it, " skilled portrait of a literary light.”. ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...

'' gave the film an "A."

IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...

said, "smartly constructed, using copious archival interviews to allow Plimpton to largely tell his own story, Bean and Poling's documentary is a brilliant example of creative biographical filmmaking." On the strength of the film, directors Bean and Poling were named one of "10 to Watch" by ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' magazine.http://www.aivf.org/magazine/2013/05/luke-poling_tom-bean_plimpton!-starring-george-plimpton-as-himself_10-to-watch-2013

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 1817235, Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton As Himself 2012 films American documentary films 2012 documentary films Documentary films about writers Documentary films about journalists 2010s English-language films 2010s American films