A biopic, is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character’s real name is used. They differ from films "based on a true story" or “historical films" in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their lives. Music bio-pics shows either the artist or group come togehter, their rise to prominence and their fall from glory. With that being said I'm going to bring you my top 10 favorite music bio-pics of all-time.So without further ado...
10. Notorious
The Notorious B.I.G. is one of my favorite artists of all-time and I really enjoyed getting an in-depth look at his life. "Notorious" centers on the life of murdered rapper Notorious B.I.G (played by Jamal Woolard), from his beginnings as a Brooklyn crack dealer to East Coast hip-hop sensation. Notorious has a rating of 51% on rottentomatoes.com.
9. Coal Miner's Daughter
This is just a fantastic film and an amaizng bio-pic. One of eight children born to Ted Webb (played by Levon Helm), a coal miner raising a family despite grinding poverty in Butcher's Holler, KY, Loretta (played By Sissy Spacek) married Dolittle "Mooney" Lynn (played by Tommy Lee Jones) when she was only 13 years old. A mother of four by the time she was 20, Lynn began singing the occasional song at local honky-tonks on weekends, and at 25, she cut (at Mooney's suggestion) a demo tape that earned her a deal with an independent record label. Loretta and Mooney's tireless promotion of the record (including a long road trip through the south in which they stopped at every country radio station they could find) paid off -- Loretta's first single, "Honky Tonk Girl," hit the charts and earned her a spot on the Grand Ole Opry. Stardom called and Loretta never looked back, but success brought with it both joy (a long string of hit records and sold-out concerts and a close friendship with Patsy Cline) and sorrow (a nervous breakdown brought on by overwork and a great deal of stress to a marriage that endured -- but just barely). Coal Miner's Daughter was nominated for 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay and it won the award for Best Actress and it has a rating of 100% on rottentomatoes.com.
8. The Doors
I'm a fan of The Doors and I thought that the film did the group justice. Headed by Jim Morrison (played by Val Kilmer), this film follows the group from their humble beginnings in Los Angeles to the height of their popularity, and through the drug experimentation and abuse that lead to Morrison's death. The Doors has a rating of 54% on rottentomatoes.com.
7. Ray
This film has a ton of amazing performances and one of the best portrayals of a real-life person I have ever seen. Born in a poor town in Georgia, Ray Charles (played by Jamie Foxx) went blind at the age of seven shortly after witnessing his younger brother's accidental death. Inspired by a fiercely independent mother who insisted he make his own way in the world, Charles found his calling and his gift behind a piano keyboard. Touring across the Southern musical circuit, the soulful singer gained a reputation and then exploded with worldwide fame when he pioneered incorporating gospel, country, jazz and orchestral influences into his inimitable style. As he revolutionized the way people appreciated music, he simultaneously fought segregation in the very clubs that launched him and championed artists' rights within the corporate music business. Ray was nominated for 6 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Editing, Best Costume Design and Best Sound Mixing while winning 2 (Best Actor and Best Sound Mixing) and it has a rating of 81% on rottentomatoes.com.
6. The Soloist
This is a truly touching film and another great performance fro Jamie Foxx in a music bio-pic. Columnist Steve Lopez (played by Robert Downey Jr.) is at a dead end. The newspaper business is in an uproar, his marriage to a fellow journalist has fallen apart and he can't entirely remember what he loved about his job in the first place. Then, one day, while walking through Los Angeles' Skid Row, he sees the mysterious bedraggled figure Nathaniel Ayers (played by Jamie Foxx), pouring his soul into a two-stringed violin. At first, Lopez approaches Ayers as just another story idea in a city of millions. But as he begins to unearth the mystery of how this alternately brilliant and distracted street musician, once a dynamic prodigy headed for fame, wound up living in tunnels and doorways, it sparks an unexpected quest. Imagining he can change Ayers' life, Lopez embarks on a quixotic mission to get him off the streets and back to the world of music. But even as he fights to save Ayers' life, he begins to see that it is Ayers--with his unsinkable passion, his freedom-loving obstinacy and his valiant attempts at connection and love--who is profoundly changing Lopez. The Soloist has a rating of 56% on rottentomatoes.com.
