biopic poll
I just watched Invictus (2009) and found it surprisingly understated. The premise being what it was - post-apartheid South Africa unites through love of rugby! - I thought for sure it would carry an inspirational message or two, but nope, it was the details that made this movie. Nelson Mandela's bodyguards, for instance, were funny and believable and I wanted to see more of them. There was no overt attempt to portray said bodyguards as a microcosm for the country's racial solidarity in the wake of the Rugby World Cup (although, let's be realistic, you were supposed to see the parallel there). I had a lot of fun watching it because I'm a sucker for 'the underdogs win the championships' scenarios. That, and Matt Damon's Afrikaaner accent was pretty kickass.
Anyway I got to thinking about biopics, or at least films based on the lives of real people. I haven't seen all of these movies in their entirety but I've seen clips and frankly, with most of these, their reputations precede them. I was going to sort them into two categories, good and bad movies, and then make a poll for "best" and "worst," but then I realized that I like all of them. The only difference is, the ones in the first category happen to be more critically acclaimed (they also feature fewer female leads - possibly related?). And of course the quality of the performance doesn't exist in a vacuum from the director and the screenplay and the score. So here is my completely subjective list. (It used to be longer but I tried to limit myself to historical figures that I was reasonably familiar with, which eliminates Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler because the only reason I know Oskar Schindler is because of Liam Neeson.)
Poll
*see Bruceploitation
ETA aaaaaand way to spell Virginia Woolf's name wrong but I'm too lazy to go back and change it
Anyway I got to thinking about biopics, or at least films based on the lives of real people. I haven't seen all of these movies in their entirety but I've seen clips and frankly, with most of these, their reputations precede them. I was going to sort them into two categories, good and bad movies, and then make a poll for "best" and "worst," but then I realized that I like all of them. The only difference is, the ones in the first category happen to be more critically acclaimed (they also feature fewer female leads - possibly related?). And of course the quality of the performance doesn't exist in a vacuum from the director and the screenplay and the score. So here is my completely subjective list. (It used to be longer but I tried to limit myself to historical figures that I was reasonably familiar with, which eliminates Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler because the only reason I know Oskar Schindler is because of Liam Neeson.)
Poll
*see Bruceploitation
ETA aaaaaand way to spell Virginia Woolf's name wrong but I'm too lazy to go back and change it