# Who needs a good biopic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 10, 2017, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517 "2017-10-10T21:38:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/41 "2017-10-13T17:15:59Z")
The problem with biopics is when they try to include too much. Movies need a narrative structure and movies that try to do from birth to death don’t have the correct structure. They are best when they concentrate on one time or event in their lives and skim what comes before. Squanto. He had such an interesting life being kidnapped by what may as well have been aliens and taken to their world. Then coming back to his and finding his people have been wiped out and teaming with the aliens to get revenge. So cinematic. Robert Smalls. Escapes slavery by taking over a confederate warship and piloting her to union hands. Convinces Lincoln to allow blacks to serve in the union military. Rescues his ship will under fire and is promoted to captain. Goes to the Republican convention where he learns to read and write and is instrumental in integrating public transportation in Philadelphia. Later become a congressman. Whitaker Chambers- Becomes a spy for the USSR, then quits, and tries to warn FDR about other spies. Becomes an editor for Time magazine. Agrees to testify against the other spies but no one believes him because he is dumpy, from a poor background, and the person he is accusing is so powerful. He is accused of being crazy and having a homosexual crush on the person he is accusing. He then produced evidence that he has been hiding in a pumpkin patch that proves his allegations and the spy is arrested and put in prison. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/42 "2017-10-13T18:32:54Z")
My distant relative [Hetty Green](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hetty_Green). Made a huge fortune and wouldn’t spend a dime. I grew up hearing tales of her miserliness. ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/43 "2017-10-13T18:51:02Z")
I’ve been wondering where my **Dolly Parton** biopic is… ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/44 "2017-10-13T19:45:12Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > The problem with biopics is when they try to include too much. Movies need a narrative structure and movies that try to do from birth to death don’t have the correct structure. They are best when they concentrate on one time or event in their lives and skim what comes before. > Squanto. He had such an interesting life being kidnapped by what may as well have been aliens and taken to their world. Then coming back to his and finding his people have been wiped out and teaming with the aliens to get revenge. So cinematic. > Robert Smalls. Escapes slavery by taking over a confederate warship and piloting her to union hands. Convinces Lincoln to allow blacks to serve in the union military. Rescues his ship will under fire and is promoted to captain. Goes to the Republican convention where he learns to read and write and is instrumental in integrating public transportation in Philadelphia. Later become a congressman. > Whitaker Chambers- Becomes a spy for the USSR, then quits, and tries to warn FDR about other spies. Becomes an editor for Time magazine. Agrees to testify against the other spies but no one believes him because he is dumpy, from a poor background, and the person he is accusing is so powerful. He is accused of being crazy and having a homosexual crush on the person he is accusing. He then produced evidence that he has been hiding in a pumpkin patch that proves his allegations and the spy is arrested and put in prison. You open with “pre-teen version of star shown having what we’ll recognize as a formative experience. Also, the parents messed up.” Then there’s probably a “got his first” (guitar/piano/Theremin) scene. A “decreasingly sucking at it” montage. First taste of success/failure! Long nights dedicated to the craft. Sitting in a dark room under a desklight. Wife appears at doorway in nightgown. “C’mon honey, come to bed.” “Not till this is finished! Don’t you understand?!?” “I never understood this!” The making it big concert they almost didn’t make it to, which is somehow one song. Credits 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/45 "2017-10-13T21:28:46Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Magneto has had extensive flashback scenes though. > > Similarly, Rick Rescorla. Cornish, joined the British army, then volunteered for the US army in Vietnam. Became a security officer in the World Trade Center and died a Hollywood appropriate heroic death. He was important in a book that became the film We Were Soldiers,but he counts because they wrote him out of the film. Yeah but did we need 3 wolverine movies and 0 magneto movies? We could’ve done without the Wolverine in Japan movie. A Magneto biopic covering his birth, childhood, time in the camps, hunting nazis, working with charles, breaking off from charles, etc. would be nice. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/46 "2017-10-13T21:56:28Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Yeah but did we need 3 wolverine movies and 0 magneto movies? We could’ve done without the Wolverine in Japan movie. > > A Magneto biopic covering his birth, childhood, time in the camps, hunting nazis, working with charles, breaking off from charles, etc. would be nice. We need 0 superhero fictional biopic when we have real humans who are more deserving. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/47 "2017-10-13T22:03:47Z")