5. La Bamba
This is great and fun bio-pic, but also a heartbreaking one at that. Before scoring radio and concert success with hits like "La Bamba", "C'mon Let's Go", and "Donna",Ritchie Valens (played by Lou Diamond Phillips) was a 15-year-old migrant worker who worked with his mother Connie (played by Rosana De Soto). Valens' half-brother Bob Morales played by (Esai Morales) is a vitriolic ex-con who roars into the migrant camp on his Harley after his release from jail. Valens' musical talents are encouraged by his family -- though later various members of his family react to his fame with varying degrees of pride and envy -- and he soon earns an audition with legendary record producer and former Artie Shaw clarinet player Bob Keane (Joe Pantoliano). Valens soon appears in an Alan Freed rock n' roll teen exploitation film, lip-synching his blistering recorded version of "Ooh, My Head". When a romance with Donna Ludwig (played by Danielle von Zerneck) is forbidden by her conservative father, Valens pens the famous ballad that bears her name. Tours follow his chart success until the fatal plane crash that claimed the lives of Valens, The Big Bopper (played by Stephen Lee), and Buddy Holly (played by Marshall Crenshaw) on February 3rd, 1959. La Bamba has a rating of 96% on rottentomatoes.com.
4. Walk the Line
This is a fantastic film with great performances and a bio-pic that will stand the test of time. "Walk the Line" follows the early years in the career of American music legend Johnny Cash (played by Joaquin Phoenix). The young Cash sets out on life's journey battered by his brother's accidental death and an abusive father, who blames him for the incident. His rise to fame with such hits as "A Boy Named Sue" and "Ring of Fire" is countered by his struggle with amphetamines, barbiturates and alcohol. His instability, both financial and emotional, leads to the failure of his first marriage. The few comforts of his unhappy youth had come from the radio programs of June Carter (played Reese Witherspoon) , the luminous daughter of country music's first family. When their paths cross, it's her devotion and support that becomes his salvation. Walk the Line was nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing and Best Sound Editing while winning the award for Best Actress and it has a rating of 82% on rottentomatoes.com.
3. The Pianist
This is such a hard film to watch simply becasue of the sad and heartbreaking tone. A composer and pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman (played by Adrian Brody) played the last live music heard over Polish radio airwaves before Nazi artillery hit. There, in Poland, Szpilman struggled to stay alive--even when cast away from those he loved. He spent the duration of the war hiding in the ruins of Warsaw and scavenging for food and shelter. Szpilman eventually reclaimed his artistic gifts, and confronted his fears--with aid from the unlikeliest of sources. The Pianist was nominated for 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Costumes Design and Best Sound Editing while winning 3 (Best Director, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay) and it has a rating of 96% on rottentomatoes.com.
2. 8 Mile
This is a fantastic film and it one of best in-depth looks at one of the controversial muscians of all-time. No matter whom we are, no matter where we live, we're all bound by borders. Many of us are content to live within these borders--others are simply forced to exist within them. But some of us need to break out, burst through, even if what is on the other side is both frightening and unknown. From this comes the tale of one young man's dilemma as he navigates his way through his colliding worlds. Set against Detroit's hip-hop scene in 1995, the story centers on Jimmy Smith Jr (played by Eminem)., a young white rapper, who struggles to find his voice. The people of Detroit know '8 Mile' as the city limit or a border. It is also a psychological dividing line that separates Jimmy from where and who he wants to be, as he struggles to find the strength and courage to transcend his boundaries. 8 Mile won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and it has a rating of 76% on rottentomatoes.com.
1. Amadeus
While the film is long and sometimes boring it also very interesting and very entetaining. From the vantage point of an insane asylum, aging royal composer Salieri (played by F. Murray Abraham) recalls the events of three decades earlier, when the young Mozart (played by Tom Hulce) first gained favor in the court of Austrian emperor Joseph II (played by Jeffrey Jones). Salieri was incensed that God would bless so vulgar and obnoxious a young snipe as Mozart with divine genius. Why was Salieri -- so disciplined, so devoted to his art, and so willing to toady to his superiors -- not touched by God? Unable to match Mozart's talent, Salieri uses his influence in court to sabotage the young upstart's career. Disguising himself as a mysterious benefactor, Salieri commissions the backbreaking Requiem, which eventually costs Mozart his health, wealth, and life. Amadeus was nominated for 11 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, 2 nominations for Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Best Sound Mixing while winning 8 (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Best Sound Mixing) and it has a rating of 95% on rottentomatoes.com.
