Pictures of People: Thoughts on Biopics

How do biopics shape our memory of historical figures?

“Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.”

Lou Gehrig spoke these words and was immortalized.

But Gary Cooper spoke them too. His wonderful monologue at the end of “The Pride of the Yankees” forever shaped and dramatized the image of Gehrig. In fact, the last thing Gehrig said at the end of his speech were not those infamous words but “I may have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for.”

Had it been these words Gehrig wanted to be remembered, he might not consider himself quite as lucky.

The biopic is a peculiar genre in film with the power to influence historical perception more than reality itself. If a director’s goal is typically to entertain or make a statement through a work of art, then the biopic is not often viewed as a director intended but as a recreation of a true moment in time.

How will audiences going to see “J. Edgar” this weekend react? Perhaps several generations now have no memory of J. Edgar Hoover or what people thought of him as he was alive. Their imagination of the man will be limited to Leonardo DiCaprio and the story Clint Eastwood tells. Continue reading “Pictures of People: Thoughts on Biopics”

Rapid Response: My Left Foot

Daniel Day-Lewis goes way too overboard in Jim Sheridan’s melodramatic biopic about Christy Brown.

My friend has told me how bothered he was when he first read that Daniel Day-Lewis did extreme method acting for Jim Sheridan’s “My Left Foot,” going as far as making cast and crew actually carry him around as he struggled to live his entire life while shooting the movie as a cripple. His work led him to an Oscar in 1989, but his performance as Christy Brown, the genius with cerebral palsy, is constantly on and in actuality crippling to the movie.

Day-Lewis is never not performing in this movie. Even when off screen, we hear Christy’s moans and flailing from the other room over. It’s kind of like Colin Firth recently in “The King’s Speech.” You can see all the work he did right up there on the screen, although even that film had a little more subtlety and charm to it than “My Left Foot” does.

Sheridan’s film is a strict melodrama charting the difficulties Christy had to overcome to become the less-than-a-saint genius he is. We see none of the more peaceful moments of his life where he grew as a painter and a writer, and there are few moments of comedy or laughter that would make Christy’s situation feel less like it was being exploited. Continue reading “Rapid Response: My Left Foot”