[Clair Patterson](http://www.caltech.edu/news/getting-lead-out-47935), the Caltech geochemist who, while trying to determine the age of the Earth through ratios of lead isotopes, discovered the massive airborne contamination of the environment due to the use of the anti-knock tetraethyllead in gasoline, and championed its removal (as well as elimination of other common sources of household and consumer lead contamination, such as lead solder in food cans) despite decades of obstructionism, obfuscation, and outright threats by the Ethyl Corporation and its benefactors in addressing the environmental harms of lead contamination. Oh, and he also did make the most accurate and precise estimate of the age of the Earth prior to return of Lunar samples from the Apollo missions and modern radiometric dating methods. More on the horrifying history of tetraethyllead and the conspiracy to suppress the harms to the public: [_The Nation_: “The Secret History of Lead”](https://www.thenation.com/article/secret-history-lead/) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/48 "2017-10-13T22:40:06Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > We need 0 superhero fictional biopic when we have real humans who are more deserving. When real people learn how to move things with their mind I’ll start paying attention. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/49 "2017-10-13T23:26:07Z")
[In response to my suggestion of a movie about Lee Harvey Oswald] > [@Gatopescado](#): > > Nobody would believe it. Too fucking far-fetched. I thought that it could be the antidote to the movie JFK, which was heavily fictionalized. After watching a movie about Oswald’s life (the dysfunction as a kid, the problems in the military, the journeys back and forth from the Soviet Union, the attempt to kill General Walker), I’d like to think an audience would walk out going, “yep, shooting the President sounds about right for that wackjob.” There’s about 200 pages in Reclaiming History (written by Vincent Bugliosi) that serves as biography which could make the basis for a good screenplay. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/50 "2017-10-13T23:27:52Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Innovative British General Orde Wingate > > [Orde Wingate - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orde_Wingate) Innovative, yes. Not to mention an Israeli national hero, and an utter lunatic. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/51 "2017-10-13T23:42:21Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > > [@madsircool](#): > > > > We need 0 superhero fictional biopic when we have real humans who are more deserving. > > When real people learn how to move things with their mind I’ll start paying attention. Plus just because the studio makes a superhero movie doesn’t mean they can’t _also_ make movies about “real humans who are more deserving”. Quite the opposite actually. The superhero movies are the tentpoles that support the studios and allow the smaller pictures to be made. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2017, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/52 "2017-10-14T17:54:43Z")
[Lew Wallace:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lew_Wallace) 1. Major general in the Union army in the Civil War. 2. Governor of New Mexico during the Lincoln County War. 3. U.S. minister to the Ottoman Empire. 4. Author of _Ben-Hur._ [Eleanor of Aquitaine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine) We’ve gotten a snippet in _The Lion in Winter_, but other parts of her life were at least as interesting. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2017, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/53 "2017-10-14T21:49:01Z")
[Nellie Bly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly). Only small time pics about her so far. A daring and caring reporter. A story that our times should remember. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2017, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/54 "2017-10-15T12:43:45Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > We need 0 superhero fictional biopic when we have real humans who are more deserving. Nobody makes a biopic because the \*subject \*deserves it. ---
**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:** [October 15, 2017, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/55 "2017-10-15T17:59:33Z")
**Sam Houston** – Governor of two states (Tennessee and Texas\*\*), U.S. Representative and Senator, President of his own country, responsible for the defeat of General Santa Ana, resulting in Texas Independence. Refused to join the Confederacy. Lived among the Cherokees for years and was the ancestor of Will Rogers. Arrested for fighting another Congressman and defended himself in court. Wounded twice in battle but went right back in. His whiole life sounds like a Texas Tall Tale. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2017, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/56 "2017-10-15T20:56:03Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > I’ve long thought there could be an amazing move made about the life of Harriet Tubman and her adventures on the Underground Railroad. I imagine a gritty, raw story that shows the horror of slavery and the courage of freedom. There’d be a poignant scene where a runaway slave gets really frightened and begs Miss Tubman to let him go back, and [she threatens to shoot him](https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120322130922AAmVO99) with a gun if he doesn’t shut his yap and keep up. America needs this movie… Absolutely. > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > [Juan Pujol García](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Pujol_Garc%C3%ADa). A quirky guy who wanted to spy on the Nazis, but was rejected multiple times. So he went rogue and became a double agent, ultimately causing misdirection at Normandy so that it was less defended than it should be. It would have comedic elements but not an outright comedy. Of course, I’m sure they’ll have to fictionalize it as the Spanish version of the pronunciation of his name usually ends up more dirty in English. It’s less weird in Catalan. Yes! Great story - the only man to get a medal from both Hitler and King George VI. The Wiki article mentions the 2009 Spanish documentary, which is pretty good but not great. > [@Sefton](#): > > The Wright brothers, Lord Horatio Nelson… Definitely. Some good CGI could do wonders both with the Wrights’ various aircraft, and the giant fleets of Nelson’s time. > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > In 1959, Martin Luther King Jr traveled to India to study non-violent resistance, and what he learned influenced the civil rights movement of the 1960s. I think that trip would make an interesting movie. Ooo, great idea! > [@Moriarty](#): > > I want to see a move about the life of Lee Harvey Oswald. It would show him to be the crazy loose cannon he always was, including a scene where he shoots himself to avoid being transferred while in the military. Of course, there’d be his travels to and from the Soviet Union. The killing of Keneedy would be played straight (i.e. no conspiracy; I like to imagine a scene where you see him in the depository firing the shots, but never actually see outside the building, or anybody depicting Kennedy), but would only be at the end of the film. Also agreed. Priscilla Johnson McMillan’s _Marina and Lee_ would be a great resource. Oswald was a bully, a mooch, an egomaniac and a whiner; his only redeeming characteristic that I recall is that he opposed segregation in his native New Orleans and always made it a point to sit in the “Colored” section of city buses. > [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Maybe it’s too soon, but along the lines of _The Queen_, what about Aung San Suu Kyy? I mean, I suppose we need to wait for the current drama to play out, but in a year or so, we have a drama that focuses on that, with lots of flashbacks to her past, including her childhood, but especially on the ordeal that won her the Nobel Peace Prize… Check it out: [The Lady (2011 film) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_(2011_film)) > [@CalMeacham](#): > > **Sam Houston** – > > Governor of two states (Tennessee and Texas…), U.S. Representative and Senator, President of his own country, responsible for the defeat of General Santa Ana, resulting in Texas Independence. Refused to join the Confederacy… Yes! Quite a guy. His speech in response to Texas secession would be an Oscar-worthy moment for whoever plays him: “Fellow citizens, in the name of your rights and liberties, which I believe have been trampled upon, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of the nationality of Texas, which has been betrayed by the Convention, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of the Constitution of Texas, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of my own conscience and manhood, which this Convention would degrade by dragging me before it, to pander to the malice of my enemies, I refuse to take this oath. I deny the power of this Convention to speak for Texas…I protest…against all the acts and doings of this convention and I declare them null and void… Let me tell you what is coming. After the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives, you may win Southern independence if God be not against you, but I doubt it. I tell you that, while I believe with you in the doctrine of states’ rights, the North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction, they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche; and what I fear is, they will overwhelm the South.” ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2017, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/57 "2017-10-16T09:30:43Z")
Benjamin Lay, an important (and now little remembered) opponent of slavery with many interesting facets of his life: > **[Benjamin Lay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Lay)** > > Benjamin Lay (January 26, 1682 – February 8, 1759) was an Anglo-American Quaker humanitarian and abolitionist. He is best known for his early and strident anti-slavery activities which would culminate in dramatic protests. He was also an author, farmer, vegetarian, and distinguished by his early concern for the ethical treatment of animals. > Born in England, into a farming family, his early trade was as a shepherd and glove-maker. After becoming a Quaker, he worked as a sailor, and in 1718 move... > **[The "Quaker Comet" Was the Greatest Abolitionist You've Never Heard Of](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/quaker-comet-greatest-abolitionist-never-heard-180964401/)** > > Overlooked by historians, Benjamin Lay was one of the nation's first radicals to argue for an end to slavery ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2017, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/58 "2017-10-16T17:11:28Z")
\*\*Alexander von Humboldt \*\*founded physical _and_ human geography…by doing badass fieldwork from 1799 to 1803, everywhere in Latin America. Among other feats, he climbed nearly to the top of Chimborazo, an Andean peak higher than 20,000 feet in altitude – mainly to measure the relationships among elevation, temperature, and vegetation. ---
**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:** [October 16, 2017, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/59 "2017-10-16T17:15:57Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > \*\*Alexander von Humboldt \*\*founded physical _and_ human geography…by doing badass fieldwork from 1799 to 1803, everywhere in Latin America. Among other feats, he climbed nearly to the top of Chimborazo, an Andean peak higher than 20,000 feet in altitude – mainly to measure the relationships among elevation, temperature, and vegetation. David McCullough wrote a brief biography of him that was reprinted in his book **Brave Companions** in 1991. Fascinating guy. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2017, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/60 "2017-10-16T17:20:03Z")
The book [Beyond Bravery](https://www.amazon.com/Auschwitz-Volunteer-Beyond-Bravery/dp/1480569208) is the fascinating first-hand account of **Witold Pilecki** , the Polish officer who snuck \*into \*Auschwitz – and stayed there for years – to document the atrocities and help save lives from the inside, obviously at huge risk to himself. And he survived! … only to die at the hands of Soviets, early in the Cold War. Quite a story. ETA: CalMeachem, cool – thanks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517.md?page=4)