Norman Mailer

He symbolised the USA - the dream and the nightmare at the same time. As a debuting writer he was the angry young man, as an angry old man and icon of America he died - Norman Mailer. In between lay a life like a roller coaster, defined by radiant success and dark moments.
Born in 1923 to Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, Mailer grew up in Brooklyn. The dominant figure in the family was his mother, whose father was a grocer and hotelier in the seaside resort of Long Branch, New Jersey, and the unofficial rabbi of his town. Norman had actually wanted to be an aircraft engineer, but took a few writing courses while studying at Harvard College. He fought on the Pacific front during the Second World War. Mailer became famous in 1948 with his first novel, "The Naked and the Dead", in which he processed his experiences as a soldier. Circulation: 7 million.
Like his role model Ernest Hemingway, war, violence, combat and sexual obsessions stayed with him all his life. He repeatedly made the headlines, also because of his alcohol and drug excesses. He "had more than a little violence in him", Mailer said of himself. He seriously injured one of his six wives while intoxicated. He belonged to the New York bohemian scene of the sixties and was curious about people who had experienced all the ups and downs - curious, that is, about his own kind. But what was behind this macho mask of the tender father of nine children? Desperation? The search for an identity that he never found? The film explores these questions and tells the dramatic story of Norman Mailer's life.