Just his marvelous dancing, funny jokes, and painting (two coats!)
Are you wearing a helmet, by any chance? ![]()
Walt’s childhood was mostly warts (though not his). His father was horribly abusive by today’s standards, and possilby even by the standards of the day. Leaving aside the physical abuse, he also made them work themselves to the bone, even as children.
I’m not making excuses for him, but he was, if nothing else, a product of his time. I’m not saying that any of this excuses, for example, the racial stereotypes upon which many of his cartoons rely; or the way he treated women in his workforce; or what have you.
On the good side: he was apparently fiercely devoted to his daughters. And even to his parents, to include his father, who horribly abused him as a child; he bought his parents a house, and I’ve heard audio clips of him (as an adult) joking with his father. I’d have told my own father to fuck off the day I left for WWI, were I Walt Disney, but hey, different generations and all that.
So yeah, on balance, I think Walt Disney would be a good choice for a “warts and all” biopic.
I’ve heard exactly one “bad” thing about Weird Al.
A Doper said that when she was 14 and Al 19 they went on a blind date. Today, a 19-year-old man on a date with a 14-year-old girl would probably raise eyebrows, but I guess times were different in the 1970s. Anyway, it was a double date, two girls and two guys, the guys being Al and his friend. Throughout the date, Al paid no attention to the girl and instead spent his time making fart noises with his buddy.
So that one time in 1978, Weird Al went on a date with a probably-too-young girl, and ignored her.
Such an asshole. (I keed, I keed.)
As for Mr. Rogers, I can point out at least one (very small) wart. I don’t remember where I read it, but the source said that Fred himself joked that, when he was a lad, he saw an organ he wanted in the Sears Catalog, $24.95. His family was well-to-do, even by not-Great-Depression standards, but $25 would have been unreachable for a young lad in 1934. So his grandmother made him a deal: whatever he earned, she would match it. So he spent a month gathering loose change, returning bottles, and whatever else kids in those days did for pocket change. He went to his grandma and presented her $1.00 in loose change, and she kept her promise and gave him a crisp $1 bill. A week later Little Fred came to his grandma again, this time with $2: one in change, the other a crisp bill.
Yep, Mr. Rogers tried to swindle his own grandma.
While we’re in the world of music, I nominate Phil Spector.
@terentii, your video is broken.
Works fine for me.
That prompt sent me down a rabbit hole where I found a movie that well illustrates his antisemitism, as it focuses on Ford’s promotion of anti Jewish screeds in the Dearborn Independent, a newspaper he owned.
Now that deserves a big movie studio production!
Obviously forensics are not available to prove it, but it’s a decent historical theory, Stalin was not a minor figure, he was General Secretary of the Communist party and leveraged that to gain power and control after the death of Lenin. Stalin also used poisoning as a political tool a lot after he came to power too. The death of Lenin is definitely suspect though.
Are there any movies which do decent coverage of the 1917-1925 period and Lenin vs Trotsky vs Stalin? A whole lot of other biopic movies play fast and loose with theories too, and lets face it, the man who is in effect the second biggest monster of modern history, is not an unlikely candidate.
I want a movie on Rasputin that doesn’t present him as a complete menace or warlock. My first impression of him was from a book that didn’t make him out to be totally evil but almost mostly a hack ‘priest’ and avid party enjoyer.
Also David Bowie, I can’t imagine he has many warts to show in a sinister light but definitely show his wild beliefs and wild drug usage. I’d especially like to see his rivalry with Jimmy Page and how Bowie was so afraid of him that he stored urine in his fridge to repel him.
Though he died after a series of strokes, not just one, over an extended period. And his father had died of a similar condition.
Also Stalin wasn’t just an minor figure, he was General Secretary of the Central Committee. Which sounded like a minor role but actually let him pick and choose who would be in senior roles in the party (a fact no one realized until it was too late)
But yeah the whole period would absolutely make a great film. And Armando Iannucci should totally direct it.
Also rape a lot of rape
That’s the warts part.
I should clarify: Rasputin sucked but I don’t believe he is all warts like most media depicts him.
Behind the Bastards just did a 4-part podcast on him. I’d recently extensively read up on him and couldn’t stand to hear about it any more - too horrible.
Every enemy of Stalin to hold power in the USSR after Stalin’s death had easy access to Lenin’s corpse to test the theory that Stalin had him poisoned.
So, fiction? ![]()
Yeah. All warts.
Absolutely plenty of reasons why they would not, and none so far have. I’m not here to argue who and why, and whether it could be done. It seems a likely possibility given Stalin’s histories second greatest monster (Jimmy Carter being the greatest, OBVIOUSLY). It’s a bit like saying “Rommel poisonsed himself, no notes.”
What about emphasizing the “and all” part of a “warts and all” movie?
You could do a story of Al Capone. Show the ruthless gangster and unfaithful husband (syphilis, a venereal disease, ravaged his brain at the end of his life). But also show the guy who funded a soup kitchen during the Great Depression, and was a charming subject of newspaper interviews.
Or show a story of the Black Panthers. They were certainly militant, but they started a breakfast program for school kids. Huey P. Newton was in law school, and he was organizing to provide protection against police brutality.
Well, after the massive amounts of chemicals used to preserve it , maybe not. Not to mention that traces of Cyanide, Aconite, & Digoxin go away fairly quickly, and it has been some time.
Whatever level of Hell Hitler is on, Stalin is keeping him company. Stalin killed more of his own people than Hitler did.
Okay, 90% warts, but it would be fun.
They definitely are roommates in Hell. Every day Stalin says, “I was the worst dictator in history.” Then Hitler says, “No, I was the worst dictator in history.” Then they have a fistfight until they collapse from exhaustion. When they wake up, it starts all over. (Blatantly plagiarized from No Exit.)