A
biographical film
or
biopic
(
)
[1]
is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or group of people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used.
[2]
They differ from
docudrama films
and
historical drama films
in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a single person's life story or at least the most historically important years of their lives.
[
original research?
]
Biopic scholars include George F. Custen of the
College of Staten Island
and Dennis P. Bingham of
Indiana University?Purdue University Indianapolis
. Custen, in
Bio/Pics: How Hollywood Constructed Public History
(1992), regards the genre as having died with the
Hollywood studio era
, and in particular,
Darryl F. Zanuck
.
[3]
On the other hand, Bingham's 2010 study
Whose Lives Are They Anyway? The Biopic as Contemporary Film Genre
[4]
shows how it perpetuates as a codified genre using many of the same tropes used in the studio era that has followed a similar trajectory as that shown by
Rick Altman
in his study,
Film/Genre
.
[5]
Bingham also addresses the male biopic and the female biopic as distinct genres from each other, the former generally dealing with great accomplishments, the latter generally dealing with female victimization. Ellen Cheshire's
Bio-Pics: a life in pictures
(2014) examines UK/US films from the 1990s and 2000s. Each chapter reviews key films linked by profession and concludes with further viewing list.
[6]
Christopher Robe has also written on the gender norms that underlie the biopic in his article, "Taking Hollywood Back" in the 2009 issue of
Cinema Journal
.
[7]
Roger Ebert
defended
The Hurricane
and distortions in biographical films in general, stating "those who seek the truth about a man from the film of his life might as well seek it from his loving grandmother. ...
The Hurricane
is not a
documentary
but a
parable
."
[8]
Film representations
edit
Because the figures portrayed are actual people, whose actions and characteristics are known to the public (or at least historically documented), biopic roles are considered some of the most demanding of actors and actresses.
[
citation needed
]
Warren Beatty
,
Faye Dunaway
,
Ben Kingsley
,
Johnny Depp
,
Jim Carrey
,
Jamie Foxx
,
Robert Downey Jr.
,
Brad Pitt
,
Emma Thompson
,
Tom Hanks
,
Eddie Redmayne
, and
Cillian Murphy
all gained new-found respect as dramatic actors after starring in biopics:
[
citation needed
]
Beatty and Dunaway as
Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker
in
Bonnie and Clyde
(1967), Kingsley as
Mahatma Gandhi
in
Gandhi
(1982), Depp as
Ed Wood
in
Ed Wood
(1994), Carrey as
Andy Kaufman
in
Man on the Moon
(1999), Downey as
Charlie Chaplin
in
Chaplin
(1992) and as
Lewis Strauss
in
Oppenheimer
(2023), Foxx as
Ray Charles
in
Ray
(2004), Thompson and Hanks as
P. L. Travers
and
Walt Disney
in
Saving Mr. Banks
(2013), Redmayne as
Stephen Hawking
in
The Theory of Everything
(2014), and Murphy as
J. Robert Oppenheimer
in
Oppenheimer
(2023).
Some biopics purposely stretch the truth.
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
was based on
game show
host
Chuck Barris
' widely debunked yet popular
memoir
of the same name, in which he claimed to be a
CIA
agent.
[11]
Kafka
incorporated both the life of author
Franz Kafka
and the
surreal
aspects of his fiction.
[
citation needed
]
The
Errol Flynn
film
They Died with Their Boots On
tells the story of
Custer
but is highly romanticized. The
Oliver Stone
film
The Doors
, mainly about
Jim Morrison
, was highly praised for the similarities between Jim Morrison and actor
Val Kilmer
, look-wise and singing-wise, but fans and band members did not like the way Val Kilmer portrayed Jim Morrison,
[12]
and a few of the scenes were even completely made up.
[13]
In rare cases, sometimes called
auto biopics
,
[14]
the subject of the film plays themself. Examples include
Jackie Robinson
in
The Jackie Robinson Story
(1950),
Muhammad Ali
in
The Greatest
(1977),
Audie Murphy
in
To Hell and Back
(1955),
Patty Duke
in
Call Me Anna
(1990),
Bob Mathias
in
The Bob Mathias Story
(1954),
Arlo Guthrie
in
Alice's Restaurant
(1969),
Fantasia
in
Life Is Not a Fairytale
(2006), and
Howard Stern
in
Private Parts
(1997).
