What's The Point Of Biopics?

This video essay investigates biopic movies and what purpose they are meant to even serve? When there is so much fiction blended into the facts, and so many possibilities of making a more true-to-life documentary, is the main point of biopics just hollow fan service? This video will analyze biopic movies under three categories; Impression or Interpretation, Celebrating the Celebrity, and Fact or Fiction.

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Music used:
Lines by Topher Mohr and Alex Elena
Habanera by Bizet
Blue Danube by Strauss
Mama by Emmit Fenn
Members Only by Tracktribe
Love Explosion by Silent Partner
Keep on Movin by King Canyon
&
&
afraid of expressing myself by Babasmas
/ babasmasmoosic
Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0

Timestamps:
0:00 Biopics
1:34 Impression or Interpretation
5:22 Celebrating the Celebrity
10:00 Darker Interpretations
13:20 Fact or Fiction

#biopic #ragingbull #elvismovie

[josephvlogsdon]

I think the best biopics focus on a moment or event in someone’s life. When they try to cover the entire life of the celebrity, the plot becomes too thinly drawn. That’s why Lincoln is one of the better biopics. If a celebrity died young, it’s more dramatic to focus on their final days than their early years.

[lessersharks]

I will stand by the fact that “Love and Mercy”, the biopic on Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys is one of the best biopics I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t just show the greatest hits, it shows things about his life that wasn’t widely known, not to mention the incredible performances from Paul Dano, John Cusack, and Paul Giamatti

[kylefelter]

The Aviator was so good that for like 15 years it convinced me that I like biopics. I now realize that I just like the Aviator.

[oneAndyHicks]

Sacha Baron Cohen was asked to play Freddie Mercury; he wanted to portray him as honestly as possible. Since the band members were producers, they dropped him immediately because they wanted to keep Freddie's "perfect" image.

[chrislacy]

Many biopics are cinematic Wikipedia pages that cram an entire person’s life into one movie.

I hope more movies do what Martin Scorsese did in ‘The Aviator.’ He focused on how obsession affected Howard Hughes’s life and career.

Finding a universal human characteristic is key.

[ARandomOven]

My favorite biopic will always be "I'm Not There, " about Bob Dylan. It tells a non-linear story, portraying him and his life events in 6 different characters, and as a huge Dylan fan, I found it fascinating

[ajtaylor]

The best biopics tell a story about a subject with sincerity, authenticity, and care, whereas a lot of biopics today seem more focused on being unfocused films full of filler.

[KayButtonJay]

Honestly, Orson Wells nailed it with Citizen Kane. He was after the core of a fictional character loosely based on real person (who wasn’t a total POS) in a heavily-stylized but not distracting way. It wasn’t about trying to recreate certain historical milestones. It was a character study showing us things we’re not overly-familiar with.

[danielfurmage]

There's one Biography which to me, actually was massive learning experience for me as a teenager and how I thought about the civil rights movement and did largely stick to what actually happened - Malcolm X by Spike Lee. Its an incredible film and if you havent watched it, I'd definitely recommend.

[daredevil]

Rocketman movie was miles ahead of Bohemian Rhapsody.
Like visually, and Taron singing, the music integrated with whats showing on screen - liberty with Fantastical sequences... etc etc

[meikoblock]

Selena is still my favorite biopic, the way her music is incorporated really assists the story instead of turning it into a musical.

[sebbvell]

I don't like biopics either but I'm genuinely excited for the Oppenheimer movie.

[pigglypoof]

What’s sad is that a lot of documentaries have become just as fictional as the biopics 😑

[Questionthis]

The Aviator, Raging Bull, and The Wolf of Wallstreet were the most amazing biopics ever made because Scorsese knows how to find the human story and conflict within a famous person’s life story that’s compelling, fascinating or relatable.

[bofett.]

The problem with a lot of biopics is that they're afraid of scrutinising their subjects; which prevents them from understanding their subjects and saying something meaningful about them. A person's life can't be told in terms of cause and effect; life is too long and chaotic to be reduced to this structure. Raging Bull, Mishima: a life in four chapters, and Lawrence of Arabia remain the pinnacle of this genre.

[filmreviewer]

This is why Steve Jobs is my favourite as it does something different with it' story being set in three different product launches and is more a dive in to Steve's ability to care for his daughter and his desire to laugh the mac. It's so much better than the 2013 versions where I was so bored I was wishing it finish.

[brendanfrye]

Favourite biopic has gotta be “Walk Hard: the Dewey Cox Story”. I like how they didn’t sensationalize how he wrote his hit songs too much, briefly showed how he invented punk music, but i wish they showed more of his 70s era 😢😢😢

[lollyberry]

I can’t believe you didn’t include The Untouchables! From a cinematic fiction standpoint, it’s absolutely spectacular. But I was so disappointed to find out that pretty much all of the movie was made up for the screen. Really the only thing they got right was Capone being put away for tax fraud.

[ekahnoman]

Hollywood knows what they're doing.
A highlight reel of familiar content is EXACTLY what the masses want.

[riptidemonzarc]

One of the few biopics that actually surprised me with its rawness was another Elvis one, a made for TV movie starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the man himself and Randy Quaid as the Colonel. It showed lots of quiet moments, doubts, frustrations with fame, and Elvis' unfulfilled aspirations being hemmed in by that weird and manipulative manager.