Best biopics in Hollywood history
By Ben Johnson
Making a good biopic is a tricky thing. Obviously, you have to pick the right person on which to base your film – someone with an influential role in history, dynamic relationships, and maybe enough gaps in their known personal history to allow for some creative fudging of events. The best biopics are the ones that nail the most important part: casting. If you don’t have the right actor or actress it can bring things firmly into unwatchable impersonation/caricature territory (I’m looking at you, The Butler – I really just don’t want to see John Cusack as Richard Nixon). The films on this list all have excellent performances at the center that bring the compelling figures they’re portraying to life.
Lincoln
I’ll start off by saying I wasn’t the biggest fan of Lincoln as a whole. I thought Tony Kuschner’s script was waaaaay too talky, and Spielberg’s sentimentality came through a little bit too much for my tastes. But Daniel Day-Lewis is simply extraordinary as Lincoln himself, and that’s more than enough to make this a great biopic. I don’t need to tell you that Day-Lewis is probably the best actor of our generation, and he embodies our 16th president better than anyone else possibly could.
Walk the Line
There was room for one music biopic on this list, and out of the ones I have seen and enjoyed it was either Ray or Walk the Line, and the Man in Black won. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon are pitch perfect as Johnny and June Carter Cash, and each gets big-time extra points for doing their own singing. Cash was a man with a lot of demons, making for an excellent redemption story as he overcomes his troubles with drugs and alcohol and eventually gets the girl of his dreams. Cash was his own worst enemy at times, and Phoenix does “haunted” quite well. Witherspoon is the real standout as June, giving life to this sympathetic, talented woman, and their coming together at the end feels fully earned.
The Social Network
The Social Network is a biopic that doesn’t quite feel like one. While David Fincher’s film serves largely as a biography of Facebook, as it were, it also deals admirably in exploring who Mark Zuckerberg is as a person and how his attitudes and (according to the film, at least) commonly abrasive personality both helped make him a very rich man and put him at odds with a number of people in his life. This journey is made all the more dynamic by Aaron Sorkin’s lightning-quick script and a great turn by Jesse Eisenberg in the lead role. Eisenberg does a nice job portraying the film’s arrogant version of Zuckerberg while giving him enough subtle humanity to make the audience not completely hate him despite some questionably ethical actions. The real people on whom the movie is based dispute much of its representation of events, but a filmmaker taking dramatic license isn’t exactly anything new.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
This film about the famous outlaw and his betrayal is vastly underrated. Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck are superb as the two title characters, one a stoic outlaw, the other an obsessive, pathetic man who felt spurned by Jesse to the point of agreeing to take him out for a bounty. The movie devotes a lot of its time focused on Affleck’s Robert Ford – we see him go from wannabe bandit to what amounts to a jilted lover, his resentment slowly building and boiling over into the conspiracy that ends James’ life. By the end, the film has made the audience see Ford as the coward the title stipulates, and we react with the same outrage as his contemporaries at James’ murder.
Capote
I read Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood when I was in high school – it’s a wonderfully written book that tells a very tragic story, and I highly recommend it for anyone who hasn’t read it. Capote dives into the story behind the writing of the book, following the author as he first hears about the brutal murder of the Clutter family, seeks advice from close friend and fellow novelist Harper Lee, and develops an unlikely connection to one of the murderers, Perry Smith. Philip Seymour Hoffman deserved every bit of the Oscar he won for his performance as Truman Capote. He captures every aspect of the man, his unique mannerisms and high, lilting voice, without making it feel like he’s doing an impression. The movie is worth seeing for Hoffman’s portrayal alone, but also has a compelling narrative that makes it a complete film.
Raging Bull
Obviously a movie that makes plenty of Top 5 of All Time lists is also arguably the best biopic ever. Martin Scorsese’s stylish and haunting film follows real-life boxer Jake LaMotta on his pugilistic rise to the middleweight championship, his connections to the mob, and his tumultuous relationship with his wife, Vickie. Raging Bull automatically has the feel of a classic thanks to Scorsese’s decision to film it in black and white, and that status is solidified by an impeccable performance from Robert De Niro. De Niro perfectly channels La Motta’s intensity and dangerous jealousy that worked against La Motta his entire life, destroying his relationship with his brother and his wife. And you can’t talk about Raging Bull without mentioning De Niro’s physical dedication to the role – he gained 70 pounds for the scenes of an older, retired, overweight La Motta that bookend the film. No fat suits here, just (according to Wikipedia) a binge-eating trip to Europe.
A Beautiful Mind
Ron Howard’s film about a genius mathematician with schizophrenia apparently takes its fair share of liberties with John Nash’s life and mental illness, but it is still a wonderfully touching movie. Russell Crowe is exceptional as Nash, portraying a caring (if somewhat distant from those around him), deeply troubled man who is forced to confront that his mind is working against him. There is the requisite Ron Howard emotional manipulation throughout – the choice to make Nash’s hallucinations visual, when in real life he apparently only heard things, makes his illness resonate that much more with the audience – but A Beautiful Mind tells a great story nonetheless.
Braveheart
I’ll admit, I haven’t watched Braveheart all the way through in years, namely for two reasons: Mel Gibson’s total insanity, and at three hours long it is quite an undertaking. Even so, it’s stuck with me all these years later for its sweeping, epic nature in telling the full story of Scottish hero William Wallace. The movie got nominated for a boatload of Oscars in 1996 and won five, including Best Director for Gibson and Best Picture overall. Braveheart doesn’t pull any punches telling the medieval tale of the Scottish rebellion. It’s brutally violent throughout, and anyone who knows their British history (or has seen the movie already) knows it doesn’t exactly end well. The film transcends the typical biopic by leaps and bounds and deserves every bit of praise it’s received.
Malcolm X
I talked about Malcolm X in a recent post on Denzel Washington’s best movies, so I’ll keep this entry brief. Spike Lee crafts a movie that covers all aspects of one of the most influential leaders of the Civil Rights movement, and Washington gives one of the best performances of his career. This is an excellent film from start to finish, and deserves to be seen by anyone with an interest in American history.
Bonnie and Clyde
Few big screen relationships are quite as obviously doomed from the start as the title couple at the center of Bonnie and Clyde. The outlaw pair are impulsive, reckless, and bring out the worst in each other throughout their time together, eventually (spoiler alert!) leading to their demise at the hands of the police (in the clearest case of overkill ever, by the way). The triumph of this film is that Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty are able to give so much depth and humanity to the two, to the point that the audience truly identifies with them and regrets their untimely end despite all the bad things they have done.
Do you agree or disagree with my list? Is there a phenomenal biopic out there that I missed? Sound off in the comments!