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Post by Penn Guinn on Dec 9, 2021 23:51:15 GMT
A thread intended to be about movies which depict real events in the lives of real people --
some of which are loosely termed "bio-pics", some of which depart from reality more than others.
Your essays, images, comments etc welcomed !
Starting off with a bit of Biography related Oscar Trivia :
These 17 actors have won an Award Award for playing a real person who was still alive at the evening of the Award ceremony (as of 2015).
Spencer Tracy for playing Father Edward Flanagan in Boys Town (1938)
Gary Cooper for playing Alvin C. York in Sergeant York (1941)
Patty Duke for playing Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker (1962)
Jason Robards for playing Ben Bradlee in All the President's Men (1976)
Robert De Niro for playing Jake La Motta in Raging Bull (1980)
Sissy Spacek for playing Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)
Jeremy Irons for playing Claus Von Bullow in Reversal of Fortune (1990)
Susan Sarandon playing Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking (1995)
Geoffrey Rush for playing David Helfgott in Shine (1996)
Julia Roberts for playing Erin Brockovich in Erin Brockovich (2000)
Jim Broadbent for playing John Bayley in Iris (2001)
Helen Mirren for playing Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006)
Sandra Bullock for playing Leigh Anne Tuohy in The Blind Side (2009)
Melissa Leo for playing Alice Eklund-Ward in The Fighter (2010)
Christian Bale for playing Dickie Eklund in The Fighter (2010),
Meryl Streep for playing Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady (2011)
Eddie Redmayne for playing Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything (2014)
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Post by timshelboy on Dec 10, 2021 0:03:17 GMT
Some favourites
maybe not a strict biopic - its an ensemble piece - but based on real people - excellent movie
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Post by Penn Guinn on Dec 10, 2021 0:23:25 GMT
timshelboyMom Vander loved With a Song in My Heart and talked about having seen it ... she mentioned seeing the very young Robert Wagner as a G.I. and followed his career from then on ..which was not easy ...pre internet as it was ! She even bought the 78 RPM sound track album.
Wagner was also in Stars and Stripes Forever (Bio-pic about John Phillip Sousa) but he had a MUCH bigger role complete with his name on the poster ! 
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Post by timshelboy on Dec 10, 2021 0:33:33 GMT
timshelboy Mom Vander loved With a Song in My Heart and talked about having seen it ... she mentioned seeing the very young Robert Wagner as a G.I. and followed his career from then on ..which was not easy ...pre internet as it was ! She even bought the 78 RPM sound track album.
Wagner was also in Stars and Stripes Forever (Bio-pic about John Phillip Sousa) but he had a MUCH bigger role complete with his name on the poster !  I watched WITH A SONG on a TV matinee when small at My Mum's recommendation and liked it a lot.
Wagner did not get much footage but was memorable and his participation publicised. He played more real life people - He appeared as JESSE JAMES for Nick Ray and according to WIKI his character in ALL THE FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS was based on Chet Baker
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Post by Penn Guinn on Dec 10, 2021 0:44:38 GMT
timshelboy Including Zelig as a "bio-pic" is really pushing the topic since it is a " Fictional documentary about the life of (fictional) human chameleon Leonard Zelig, a man who becomes a celebrity in the 1920s due to his ability to look and act like whoever is around him. Clever editing places Zelig in real newsreel footage of Woodrow Wilson, Babe Ruth, and others." This thread is about movies that are about REAL people.
OP edited and there may be a follow up thread about biographies of fictional folks.
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Post by Isapop on Dec 10, 2021 1:56:30 GMT
I'm strict about terminology. For me, just a true story involving real people doesn't make for a "bio-pic". Reversal Of Fortune, Dead Man Walking, The Queen are not bio-pics.
Richard Attenborough's Gandhi and Chaplin are bio-pics.
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Post by timshelboy on Dec 10, 2021 8:51:51 GMT
timshelboy Including Zelig as a "bio-pic" is really pushing the topic since it is a " Fictional documentary about the life of (fictional) human chameleon Leonard Zelig, a man who becomes a celebrity in the 1920s due to his ability to look and act like whoever is around him. Clever editing places Zelig in real newsreel footage of Woodrow Wilson, Babe Ruth, and others." This thread is about movies that are about REAL people.
OP edited and there may be a follow up thread about biographies of fictional folks. is sort of a hobby of mine 
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spiderwort
Junior Member
@spiderwort
Posts: 2,100
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Post by spiderwort on Dec 10, 2021 13:45:38 GMT
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Post by Isapop on Dec 10, 2021 14:24:21 GMT
My favorite movie of a true story (one that is in the "depart from reality more than others" category) is The Great Escape. Richard Attenborough's role is closest to a true-life person. Director John Sturges was true in depicting how the actual escape was achieved, and that's what counts. And he didn't flinch from the fact that 50 of the 76 who escaped were executed after being recaptured, and all but 3 of the rest were returned to prison. That fact, which would make for a "sad ending" stood in the way of Sturges efforts for years in getting the financing for the movie. But he wouldn't change that, and he stayed with it until, finally, he got the financing from the Mirisch brothers. And the film is Sturges' crowning achievement.
