Biopics dramatize the story of someone’s life and have been around since the beginning of movies. They may not always present information truthfully or completely, but are a popular genre and often nominated for awards. Some past biopic Best Picture winners include Gandhi and A Beautiful Mind. The list of biopic nominees is extensive and includes Capote and Erin Brockovich. Many consider Gandhi, Amadeus, and Lawrence of Arabia to be among the most popular biopics.
A biopic is a made-for-cinema or television film that dramatizes the story of someone’s life. The first biopic is often considered the French silent film Jeanne D’Arc released in 1899. Cecile B. DeMille also made a film about Joan of Arc in her 1916 Joan the Woman. So it can rightly be said that biopics emerged at the very beginning of movies and show no signs of slowing down.
Some feel that a biopic, from a historical point of view, can sometimes falsify the truths. This is because filmmakers need their films to create drama, and also to do it in a relatively short period of time. Most written biographies contain details that many historians consider important. From a cinematic point of view, they may not be considered equally important.
Alternatively, a filmmaker could conceivably use a biopic as an interpretation of a historical figure. They might emphasize some element of a person’s life that seems relatively unimportant historically, as a social commentary, or to reinvent the historical subject.
It is certainly true that a biopic may not present information truthfully, in order, or completely. For example, the biopic A Beautiful Mind about John Forbes Nash, an outstanding mathematician who suffers from schizophrenia, was criticized for glossing over some allegations that Nash was anti-Semitic.
Virtually every biopic plays with the truth at some point. Filmmakers argue that this is necessary to produce art that is also marketable. Historians or biographers, however, may shake their heads in disagreement.
If one sidesteps the issue of complete accuracy in the biopic then it is clearly a very popular genre and includes some of the best films made. Biopics are often nominated for Academy Awards and other equivalent awards. They often turn out to be box office gems, though that’s not always the case.
Past biopics that have won Best Picture include: The Great Ziegfeld, Lawrence of Arabia, Patton, Gandhi, Amadeus, and A Beautiful Mind. The list of biopic nominees is even wider.
Best Picture nominees for biopics from 2000 onwards include Capote, Ray, Good Night and Good Luck, Finding Neverland, The Aviator, Erin Brockovich and The Pianist. Over 60 biopics have received Best Picture nominations.
Film critics, even amateur ones, love to make lists of best films, and of course, most have lists of best biopics. There can be a great deal of debate as to which of these films is actually the best, and individual taste varies. However, many agree that the following biopics belong somewhere in the list of most popular biopics. The list includes Gandhi, Amadeus, Lawrence of Arabia, Raging Bull, Citizen Kane, Malcolm X and Patton.
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