# Favorite Bioflicks **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 17, 2007, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-bioflicks/430323 "2007-12-17T12:19:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-bioflicks/430323/1 "2007-12-17T12:19:38Z")
I watched [_Wilde_](http://imdb.com/title/tt0120514/) last night – picked it up on a whim from the library, though I’d already seen it, and liked it very much – and was delighted that it held up so well. It covers a whole lot of ground, maintains good agreement with the facts (AFAIK, I’m not a Wilde scholar), and is absorbing from start to finish. The acting is good – Stephen Fry is wonderful as Wilde, and Jude Law brings more than just his amazing beauty to the role of Bosie. All in all, an excellent movie. And it got me thinking about bioflicks, and the fact that there are so many films in that genre I really, really like. So many, in fact, that I wouldn’t be able to pick my overall favorite bioflick – and would be hard-pressed to pick just one in a couple of subgenres. Here are some of the subgenres I came up with: Musician or composer: (given the role of the soundtrack for these, I separate these out from all other performers and artists) Other performer (actor, dancer): Visual artist (painter, etc.): Writer, scholar, intellectual: (_A Beautiful Mind_ would go here) Politician or other leader: (including non-elected leaders, including both monarchs and spiritual leaders like Gandhi) Athlete: I must be missing some other subgenres here – feel free to add them. So what bioflicks do you particularly love in each of these categories? They don’t necessarily need to be “the best” (I’m leaning heavily towards _DeLovely_ for “Musician or composer,” though I can’t defend it as a better picture than _Ray_ or _Walk the Line_), but one you love. Also, I’m thinking specifically about biographical films here, about the subject’s entire life, or at least his or her entire adult life (_Wilde_ starts with him deciding to get married), and not just one particular incident, so _The Queen_, although a wonderful movie, wouldn’t qualify. Anyway, I need to give a little more thought to my entries for faves in each of these – back in a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-bioflicks/430323/2 "2007-12-17T13:16:20Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] Musician or composer: (given the role of the soundtrack for these, I separate these out from all other performers and artists) Other performer (actor, dancer): Visual artist (painter, etc.): Writer, scholar, intellectual: (_A Beautiful Mind_ would go here) Politician or other leader: (including non-elected leaders, including both monarchs and spiritual leaders like Gandhi) Athlete: I must be missing some other subgenres here – feel free to add them. [/QUOTE] How about just the ordinary person? I was thinking _Silkwood_ as an example, not that it’s necessarily my favorite of the genre, although it might not qualify under your criteria as although it does follow her personal life it does deal in large measure with the Kerr-McGee incident. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-bioflicks/430323/3 "2007-12-17T13:29:45Z")
One of my all-ti me favorite films is **A Man for All Seasons** – the Fred Zinneman version with Paul Scofield, not Charlton Heston’s later remake. It’s sort of a version of Robert Bolt’s stage play, with a screenplay by Bolt, although he rewtrote it so significantly that it’s not the same work at all. Is it really a “biopic”? It doesn’t cover his entire life, and Bolt wasn’t trying to be accurate – he was trying to make a point. He doesn’t depart as much from the facts as Schaeffer does in **Amadeus** , but you still shouildn’t assume you’re watching the True Life of Thomas More. I liked **Gandhi** , too, which does seem to try to cover much of the subject’s adult life, and which does seem to want to be accurate. And it is very well-made. But I’d much rather watch AMfAS. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-bioflicks/430323/4 "2007-12-17T14:06:48Z")
It’s the first biopic I ever saw, but I still think _Malcolm X_ is the best. Mostly that’s for Denzel Washington’s great performance, although the movie also has a great stateliness to it. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-bioflicks/430323/5 "2007-12-17T14:19:31Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] How about just the ordinary person? I was thinking _Silkwood_ as an example, not that it’s necessarily my favorite of the genre, although it might not qualify under your criteria as although it does follow her personal life it does deal in large measure with the Kerr-McGee incident. [/QUOTE] I went back and forth on that. Since it’s mostly about a particular incident, though, and not the person’s life _qua_ life, I don’t think it fits. I’m open to argument on that point, though. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-bioflicks/430323/6 "2007-12-17T14:22:59Z")
Okay, here’s the current status of my list: Musician or composer: _De-Lovely_ (Cole Porter) Other performer (actor, dancer): _Yankee Doodle Dandy_ (George M. Cohan) – Ken Russell’s film about Sarah Bernhardt was also … “interesting” … in a Ken Russelly sort of way Visual artist (painter, etc.): \ Writer, scholar, intellectual: _Wilde_ (Oscar Wilde) Politician or other leader: _Malcolm X_, with Oliver Stone’s _Nixon_ a close runner up Athlete: \ ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-bioflicks/430323/7 "2007-12-17T14:33:45Z")
[The Magic Box,](http://imdb.com/title/tt0043769/) a bio-pic of forgotten inventor [William Friese-Greene](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Friese-Greene). Many of the UK’s best actors took at least cameos, it was made during the post-war era’s golden age of English cinema, and it’s nostalgic and tragic and all the other good stuff that biopics should be. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-bioflicks/430323/8 "2007-12-17T14:46:44Z")
I like \*\*Wilde \*\*too. Did you catch the brief shot of Orlando Bloom? I’m not a big Jackson Pollock fan, but the movie \*\*Pollock \*\*was pretty good. Would **Topsy Turvy** be considered a bioflick, about Gilbert & Sullivan? I love that movie. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-bioflicks/430323/9 "2007-12-17T15:16:55Z")
I saw [_Bird_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_%281988_film%29) three times and I don’t even **like** jazz.