Pick a Bio, Any Biopic

A while back, I wrote about songs that were based on literature, poetry, or anything involving the printed word. If you're interested, the article is here. I intend to talk about music inspired by movies one of these days, though that's a huge topic to tackle. Another time. 

But I do like this cross-pollination of the arts. Today I'd like to rattle on a bit about movies about musicians. Real life musicians, too, since there are many flicks about fictitious bands and singers... like Spinal Tap, The Soggy Bottom Boys (in O Brother, Where Art Thou), School of Rock, Wyld Stallyons (the Bill and Ted movies), Stillwater (Almost Famous).... okay, this looks like something for another article. More on that later.

I believe the first biopic I ever saw was Amadeus, back in '84, in a beautiful old theatre in downtown Toronto. Mozart was a musician who goes waaay back in time. The latter half of the 1700's, in fact. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, affectionately nicknamed Wolfie by his adoring wife in the film, is a sort of dark clown. Given to giddy excess with booze and sex, Tom Hulce plays a Mozart who is driven and passionate about his music. The movie shows us Wolfgang as a child prodigy, composing his first piece and performing before royalty at just age five. As an adult, he became wilder and more reckless, achieving great fame and yet never reaping the financial rewards due to him. A sad story, really, at least the way it is depicted in the movie. A classic movie about a classical genius.

The Lizard King sheds his skin... and travels through time

When The Doors movie hit theatres in '91, my entourage and I lapped it up. Val Kilmer nailed the role of charismatic Doors frontman Jim Morrison, at once dynamic and self-destructive. Kilmer even carried off the singing with great success. The story of the band's inception and career is largely fictionalized here, but the essence of the turbulent late 60's drops us right into that seething pit of rock'n'roll excess. And the music is excellent, of course, renewing my interest in The Doors at the time. 

The 2005 movie Walk the Line chronicled the rise of country superstar Johnny Cash. Joaquin Phoenix played Cash with terrifying intensity, helping us understand the dark past that created the Man in Black. Reese Witherspoon made heads turn with her acting and singing chops as Cash's wife June. I'd never been a country music listener before this flick came along, but that changed a little bit afterward. Walk the Line exposed me to a lot of amazing music, and from there I tentatively tried out the odd other C&W artist... the oldies, none of this "New Country" fluff. 

I seem to recall watching at least a bit of Sid and Nancy on video rental in a friend's dingy living-room when we were hanging out, sipping cold ones, one muggy summer evening back in '86. The thing was, I was never much interested in punk music. It would be a few more years before I'd even care enough to buy that Pistols' album Never Mind the Bollocks. And I rarely listened to that. So. The movie depicted with gritty realism the drug-addled young couple Sid (played by Gary Oldman) and Nancy and their troubled lives. This sort of thing did not appeal to me at the time. Never would, actually. Oh well.

Bird was a fascinating biopic, relating the story of famed, though suffering, jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker. It wasn't until about twenty years after the movie's release (1988)  that I finally got around to it. By this time, I'd actually developed an appreciation for jazz. This Clint Eastwood-directed picture delivered the goods, and then some. Forest Whitaker brought the "character" of Parker - known to all as "Bird" - to vivid life, revealing to us the personal pain of the genius musician. 

My little Beethoven statuette alongside the immortal

recordings of the Ninth Symphony by Von Karajan

I had high hopes for Immortal Beloved, having been a long-time admirer of the music of the legendary Ludwig van Beethoven. But the '94 movie was a bit of a let-down. The glorious symphonies, concertos, sonatas, and so on were there, but the focus was mostly on the mystery woman to whom Ludwig wrote a love letter. I wanted more Beethoven biography (even if it's slightly fictionalized) and less theorizing about this so-called secret amour. Gary Oldman (again!) can be a great actor, but he does have a habit of chewing up the scenery, and I didn't like how that translated to his portrayal of Beethoven.

Daydream Believers was a TV movie that first aired back in 2000. Well, it was about time! I'd loved The Monkees ever since I was a young lad, watching their wacky TV show and spinning their records at every opportunity. Of course, the film delved deeply into the issue of these guys who didn't even play their own instruments. Well, we know better, don't we? It almost hurt to see the friction within the band, whether it was really that bad or not, and yet the bond that existed between the members seemed genuine enough. The actors' likenesses to the real Monkees couldn't have been much better - great casting! Other key people in the entertainment biz were woven into the story, like The Beatles, Hendrix, and Jack Nicholson, adding more fun to the mix. Pretty good overall.

There are plenty more biopics out there, and there is some consensus on which ones are the best. Most of the films I already talked about are among them, and here are a few others, all of which I've seen, but so long ago that I haven't enough recollection to comment on them now. Or I just didn't care for them all that much. 

The Buddy Holly Story - 1978
Backbeat (The Beatles) - 1994
Ray (Ray Charles) - 2004
The Runaways - 2010
La Bamba (Richie Valens) - 1987
Great Balls of Fire (Jerry Lee Lewis) -  1989
Coal Miner's Daughter (Loretta Lynn) - 1980