So ladies and gentlemen what are some of your favorite music bio-pics of all-time and what do you think of my list? let me know in the comments section below and let your voice be heard.
Jonah Sparks
10. Notorious
The Notorious B.I.G. is one of my favorite artists of all-time and I really enjoyed getting an in-depth look at his life. "Notorious" centers on the life of murdered rapper Notorious B.I.G (played by Jamal Woolard), from his beginnings as a Brooklyn crack dealer to East Coast hip-hop sensation. Notorious has a rating of 51% on rottentomatoes.com.
9. Coal Miner's Daughter
This is just a fantastic film and an amaizng bio-pic. One of eight children born to Ted Webb (played by Levon Helm), a coal miner raising a family despite grinding poverty in Butcher's Holler, KY, Loretta (played By Sissy Spacek) married Dolittle "Mooney" Lynn (played by Tommy Lee Jones) when she was only 13 years old. A mother of four by the time she was 20, Lynn began singing the occasional song at local honky-tonks on weekends, and at 25, she cut (at Mooney's suggestion) a demo tape that earned her a deal with an independent record label. Loretta and Mooney's tireless promotion of the record (including a long road trip through the south in which they stopped at every country radio station they could find) paid off -- Loretta's first single, "Honky Tonk Girl," hit the charts and earned her a spot on the Grand Ole Opry. Stardom called and Loretta never looked back, but success brought with it both joy (a long string of hit records and sold-out concerts and a close friendship with Patsy Cline) and sorrow (a nervous breakdown brought on by overwork and a great deal of stress to a marriage that endured -- but just barely). Coal Miner's Daughter was nominated for 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay and it won the award for Best Actress and it has a rating of 100% on rottentomatoes.com.
8. The Doors
I'm a fan of The Doors and I thought that the film did the group justice. Headed by Jim Morrison (played by Val Kilmer), this film follows the group from their humble beginnings in Los Angeles to the height of their popularity, and through the drug experimentation and abuse that lead to Morrison's death. The Doors has a rating of 54% on rottentomatoes.com.
7. Ray
This film has a ton of amazing performances and one of the best portrayals of a real-life person I have ever seen. Born in a poor town in Georgia, Ray Charles (played by Jamie Foxx) went blind at the age of seven shortly after witnessing his younger brother's accidental death. Inspired by a fiercely independent mother who insisted he make his own way in the world, Charles found his calling and his gift behind a piano keyboard. Touring across the Southern musical circuit, the soulful singer gained a reputation and then exploded with worldwide fame when he pioneered incorporating gospel, country, jazz and orchestral influences into his inimitable style. As he revolutionized the way people appreciated music, he simultaneously fought segregation in the very clubs that launched him and championed artists' rights within the corporate music business. Ray was nominated for 6 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Editing, Best Costume Design and Best Sound Mixing while winning 2 (Best Actor and Best Sound Mixing) and it has a rating of 81% on rottentomatoes.com.
6. The Soloist
This is a truly touching film and another great performance fro Jamie Foxx in a music bio-pic. Columnist Steve Lopez (played by Robert Downey Jr.) is at a dead end. The newspaper business is in an uproar, his marriage to a fellow journalist has fallen apart and he can't entirely remember what he loved about his job in the first place. Then, one day, while walking through Los Angeles' Skid Row, he sees the mysterious bedraggled figure Nathaniel Ayers (played by Jamie Foxx), pouring his soul into a two-stringed violin. At first, Lopez approaches Ayers as just another story idea in a city of millions. But as he begins to unearth the mystery of how this alternately brilliant and distracted street musician, once a dynamic prodigy headed for fame, wound up living in tunnels and doorways, it sparks an unexpected quest. Imagining he can change Ayers' life, Lopez embarks on a quixotic mission to get him off the streets and back to the world of music. But even as he fights to save Ayers' life, he begins to see that it is Ayers--with his unsinkable passion, his freedom-loving obstinacy and his valiant attempts at connection and love--who is profoundly changing Lopez. The Soloist has a rating of 56% on rottentomatoes.com.
