Who has the right to tell your life story?

Let’s set the scene, shall we? You decide to go see a movie with your friends. The group buys tickets and gets those tasty concessions (my go to is a Coke Icee mixed with whatever other flavor is available and some hot buttery popcorn).  

Then, everyone finds their seats and gets ready for the show to begin. The lights start to dim down and the trailers start to play. One of the trailers catches your eye because the narrator starts saying all the familiar words, like “Coming soon, based on the inspiring true story” and well you can see where this is going.

Biopics have always been a popular genre of film and television. However, in recent years, I have noticed they have skyrocketed in release on streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. I think all of us can name at least one biopic we have watched or heard of. 

Around award season time (Oscars, Emmy, Golden Globe), we are inundated with interviews and trailers with celebrities going into great detail about how they studied the person they are portraying such as examining mannerisms, the speech patterns, doing a deepdive into the persons history and talking to the actual person or their family. 

The most recent Oscar Best Picture winner was “Oppenheimer” directed by Christopher Nolan (he also won Best Director), based on the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer known as the “father of the atomic bomb.” 

The film gained numerous nominations and wins, including Actor in a Leading Role for Cillian Murphy and Actor in a Supporting Role for Robert Downey Jr.

That same ceremony also saw multiple nominations for the film “Maestro” (including Best Picture), directed and starring Bradley Cooper as the composer Leonard Bernstein.   

There is a broad range of people who can be the subject of a biopic. They can be produced by a big studio or premiere on Lifetime. I can understand why it is a popular genre to produce and watch. People are fascinated with the lives of the rich and famous and want to understand where they came from. 

 “Hamilton: An American Musical” asked the question in “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story,”  which I think can also apply to talking about the numerous biopics that seem to pop up every year.

Who has the right to tell your story, and when can it get into the realm of exploitative? No one owns the right to someone’s life. If someone does not want to have their life dramatized, that wish should be respected. Yet, that wish on numerous occasions is not honored.

Dancer and actor Fred Astaire allegedly put a clause in his will prohibiting a biopic about him from being made. That has not, however, stopped the development of a film based on his life starring Tom Holland. Astaire once said, “However much they offer me – and offers come in all the time – I shall not sell.”

This year, a movie on the late singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse titled “Back to  Black” was released and fans were hesitant on the casting and how the film would depict Winehouse’s turbulent life. 

Once the trailer was released, these nerves did not subside. A review from Vox titled, “Back to Black is the worst of bad musical biopics” by Kyndall Cunningham, dives into the criticisms of the movie while also using “Back to Black” as a jumping off point to talk about the problems of the biopic as a whole. 

Cunningham writes, “Making a biopic is always a delicate art form. By nature, these films are primed to be over-dissected and picked apart for historical inaccuracies, flawed impressions, and limited perspectives. In the case of Back to Black, though, the depiction of Winehouse rings both false and strikingly convenient for the people who were involved in her life.”

At a certain point, a biopic is just another way to commodify someone’s life and sell their stories as a series of CliffNotes. They forget that this person had a life full of ups and downs. We will never know how the person was in real life, only the version they decided to show the world. 

On the flipside though, there are the biopics that have the complete involvement of the actual subject or their family, which can introduce its own set of problems. The person will want to show themselves in the best light and smooth out all the rough edges. 

Biopics will never be 100% based in fact and, in many cases, filmmakers take dramatic license in telling the story. Scenes will be created for conflict and facts might be slightly changed to fit the structure of the movie. 

If you want to learn the true story, just read a biography or watch a documentary. Biopics can be interesting to watch, but they should not be your only source of information.