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Post by Isapop on Dec 10, 2021 15:02:50 GMT
Right behind The Great Escape, my next favorite "based on real events" movie is Spartacus. Much is fictionalized, of course, many of the details of his life being unknown. I've never read the novel; I presume Howard Fast provided a lot for Dalton Trumbo to work with. But the broad outline of the movie does line up with the historical record. And Peter Ustinov's Oscar winning role was for playing a real-life person, Lentulus Batiatus. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnaeus_Cornelius_Lentulus_Vatia |
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Post by Doghouse6 on Dec 10, 2021 16:12:17 GMT
I'm strict about terminology. For me, just a true story involving real people doesn't make for a "bio-pic". Reversal Of Fortune, Dead Man Walking, The Queen are not bio-pics. Richard Attenborough's Gandhi and Chaplin are bio-pics. I like sticklers, although I'm okay with the terminology. I've always taken it to indicate biographi cal - in the sense of depicting supposedly true events, periods or details of a subject's life - as opposed to full biograph ies (of which I can think of no real examples; your citation of Chaplin probably comes as close as any as far as ground covered). Of course, there's only so much anyone can stuff into two or even three hours of screen time. No particular point; just a comparison of interpretations.
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Post by mikef6 on Dec 10, 2021 16:35:18 GMT
Speaking of Robert Wagner: Wagner was the title real-life person in “The True Story Of Jesse James” which purported to be, well, the true story of Jesse James. I’m no expert on Jesse James but I know that just being a movie sort-of-based on his life had to have a lot of fiction in it – combined characters, made-up dialog, exaggerated gun fights, etc. This was a remake of a 1939 film titled just “Jesse James.” The ’39 is the movie with the notorious stunt that killed or injured two horses by riding them off a cliff into a river. Wagner’s film didn’t reproduce the stunt, they just re-used the older footage.
Now, Billy the Kid (William Bonney or Henry McCarty, who knows) is one I know more about. The movies about his life all have history in them – they generally follow the outlines of his career as an outlaw – but don’t use any of them of a major source for your term paper. Three good ones are: “Billy the Kid” (Johnny Mack Brown, 1930), “The Kid From Texas” (Audey Murphy, 1950), and “Young Guns” (Emilio Estevez, 1988). “The Left Handed Gun” with Paul Newman is one of the most fictional and the 1941 “Billy the Kid” starring Robert Taylor can be avoided.
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Post by Penn Guinn on Dec 10, 2021 16:38:39 GMT
mikef6I read recently that the famous image of William Bonney was reversed and he was not, in reality, "left handed" after all ! 
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Post by Penn Guinn on Dec 10, 2021 16:48:02 GMT
Re: Stickling
The Great Escape and Spartacus are fine and dandy as "based on real events" pictures BUT what the OP had in mind was pictures that are about a person's life or that person's activity in an event rather than films that involve a group of people ... so The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Alamo would be out as far as this thread is concerned but Lawrence of Arabia would be in !
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Post by Penn Guinn on Dec 10, 2021 16:49:48 GMT
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Post by Isapop on Dec 10, 2021 17:07:00 GMT
Re: Stickling The Great Escape and Spartacus are fine and dandy as "based on real events" pictures BUT what the OP had in mind was pictures that are about a person's life or that person's activity in an event rather than films that involve a group of people ... so The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Alamo would be out as far as this thread is concerned but Lawrence of Arabia would be in ! Re: Restickling While The Great Escape is not focused on one person, I'd say Spartacus is focused on "a person's life or that person's activity" as much as Lawrence Of Arabia is. They both inspire and lead a mass rebellion.
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Post by mikef6 on Dec 10, 2021 17:24:47 GMT
mikef6 I read recently that the famous image of William Bonney was reversed and he was not, in reality, "left handed" after all ! I don't know how anyone can tell it is reversed, but, yeah, I've read that too.
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Post by Penn Guinn on Dec 10, 2021 17:26:25 GMT
Re: Restickling While The Great Escape is not focused on one person, I'd say Spartacus is focused on "a person's life or that person's activity" as much as Lawrence Of Arabia is. They both inspire and lead a mass rebellion. Ok ... Spartacus is in and Braveheart while we're at it.
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Post by Isapop on Dec 10, 2021 17:38:24 GMT
Re: Restickling While The Great Escape is not focused on one person, I'd say Spartacus is focused on "a person's life or that person's activity" as much as Lawrence Of Arabia is. They both inspire and lead a mass rebellion. Ok ... Spartacus is in and Braveheart while we're at it. Yay!
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Post by Penn Guinn on Dec 10, 2021 17:39:14 GMT
Night and Day (1946)"A fictionalized biopic of composer Cole Porter from his days at Yale in the 1910s through the height of his success to the 1940s." (IMDb)  See too the link to Monty Woolley page for Cole Porter connection. AND De-Lovely (2004)"Inspecting a magical biographical stage musical, composer Cole Porter reviews his life and career with his wife, Linda." 
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