Biopics Aren’t History

I have mixed feelings about biopics. Why? They’re not history, but they’re kind of sold like it. They give the illusion of truth while taking varying degrees of license to make the story entertaining. That in itself isn’t the problem as much as how people treat them as more than entertainment, as if they’re some kind of educational material. In a way, that assumption is fair. The biopic is trying to say something about the real people and events it represents. Otherwise, why not just change all the names, places, times, etc. and just call it a story?

As a writer, I’ve gained an appreciation for movie directors and how much work they go through to set up a scene. For a writer, the work is comparatively trivial but not less important. Why is this scene here? What is it doing? It’s all about the larger story you’re trying to tell, in service to the theme. In a work of fiction, plenty of scenes often get cut out. Imagine what happens with someone’s life story just to get it to fit inside a two hour window. Then, in order to tell a story (because real life doesn’t follow story structure) you have to pick out certain details, maybe putting extra emphasis on certain points. Perhaps you switch the order, combine two people into one character, or make up whole scenes altogether. Things that never happened, but serve your theme.

The end result isn’t a life but a story. Imagine if your own life’s story were condensed into a two hour movie. Would there be enough material to tell the tale of a hero, or a villain, with the right editing? Surely we all could provide enough fodder for both, and the difference would be in who is telling the story. What story were they trying to tell? What do they believe?

I’m not saying that it’s wrong to make biopics, or that people shouldn’t watch them. They’re just a tricky category. If I’m arguing for anything, it’s that we should treat them as fiction. I like fiction. I write fiction. Fiction can convey powerful truths. Fiction is not history. In the end, it’s not just about whether the story contains something true, but how much truth has been left out.