Recently, the biopic film Amy, sharing the life story of the late singer/songwriter Amy Winehouse, came out and caught the attention of many critics. Viewers’ main critique was that the actress looked nothing like Amy Winehouse. Biopic films take a real and widely adored individual and dramatasizes their life for the purpose of public entertainment. My favorite movies have been the ones that share the stories of my favorite singers such as Amy and Bohemian Rhapsody. But where do we draw the line of being entertaining and committing an art crime? There is nothing worse than when you are amped up about going to see a movie about your most loved artist or role model and the film ends up being really bad. Some even say that actors agree to do a biopic film because it is a money grab and not because they are artistically inspired. In an article titled, Why Biopics go so Wrong, it is brought to the reader’s attention how biopic films essentially diminish an artists creativity due to a concept called the imitation game. Artists are feeling creatively blocked due to needing to cram a certain amount of information into two hours and follow an exact script in order to be factually correct. This can lead to a disaster of a film and harms both artists involved in this story; the artist acting in the film and the original artist that the film is about. A poorly made movie can destroy the reputation of said famous person to the public eye. This shows two separate art crimes, 1). reducing an artist’s creativity and 2) ruining the memory of a late famous artist.
Biopic films may be seen as an art crime due to creating an environment for negative outlooks on the individual they made the movie for in the first place. Going back to the Amy example, critics stated that the actress who played Amy was not the right casting choice. In the same BBC article from above, the authors write about Nicole Kidman’s painfully obvious fake nose in The Hours (2002). This in itself turns what is supposed to be an artwork remembering a famous author into a comical failure. To continue, biopic films limit the creativity of an artist. The biggest problem discussed in the New York Times article is the idea that the artist has to imitate a different person instead of letting their creative juices flow. They cannot create the most interesting character in their entire career because they are following the script of the artist’s previous life. In this sense, Biopic films are an art crime to actors.
In addition, biopic films have the potential to completely butcher the artist’s life story and reputation. It is a possibility that the artist the film is about forever gets remembered as the famous actor who played her. For example, in Amelia Erhart’s biopic film, Amelia Erhart is now known as, “Hilary Swank wearing false teeth and talking in a funny voice” (Barber, 2021). This may seem like an exaggeration and those who haven’t even seen the film have not been influenced by the film in this way. However, even the possibility of an artist’s life story getting told wrongly and by someone who comically represents them is an art crime. In conclusion, biopic films are very entertaining and exciting when about your favorite artists, however, they can be a place for false information and wrongdoing.
