Our Favorite Bio-Pics, From Goodfellas to Malcolm X

With the nationwide release of 42 this Friday, the bio-pic chronicling the color barrier-breaking baseball career of Jackie Robinson, we here at Movie Mezzanine thought it would be enjoyable and topical to discuss some of our favorite films from the bio-pic genre.

To make a quality bio-picture is, as continuously proven by the awful biographies released year after year (anyone remember J. Edgar or The Iron Lady?), a difficult task. Below are the films that stay clear of being overly-reverential, or a sappy hagiography. 

Writers Christopher Runyon, Odie Henderson, Kevin Ketchum, Alex Withrow, Danny Bowes, Jake Cole, Corey Atad, Russell Hainline, Natalie Zutter and Sam Fragoso each chose to highlight one movie. At least in our minds these are the best of the best, the crème de la crème — listed in alphabetical order. We hope you enjoy.

Amadeus

Amadeus isn’t about classical music. It’s about dreams vs. reality, the ceiling of talent, jealousy vs. acceptance. There can only be so many champions. There are far more Salieris. The film fills us with the joy of being in the presence of greatness while never ignoring the nagging demon inside that resents when one is undeniably *better* than us. It’s about what it means to want and never have, to succeed and never prosper, to love and never be full. It’s about us. – Hainline

Antwone Fisher

I’m emotionally indebted to Denzel Washington’s directorial debut, Antwone Fisher, for personal reasons that need not be mentioned here. And bio-pics are hard to pull off, right? I like just as many as I hate, and love is a word I rarely associate with the genre. With that noted, I find Antwone Fisher to be one of the most honest films I’ve ever seen. Unlike the quickly resolved tragedy that most main character subjects of bio-pics seem to suffer through, the pain in this film is real and everlasting. And sure, this movie aims to inspire (and does), but I have yet to find I false note in it. Written by Antwone Fisher himself, this film is a true testament in loss, regret, and forgiveness. A great biopic about the power of the fight. – Withrow

Bonnie and Clyde

The biopic is a difficult beast, because how do you capture an entire human life in a two hour movie, or even three, or even four? Robert Benton and David Newman hit upon a great workaround in their script for Bonnie & Clyde: just make most of it up. Between that, Arthur Penn’s stylish direction, and the star power of Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, we have a true story in a very loose sense, but in its fidelity to story it becomes an all-time great. It’s a very rare life, no matter how famous the subject, that works as a story without a little embellishment, which in a way contradicts the whole purpose of a biopic, but at the same time shows the genre the way forward: tell the part of the story that works. – Bowes

From the Journals of Jean Seberg

Less a biopic than an essayistic form of film and cultural criticism, Mark Rappaport’s 1995 masterpiece tells the story of “the first modern movie star” as she rose to the top of the heap of the studio system’s last, desperate gasps; helped usher in a new era; then imploded as the old political order destroyed her professionally and personally. Most biopics use context as mere production design to situate a cliché-ridden story, but From the Journals of Jean Seberg specifically targets the social implications of an artist’s life and how the ebb and flow of social liberty and repression can be applied to the individual. – Cole

Goodfellas

The late and wonderful Roger Ebert once wrote that there was “no finer film that has ever been made about organized crime” than Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese’s 1990’s masterpiece starring Ray Liotta as small-time mobster Henry Hill. It’s a bold, declarative statement from a man who has seen just about every crime film there is to be seen. And for the most part, he’s right. Goodfellas transports and enraptures us into its sleazy milieu, painting these grisly characters authentically. All their virtues and vices are on the table for us to see, especially Liotta’s deeply flawed protagonist.  Liotta’s engaging performance is our way into the mob and this lifestyle. The narration by the Henry Hill character isn’t overbearing, it effectively sets the mood for this transcendent, bloody, and gut-wrenching gangster film that evolves into so much more. It’s a human film, and a great one at that. – Fragoso

Good Night and Good Luck

In some ways, my pick is not really a bio-pic, but a film “based on a true story.” Yet what’s remarkable about George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck is the way this small story about how Edward R. Murrow and his news team stood against Senator Joe McCarthy so perfectly encapsulates the greatness of Murrow through his entire career. A lesser filmmaker would’ve simple done the standard life story. David Strathairn is brilliant in the role of Murrow, and Clooney is smart to populate his film with a range of excellent supporting characters. It’s almost an ensemble film: a rarity in a biographical film. Robert Elswit’s gorgeous black-an-white cinematography tops it all off, transporting the audience back to that era when TV news really meant something and the news anchor had all the power. – Atad

Lawrence of Arabia

Few films truly define film as a medium the way Lawrence of Arabia does. Blending spectacle with dense storytelling, it’s a war film that is unconventional in just about every way. There’s simply no way it could get made today. Between the production design, 4 hour run time, all male cast, subject matter, and lead character, David Lean would’ve been laughed out of every major studio nowadays. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case in the early 1960s, and the result is one of the great masterpieces of cinema. But at the center of this truly epic tale is one man, T.E. Lawrence. Few historical icons can be studied so in-depth in just one film, but Lean and Peter O’Toole bring to the screen a complex, rich character study of a man without a place to belong. While a war hero to some, the film is never shy about presenting the more ambiguous inner turmoil that Lawrence faced in his journey. Perfectly balanced in its juxtapositions of epic and intimate, Lawrence of Arabia transcends the bio-pic, and lives on as something far greater. – Ketchum

Malcolm X

Spike Lee got neither his James Brown nor Jackie Robinson films made. This bad luck with biopics goes back to Malcolm X, where he ran out of money and could barely finish the film. Yet Lee’s masterpiece is one of the few Black epics turned out by Hollywood, a long, messy, and brilliant depiction of a controversial figure with NO mainstream appeal. Just the use of Malcolm X’s quote alone caused critics to bare their racial idiocy, proclaiming Do The Right Thing a call to “Kill de White People.” Malcolm X was a former pimp, a criminal and an incredibly powerful orator unwilling to yield to oppressors via Dr. King’s non-violence. Denzel Washington is downright scary, channeling Holy Ghost preacher power through his iconic, best role. Al Freeman Jr. makes an eerily perfect Elijah Muhammad. Lee’s showmanship direction and Ernest Dickerson’s cinematography are suitably epic. This film is a must-see. – Henderson

Schindler’s List 

What is it that can be said about Schindler’s List that hasn’t been talked about to death already? It’s easy to see why many declare this Spielberg’s masterpiece. Schindler’s List is emotionally affecting in ways that few films are. It smothers us headfirst into the grimness of its setting, and through it depicts a man of insurmountable courage and tells a story of powerful hope in the face of despair. And while many deride Spielberg’s talent for manipulation, not enough give credit to how subtly played Oskar Schindler is by Liam Neeson; who never lets on his true intentions until the film’s powerful emotional climax. Through him and Spielberg’s masterful direction Schindler’s List is more than just a biopic; it’s one of the most inspiring and emotionally transcendent films of all time. The fact that it all actually happened is just another testament to the human spirit in general. – Runyon

The Social Network

From the dazzling first ten minutes where its antihero protagonist is taken to task by the opposite sex, The Social Network proves that it will speak both Mark Zuckerberg’s high-minded lingo and our own Millennial slang. I can’t think of a better person than Aaron Sorkin–with his signature snappy political intrigue and romantic comedy pedigree–to adapt the rags-to-riches-to-heartless-betrayal tale of our generation. The best biopics return their larger-than-life subjects to human form; the last scene, where Mark constantly refreshes his Facebook waiting for the girl who got away to accept his friend request, is almost improbably relatable. – Zutter

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What are some of your favorite bio-pictures?