In 2018, the
musical
biopic
Bohemian Rhapsody
, based on the life of
Queen
singer
Freddie Mercury
, became the highest-grossing biopic in history at the time.
[15]
[16]
[17]
In 2023, it was surpassed by
Oppenheimer
, based on the life of
J. Robert Oppenheimer
and the creation of the
atomic bomb
in World War II.
[18]
See also
edit
References
edit
- ^
"Biopic"
.
Dictionary.com
.
- ^
Bastin, Giselle (Summer 2009).
"Filming the Ineffable: Biopics of the British Royal Family"
.
A/B: Auto/Biography Studies
.
24
(1): 34?52.
doi
:
10.1353/abs.2009.0008
. Retrieved
29 May
2013
.
- ^
Custen, George F. (1992).
Bio/pics?: how Hollywood constructed public history
. Rutgers University Press.
ISBN
978-0-8135-1755-1
.
OCLC
24247491
.
- ^
Bingham, Dennis (2010).
Whose Lives Are They Anyway? The Biopic as Contemporary Film Genre
. Rutgers University Press.
ISBN
978-0-8135-4658-2
.
OCLC
318970570
.
- ^
Altman, Rick (1999).
Film/genre
. British Film Institute.
ISBN
978-0-85170-717-4
.
OCLC
41071380
.
- ^
Cheshire, Ellen (2014).
Bio-Pics: a life in pictures
. Columbia University Press.
ISBN
978-0-231-17205-9
.
- ^
Robe, Christopher (Winter 2009). "Taking Hollywood Back: The Historical Costume Drama, the Biopic, and Popular Front U.S. Film Criticism".
Cinema Journal
.
48
(2): 70?87.
doi
:
10.1353/cj.0.0082
.
JSTOR
20484449
.
S2CID
153354352
.
- ^
Ebert, Roger (7 January 2000).
"The Hurricane"
.
Chicago Sun-Times
.
- ^
Miller, Judith (2 February 1984).
"UPSET BY 'SADAT,' EGYPT BARS COLUMBIA FILMS"
.
The New York Times
.
ISSN
0362-4331
. Retrieved
27 January
2017
.
- ^
Tracy, Kathleen (2008).
Jennifer Lopez: A Biography
. Greenwood Publishing Group. p.?
53
.
ISBN
978-0-313-35515-8
.
- ^
Stein, Joel (7 January 2003).
"Chuck Barris: Lying to Tell the Truth"
.
Time
.
ISSN
0040-781X
. Retrieved
27 January
2017
.
- ^
"Gary James' Interview with Ray Manzarek"
. Classicbands
. Retrieved
29 May
2013
.
- ^
"Chat with Ray Manzarek"
. Crystal-ship. 17 November 1997
. Retrieved
1 September
2012
.
- ^
"autobiopic ? definition of autobiopic in English | Oxford Dictionaries"
.
Oxford Dictionaries | English
. Archived from
the original
on 2 February 2017
. Retrieved
27 January
2017
.
- ^
Spanos, Brittany
(10 January 2019).
"Korean, Japanese Fans Can't Stop Watching 'Bohemian Rhapsody'
"
.
Rolling Stone
. Retrieved
15 January
2019
.
- ^
"Vanilla Ice Biopic Happening with Dave Franco in the Lead?"
.
MovieWeb
. 4 January 2019
. Retrieved
15 January
2019
.
- ^
"Bohemian Rhapsody becomes highest-grossing biopic of all time"
.
The Indian Express
. 17 December 2018
. Retrieved
15 January
2019
.
- ^
Pulver, Andrew (18 September 2023).
"Oppenheimer overtakes Bohemian Rhapsody to become biggest biopic of all time"
.
The Guardian
.
ISSN
0261-3077
. Retrieved
19 September
2023
.