5. La Bamba
This is great and fun bio-pic, but also a heartbreaking one at that. Before scoring radio and concert success with hits like "La Bamba", "C'mon Let's Go", and "Donna",Ritchie Valens (played by Lou Diamond Phillips) was a 15-year-old migrant worker who worked with his mother Connie (played by Rosana De Soto). Valens' half-brother Bob Morales played by (Esai Morales) is a vitriolic ex-con who roars into the migrant camp on his Harley after his release from jail. Valens' musical talents are encouraged by his family -- though later various members of his family react to his fame with varying degrees of pride and envy -- and he soon earns an audition with legendary record producer and former Artie Shaw clarinet player Bob Keane (Joe Pantoliano). Valens soon appears in an Alan Freed rock n' roll teen exploitation film, lip-synching his blistering recorded version of "Ooh, My Head". When a romance with Donna Ludwig (played by Danielle von Zerneck) is forbidden by her conservative father, Valens pens the famous ballad that bears her name. Tours follow his chart success until the fatal plane crash that claimed the lives of Valens, The Big Bopper (played by Stephen Lee), and Buddy Holly (played by Marshall Crenshaw) on February 3rd, 1959. La Bamba has a rating of 96% on rottentomatoes.com.
4. Walk the Line
This is a fantastic film with great performances and a bio-pic that will stand the test of time. "Walk the Line" follows the early years in the career of American music legend Johnny Cash (played by Joaquin Phoenix). The young Cash sets out on life's journey battered by his brother's accidental death and an abusive father, who blames him for the incident. His rise to fame with such hits as "A Boy Named Sue" and "Ring of Fire" is countered by his struggle with amphetamines, barbiturates and alcohol. His instability, both financial and emotional, leads to the failure of his first marriage. The few comforts of his unhappy youth had come from the radio programs of June Carter (played Reese Witherspoon) , the luminous daughter of country music's first family. When their paths cross, it's her devotion and support that becomes his salvation. Walk the Line was nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing and Best Sound Editing while winning the award for Best Actress and it has a rating of 82% on rottentomatoes.com.
3. The Pianist
This is such a hard film to watch simply becasue of the sad and heartbreaking tone. A composer and pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman (played by Adrian Brody) played the last live music heard over Polish radio airwaves before Nazi artillery hit. There, in Poland, Szpilman struggled to stay alive--even when cast away from those he loved. He spent the duration of the war hiding in the ruins of Warsaw and scavenging for food and shelter. Szpilman eventually reclaimed his artistic gifts, and confronted his fears--with aid from the unlikeliest of sources. The Pianist was nominated for 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Costumes Design and Best Sound Editing while winning 3 (Best Director, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay) and it has a rating of 96% on rottentomatoes.com.
2. 8 Mile
This is a fantastic film and it one of best in-depth looks at one of the controversial muscians of all-time. No matter whom we are, no matter where we live, we're all bound by borders. Many of us are content to live within these borders--others are simply forced to exist within them. But some of us need to break out, burst through, even if what is on the other side is both frightening and unknown. From this comes the tale of one young man's dilemma as he navigates his way through his colliding worlds. Set against Detroit's hip-hop scene in 1995, the story centers on Jimmy Smith Jr (played by Eminem)., a young white rapper, who struggles to find his voice. The people of Detroit know '8 Mile' as the city limit or a border. It is also a psychological dividing line that separates Jimmy from where and who he wants to be, as he struggles to find the strength and courage to transcend his boundaries. 8 Mile won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and it has a rating of 76% on rottentomatoes.com.
1. Amadeus
While the film is long and sometimes boring it also very interesting and very entetaining. From the vantage point of an insane asylum, aging royal composer Salieri (played by F. Murray Abraham) recalls the events of three decades earlier, when the young Mozart (played by Tom Hulce) first gained favor in the court of Austrian emperor Joseph II (played by Jeffrey Jones). Salieri was incensed that God would bless so vulgar and obnoxious a young snipe as Mozart with divine genius. Why was Salieri -- so disciplined, so devoted to his art, and so willing to toady to his superiors -- not touched by God? Unable to match Mozart's talent, Salieri uses his influence in court to sabotage the young upstart's career. Disguising himself as a mysterious benefactor, Salieri commissions the backbreaking Requiem, which eventually costs Mozart his health, wealth, and life. Amadeus was nominated for 11 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, 2 nominations for Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Best Sound Mixing while winning 8 (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Best Sound Mixing) and it has a rating of 95% on rottentomatoes.com.
So ladies and gentlemen what are some of your favorite music bio-pics of all-time and what do you think of my list? let me know in the comments section below and let your voice be heard.
Jonah Sparks
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