No Right Answer: Most Deserving a Biopic
- Thread starter Firefilm
- Start date
Lincoln wasnt a biopic about Abraham Lincoln. It was a movie about 13th amendmend mislabeled as Lincoln, as in, the movie sticks to 13th amendment only and not lincoln. it does not show it fron lincolns point of view or anything like that either.
My best mate in high school was a Tesla fanboy (I'm a nerd, whaddya want from me?) and I used to smile and nod along to his Tesla stories because they sounded so OTT that I figured he was making shit up. I found it later that he wasn't. I think Tesla would make an awesome movie subject / fighting game character. I would've laughed too though.
For God's sake, I stopped reading Cracked.com because I got tired of the constant Tesla/Roosevelt fanboy gushing in every.single.article. Are these two really the only people in human existence you could have picked?
You know who really deserves a biopic? Pablo Neruda. He lived an incredible life which ended right at one of the most terrible periods in Chile's history, and he was a fascinating figure, acting as a diplomat for Chile as well as a writer. It would be a breath of fresh air from the bog standard biopic of 'artist with substance abuse and/or relationship problems' or 'divisive/revolutionary political figure'.
You know who really deserves a biopic? Pablo Neruda. He lived an incredible life which ended right at one of the most terrible periods in Chile's history, and he was a fascinating figure, acting as a diplomat for Chile as well as a writer. It would be a breath of fresh air from the bog standard biopic of 'artist with substance abuse and/or relationship problems' or 'divisive/revolutionary political figure'.
For the love of God, electric cars aren't a thing and won't be a thing for a very long lime. I travel cross country quit regularly. Can get for Texas to Georgia in a day with my gas car. Electric would take a week. That's bad.
OT: Great video as per usual guts. (Where's Chris).
OT: Great video as per usual guts. (Where's Chris).
There was a pretty good Telsa one in the 80's. The Secret of Nikola Tesla. Guy playing him was damn near perfect, though the film itself is pretty light on the actual biographical elements and a bit of a dreary watch at some points. It's damn surreal sometimes too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E46Rlw4GuFs
Tesla or Teddy? Why not ask me to choose between my children while you're at it!? Wait, I don't have children...oh well, both worthy of biopics.
Hmmm, well I think a big part of why you haven't seen biopics on these guys is that they are too controversial. A lot of what makes them famous and popular nowadays is highly debatable, and they carry other baggage with them as well.
With Tesla one of the big things about him is that he didn't really do half the stuff he's associated with. It's a recurring theme that he worked briefly with Thomas Edison, Edison stole some of his ideas, and then acted to block him because he didn't want the competition, and then went on to be viewed as one of the greatest inventors in history when he didn't really deserve it because Tesla was so much better. People point to these ideas and schematics Tesla left behind, and some of them were quite cool, but there is also a lot of rebuttal about how he took a lot of his stuff from other inventors, and that's why he was hated and tossed onto the fringe. What's more when people look at the wireless power, Tesla towers, electric cannons, and other ideas that might not have worked, people tend to forget there were some holes in his technology, and he was a big believer in mysticism and psionics, and believed that was the way to solve a lot of the problems he ran into with his research. One of the things he's perhaps most famous for, that people tend to forget, was the whole "Tesla Pyramid Power Hat" where he argued that the Egyptian pyramids were psionic focusing devices and that they were able to build a lot of their stuff using technologies and techniques powered by brain power and telekinesis. The pyramids were broken, but he felt by wearing a Pyramid on his head it would allow him to read minds, move objects, and interface with technologies. I believe he insisted he could do it as well, yet nobody else wearing one of those dumb hats has apparently been able to do anything but be laughed at.
People would want to have a Tesla movie be about how the guy was a genius and pretty much thought up the 20th century, was overlooked, and how more popular inventors who are disliked for political and social reasons nowadays (like Edison for whatever reason, I hear little good about him anymore) are painted in a bad light. Lionizing his major victories (which he did have) like the development of alternating current (a big deal) as a better alternative to direct current (which put him in conflict with Edison who was getting into business selling batteries to power direct current devices apparently).... and he does deserve some credit, which he usually gets as he does come up when alternating current does. On the other hand this is a dude who came up with the idea for towers, electric cars, etc... and would apparently also say stuff like "well, the way how you'll use this invention is to wear this pyramid hat and control it with your mind". One thing about Tesla devices apparently is that they are more practical now, than when he conceived them, as we can do things more safely and wouldn't have to say in theory wield telekinesis to repair a lightning tower without killing ourselves.
Of course I'm no expert on Tesla, nobody really is, and that's kind of the problem. He's sort of mysterious, and depending on how you spin him he can be portrayed as an insane vagabond inventor who had a few good ideas but otherwise probably belonged locked up somewhere (which explains why he wound up an academic pariah and apparently penniless), to the greatest mind in human history who was maligned due to the jealousy of his peers, to everything in between. You can't do a biopic about this guy and have it be really accurate. At least with someone like Lincoln we knew enough things he actually did for sure, and there are a lot of records. With Tesla "Alternating Current" is really the one big feather in his cap that it seems everyone can agree on, and it would be hard to make a movie about that one thing as amazing as it was.... though I suppose one COULD make a comedy about it, have Johnny Depp run around for two and a half hours with a pyramid on his head, ranting about electricity and super-Egyptians and their pyramids while foaming at the mouth and throwing out the occasional genius idea, Seth Rogan could play Edison, as a more serious inventor who winds up having to smoke weed to deal with Tesla, before finally grabbing a couple of his better ideas and leaving him to run himself out... perhaps after barking like a dog and gnawing Seth Rogan's leg through his pants.... it wouldn't likely be accurate but it might be entertaining.
