A biographical film or biopic ()
Context
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
Studio system, and in particular, Darryl F. Zanuck.
On the other hand, Bingham's 2010 study
Whose Lives Are They Anyway? The Biopic as Contemporary Film Genre 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.
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 British/American films from the 1990s and 2000s. Each chapter reviews key films linked by profession and concludes with further viewing list.
Christopher Robé has also written on the gender norms that underlie the biopic in his article, "Taking Hollywood Back" in the 2009 issue of
Cinema Journal.
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 film but a parable."
Casting
Casting can be controversial for biographical films. Casting is often a balance between similarity in looks and ability to portray the characteristics of the person.
Anthony Hopkins felt that he should not have played
Richard Nixon in
Nixon because of a lack of resemblance between the two. The casting of
John Wayne as
Genghis Khan in
The Conqueror was objected to because of the American Wayne being cast as the Mongol warlord. Egyptian critics criticized the casting of Louis Gossett Jr., an African American actor, as Egyptian president
Anwar Sadat in the 1983 TV miniseries
Sadat.
Also, some objected to the casting of
Jennifer Lopez in
Selena because she is a New York City native of
Puerto Rico descent while
Selena was Mexican American.
Film representations
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.
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: 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.
In rare cases, sometimes called auto biopics,
In 2018, the Musical film biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, based on the life of Queen singer Freddie Mercury, became the highest-grossing biopic in history at the time.
See also
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Biographical novel
-
Biography in literature
-
List of biographical films
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Narrative identity#Autobiographical memory
