Biopics?

Denerick

I'm a fan of the biopic art form. Some of my favourites are: Wilde, Chaplin, Gandhi, Luther, The two churchill films (The Gathering Storm & Into the Storm) Forrest Gump (Fictional but a biopic style), Amadeus (IE, Mozart) etc.

Any recommendations? Preferably with historical figures.

Seans_Username

Gotta go with The Aviator.

Howard Hughes is probably one of the most interesting/intriguing people to have ever lived. His determination, obsession with making everything better is just incredible and DiCaprio plays him superbly, Cate Blanchett is brilliant too. There's a great cast in general but DiCaprio is great. And it's Scorsese too like!

Everytime I watch it now it slowly becomes one of my favourite films. I could never really tell what a great acting performance was, but DiCaprio, Blanchett (and Alec Baldwin and John C Reilly too) are unreal

Plus I like to think everyone can relate to the OCD thing, most people have a wee bit of OCD in them. Not to the degree of Howard Hughes, but still...

Denerick

I dunno. I gave the aviator 45 minutes and nearly died of boredom. I'm not a huge fan of Di Caprio so that may have played a part.

mike65

Patton! (which also has one of the great movie speeches by Edmund H. North and Francis Ford Coppola - the real speech was even more bloodthirsty apparently) Of course its power has has been denuded a bit by time and by Brad Pitt in Inglorious Basterds which deffo borrowed for my money.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b5g1avyCSA

Franklin J. Schaffner was really in his element with this film and George C Scott tremendous

Seans_Username

Denerick wrote: »

I dunno. I gave the aviator 45 minutes and nearly died of boredom. I'm not a huge fan of Di Caprio so that may have played a part.

I wasn't his biggest fan either but I think what interested me was the character. I'd watch anything about someone like Howard Hughes.

The film just shows how insane his life was, and how insane he was. I think you should give it a chance just because his life was just incredible. It's not often you'd see a movie director make the largest airplane of all time, miraculously survive a plane crash and then become a recluse!

Also it has probably one of my favourite quotes:
"-do you really think they're gonna let you put out a whole movie just about tits?
-Sure. Who doesn't like tits?

But to each his own I suppose

OldeCinemaSoz

Big Arnie in PUMPING IRON.

A beast.

Kinski

If you're content for them to be "biopic-style" as opposed to straight depictions of an actual person's life, then Citizen Kane, one of the greatest films ever produced, and loosely based on the life of media-magnate William Randolph Hearst.

Successful biopics are very much the exception, though, as cinema as a narrative medium has never really lent itself well to stories which span long periods of time; as such, movies which try to extensively cover a person's life rarely work.

Personally, I prefer films based on real people to focus on one key period from the character's life. Thirteen Days, for example, stars Kevin Costner as top Kennedy aide Kenny O'Donnell, and depicts the Cuban Missile Crisis from his perspective (though I suppose it's really more about the crisis than about O'Donnell.)

johnny_ultimate

Walker is a great biopic, and a very funny subversion of the 'genre'.

OldeCinemaSoz

Kinski wrote: »

If you're content for them to be "biopic-style" as opposed to straight depictions of an actual person's life, then Citizen Kane, one of the greatest films ever produced, and loosely based on the life of media-magnate William Randolph Hearst.

Successful biopics are very much the exception, though, as cinema as a narrative medium has never really lent itself well to stories which span long periods of time; as such, movies which try to extensively cover a person's life rarely work.

Personally, I prefer films based on real people to focus on one key period from the character's life. Thirteen Days, for example, stars Kevin Costner as top Kennedy aide Kenny O'Donnell, and depicts the Cuban Missile Crisis from his perspective (though I suppose it's really more about the crisis than about O'Donnell.)

I.Can't.Wait.

GiveEmHellKid

If you'd like something a bit different (or artistic) and you know who Allen Ginsberg is, watch Howl. It's centered around the obscenity trial surrounding the poet and his imfamous poem of the same name which had a huge effect on the so-called Beat Generation. I didn't know much about Ginsberg when I watched it but thought it was a really interesting film!

Denerick

I know 'Hotel Rwanda' isn't exactly a biopic but the protagonist is based on a real person and a true story. All I can say is that I'm after watching it for a second time and it has made me cry like a little girl. I mean real, full blooded tears streaming down my face. War. What is it good for?