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Forside Indhold Arkiv Abonnement Profil Links Kontakt English <strong>16</strong>:9 in English: The Biography of Great Men – The Political Biopic in America By ANDREAS HALSKOV A genre firmly rooted in the genre system of Hollywood, the biopic is not only alive today, but ‘alive and kicking’. Films like Phyllida Lloyd’s The Irony Lady (2011), starring Meryl Streep, Simon Curtis’ My Week with Marilyn (2011) and Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar (2011) all attest to the popularity of the biographical film. A subgenre of the biopic is the political biopic, a subgenre which has often been neglected in Denmark, but which has always been a stronghold in the US. In this article, I shall give a brief historical overview of this subgenre in American cinema, explaining how its success is related not only to Hollywood’s star system, but also to a personalized political history often connected to the US. The Scottish historian, critic and author Thomas Carlyle (fig. 4) has famously said that ”The history of the world is but the biography of great men,” pointing to a personalized conception of history which has often been debated and largely disavowed. This particular view, however, is suitable when trying to explain the success of the political biopic in the US, where presidents are often the stuff that tales and films are based on. The so-called “founding fathers”, with whom most Americans are acquainted, have been fictionalized in the biographical miniseries American Lives (PBS, 1997) and HBO’s John Adams (2008), starring Paul Giamatti; Abraham Lincoln has been depicted many times over, most popularly in the eponymous film by D.W. Griffith (1930) and John Ford’s The Young Mr. Lincoln (1939); Franklin Delano Roosevelt is central to a miniseries from 1965, starring Charlton Heston; Harry S. Truman is played by Gary Sinise in the telefilm Truman (HBO, 1995); John F. Kennedy’s tragically short life has often been investigated and depicted, most recently in the miniseries The Kennedys (History Channel, 2011-) in which he is played by Greg Kinnear; Richard Nixon is the ‘tragic hero’ or ‘crook’ in Oliver Stone’s film from 1996 and part of Ron Howard’s critically acclaimed film Frost/Nixon (2008); Ronald Reagan is played by James Brolin in The Reagans (CBS, 2003) and George W. Bush has recently been played by James’ son Josh Brolin in the slightly satirical film W (2008) by aforementioned Oliver Stone. Focusing specifically on the two Lincoln films (Griffith 1930 and Ford 1939) and the two films on Nixon (Stone 1996 and Howard 2008), I shall try to describe the typical features in political biopics and, at the same time, explain why this particular subgenre is so popular in America, yet almost unnoticeable in Denmark (1). Fig. 1-3: ”The return of the real”: Biopics are flooding the market these days, and within the last four years political biopics have been made on such diverse political figures as John Adams (HBO, 2008), Margaret Thatcher (The Iron Lady, 2011) and J. Edgar Hoover (J. Edgar,2011). 1) Granted, there are films in Denmark – even if they are few are far between – which can be seen as political biopics. The film AFR (2007) could in a sense be construed as a biopic about Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former Prime Minister of Denmark, but is more accurately described as a mockumentary. En kongelig affære (2012, A Royal Affair) by Nikolaj Arcel, however, is a biopic about Christian VII, a former Danish king, but also about J.F. Struensee as a <strong>som</strong>ewhat dubious politician. Jens Otto Kragh, the most obvious choice for a political biopic in Denmark, is seen (although not as a central character) in the drama series Krøniken (DR, 2004-2007), and both a political biography and a biographical stage play have been made about his life (as a politician and a private person). Fig. 8-9: Spike Lee’s Malcolm X (1992), about the eponymous civil rights leader,
Fig. 4: Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881. Fig. 5. Fig. 5-7: The political biopic has a long-running tradition in America and includes wellknown films like W (2008), Nixon (1996) and The Young Mr. Lincoln (1939). The Political Biopic A rather vague and often neglected genre, the biopic may generally be construed as a ‘genre depicting the life of a famous person in an often dramatic form’ (Schepelern 2010, p. 81; see also Nielsen 2011). This genre, thus, includes a variety of different films: from musical biopics (films like Ray [2004] or Walk the Line [2005]) to philosophical biopics (films dealing with major thinkers such as Voltaire [1933]) and, as mentioned, political biopics,dealing with people who have (had) a great influence on political events and the political system (from fictionalized accounts of presidential lives to films like Malcolm X [1992] or Milk [2008], about the gay activist Harvey Milk, played by Sean Penn (fig. 8-9)). We may naturally assume that this genre (as most of Hollywood’s classical genres) harks back to the infancy, if not the very birth, of cinema. Even so, says Rick Altman, early biopics like Warner Bros.’ Disraeli (1929) (fig. 10) were not originally produced and advertised as biopics (Altman 2002, p. 39). “Films are always available for redefinition […] and genres for realignment,” writes Altman, and, thusly, political biopics may have existed for many decades, but the term itself – political biopic – is relatively new and only vaguely defined (cf. Altman 2002, p. 42-44). That political biopics are only vaguely defined is hardly a surprise, given the fact that the biopic is actually a rather vague genre with only a few, if any, necessary stylistic features. Trying more specifically to define the political biopic, however, we could point to a number of features which are often, but not necessarily, seen in such films, including An actor playing a central political figure, whose life is depicted and dramatized; An emphasis on tour de force acting, particularly the physical and psychological characteristics of the portrayed politician, e.g. in relation to facial and bodily appearance, verbal dexterity, gesticulations and mimicry (2); A fictionalized account of authentic historical events; A dual focus on the political figure as a public and private character; A success tragedy structure, often juxtaposing a private and Gus Van Sant’s Milk (2008), about a lesser known political activist, could both be considered political biopics. This subgenre, in other words, can focus on virtually any kind of political figure who has (had) an influence on the political system. Fig. 10: George Arliss stars as the former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in the 1929 Warner Bros. film Disraeli, which is known today as an early political biopic. The film, however, was never produced and sold using that nomenclature. 2) In the wording of this particular passage I am indebted to Jakob Isak Nielsen, who has edited this article.
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