As far as Teddy Roosevelt goes, I'm surprised there hasn't been one yet. I suspect the problem with him might be that going into too much detail might somewhat detract from the legend, especially when you start looking into his actual politics and things like the so called "Square Deal" (not to be confused with FDR's "New Deal") and the way he went about it, as he did a lot to curtail American business power as I understand things, and detractors of American liberal/socialist movements like to point fingers at both him and FDR. That's fine if you agree with those trends and where they went mind you, but you'd be looking at a case where the way the guy doing the biopic wanted to spin things would become a big deal. It's a case where Teddy Roosevelt the man, was a lot cooler than Teddy Roosevelt the politician. Again, at least with Lincoln you can find stuff he did that everyone agrees with nowadays, and make that
the focus of a movie without slotting many people off.
At any rate, we'll see what happens. Both are pretty popular right now, so I imagine someone will try it sooner rather than later. As someone mentioned, I believe one on Tesla is already supposed to be under development. I actually kind of hope that it will be a huge success, and start a fad of kids and young adults walking around with pyramid hats just for the sheer spectacle of it.
With Tesla one of the big things about him is that he didn't really do half the stuff he's associated with. It's a recurring theme that he worked briefly with Thomas Edison, Edison stole some of his ideas, and then acted to block him because he didn't want the competition, and then went on to be viewed as one of the greatest inventors in history when he didn't really deserve it because Tesla was so much better. People point to these ideas and schematics Tesla left behind, and some of them were quite cool, but there is also a lot of rebuttal about how he took a lot of his stuff from other inventors, and that's why he was hated and tossed onto the fringe. What's more when people look at the wireless power, Tesla towers, electric cannons, and other ideas that might not have worked, people tend to forget there were some holes in his technology, and he was a big believer in mysticism and psionics, and believed that was the way to solve a lot of the problems he ran into with his research. One of the things he's perhaps most famous for, that people tend to forget, was the whole "Tesla Pyramid Power Hat" where he argued that the Egyptian pyramids were psionic focusing devices and that they were able to build a lot of their stuff using technologies and techniques powered by brain power and telekinesis. The pyramids were broken, but he felt by wearing a Pyramid on his head it would allow him to read minds, move objects, and interface with technologies. I believe he insisted he could do it as well, yet nobody else wearing one of those dumb hats has apparently been able to do anything but be laughed at.
People would want to have a Tesla movie be about how the guy was a genius and pretty much thought up the 20th century, was overlooked, and how more popular inventors who are disliked for political and social reasons nowadays (like Edison for whatever reason, I hear little good about him anymore) are painted in a bad light. Lionizing his major victories (which he did have) like the development of alternating current (a big deal) as a better alternative to direct current (which put him in conflict with Edison who was getting into business selling batteries to power direct current devices apparently).... and he does deserve some credit, which he usually gets as he does come up when alternating current does. On the other hand this is a dude who came up with the idea for towers, electric cars, etc... and would apparently also say stuff like "well, the way how you'll use this invention is to wear this pyramid hat and control it with your mind". One thing about Tesla devices apparently is that they are more practical now, than when he conceived them, as we can do things more safely and wouldn't have to say in theory wield telekinesis to repair a lightning tower without killing ourselves.
Of course I'm no expert on Tesla, nobody really is, and that's kind of the problem. He's sort of mysterious, and depending on how you spin him he can be portrayed as an insane vagabond inventor who had a few good ideas but otherwise probably belonged locked up somewhere (which explains why he wound up an academic pariah and apparently penniless), to the greatest mind in human history who was maligned due to the jealousy of his peers, to everything in between. You can't do a biopic about this guy and have it be really accurate. At least with someone like Lincoln we knew enough things he actually did for sure, and there are a lot of records. With Tesla "Alternating Current" is really the one big feather in his cap that it seems everyone can agree on, and it would be hard to make a movie about that one thing as amazing as it was.... though I suppose one COULD make a comedy about it, have Johnny Depp run around for two and a half hours with a pyramid on his head, ranting about electricity and super-Egyptians and their pyramids while foaming at the mouth and throwing out the occasional genius idea, Seth Rogan could play Edison, as a more serious inventor who winds up having to smoke weed to deal with Tesla, before finally grabbing a couple of his better ideas and leaving him to run himself out... perhaps after barking like a dog and gnawing Seth Rogan's leg through his pants.... it wouldn't likely be accurate but it might be entertaining.
As far as Teddy Roosevelt goes, I'm surprised there hasn't been one yet. I suspect the problem with him might be that going into too much detail might somewhat detract from the legend, especially when you start looking into his actual politics and things like the so called "Square Deal" (not to be confused with FDR's "New Deal") and the way he went about it, as he did a lot to curtail American business power as I understand things, and detractors of American liberal/socialist movements like to point fingers at both him and FDR. That's fine if you agree with those trends and where they went mind you, but you'd be looking at a case where the way the guy doing the biopic wanted to spin things would become a big deal. It's a case where Teddy Roosevelt the man, was a lot cooler than Teddy Roosevelt the politician. Again, at least with Lincoln you can find stuff he did that everyone agrees with nowadays, and make that
the focus of a movie without slotting many people off.
At any rate, we'll see what happens. Both are pretty popular right now, so I imagine someone will try it sooner rather than later. As someone mentioned, I believe one on Tesla is already supposed to be under development. I actually kind of hope that it will be a huge success, and start a fad of kids and young adults walking around with pyramid hats just for the sheer spectacle of it.
Well i would have gone with Tesla, but now away i go to see the ERB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ1Mz7kGVf0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ1Mz7kGVf0