My Family's Favorite Biopics



Doral



Here's my son Doral's picture. 

He says his favorite Biopic is Hoffa (Danny DeVito, 1992).  He loves the scenes in the restaurant with Hoffa, waiting to meet with the mob. 

My neice, Lurene Bates, says she has two favorites:

1. Temple Grandin (Mick Jackson, 2010) A biopic of Temple Grandin, an autistic woman who has become one of the top scientists in the humane livestock handling industry.
2. And All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979)-- a story based loosely on the life of Bob Fosse.

Kelvin Johnson Sr adds:

I like Ghandi (Richard Attenborough, 1982) especially the scene where Ghandi is so committed to his purpose that he is willing to toss his wife out of the house and then reconsiders for it is against what he really believes in.

Catherine Jarvis’s picks:

I really enjoyed the movie The Blind Side (John Lee Hancock, 2009). It is the true and inspiring story of a young black man adopted by a southern white family.

A Beautiful Mind (Ron Howard, 2001), a story of the mental illness of a brilliant mathematician, John Nash, was also very interesting.

Steve Carter says:

I have a French pick: 37.5 in the morning (Jean-Jacques Beineix, France,1986.) which is called Betty Blue in English. The protagonist may not have been a real person but the pizza place that was featured in the film was real and I went there.

Mary Johnson can’t stop at one movie:

I have seen Amadeus (1984), The Last Emperor (1987), A Beautiful Mind (2001), and Malcolm X .While I liked them all, I must admit that in retrospect they are all about men. I don’t think I have seen any about women. Well, except Erin Brokovitch, but I didn’t love that movie because I don’t like Julia Roberts much.

Here’s a list I found on-line of biopic about women.
http://www.onlygoodmovies.com/blog/good-movies/good-biopic-movies-womens-history-month/

Janet Pilling writes:

Schindlers List – Liam Neeson plays Oscar Schindler -all about humanity and hope – this was one of Laynies first movies that meant something to her – I think Grade 9

Our family favourite has to be Braveheart – I think all of my children own it. William Wallace. When we all went to Scotland it was specifically for a visit to his monument in Sterling. Love and Freedom

Books are better but some movies do them justice like the two above.

Rebecca Johnson adds:

What about Iron Jawed Angels. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338139/ It is an HBO movie, though.....does that count? It might have been a TV one, but it is such a great counterpoint to the images of suffragettes that we get in Mary Poppins (see the link to the sing-along version of Sister Suffragette on youtube) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUhwA-C-ACg

It totally captures the violence and passion for justice of those women from the 1900s. If the biopic is a myth to inspire, then this one does that....

Wyona Bates writes from London:

I can’t give you true biopics, but one of the shows I remember so well is Manufacturing Consent...Chomsky. I watched it with Charise because she needed to watch it for a course she was taking.
Another favourite theatre show is Billy Elliot about a person, even if mythogical. The show is full of dancing, happiness, tears, love, endurance, anger, despair and hope. It represents the London West End Theatre and a little of Scottish History.