4B - Thursday,March 8, 2007
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
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Recasting history
HOW HOLLYWOOD IS (SUB)CONSCIOUSLY TAKING OVER YOUR TEXTBOOK
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By KRISTIN MAcDONALD
Associate Arts Editor
It's disappointing now to see
tabloid photos of England's Queen
Elizabeth. There's something not
quite right about her. She's just not
... Helen Mirren enough.
Nor do photos of Uganda's actual
Idi Amin now seem all that intimi-
dating. The real Ugandan dicta-
tor responsible for slaughtering
hundreds of thousands of his own
people? Sooooo much more menac-
ing with Forest Whitaker's crazily
uneven eyes.
Memo to history textbook
authors everywhere: Hollywood
has developed a zest for biopics,
so when it comes to portraits you
might as well start printing head-
shots. Forgetthosestilted18th-cen-
tury courtly paintings of a blandly
smiling Marie Antoinette.
Everyone knowsshe's now Kirst-
en Dunst. Mozart could never have
been as serious as those scowling
busts favored by high school music
teachers everywhere - not when
he's got the hooligan grin of Tom
Hulce in "Amadeus." And the stiff
stoicismtypical ofWilliamWallace
statues seems downright silly ever
since "Braveheart" forever hunki-
fied the Scottish hero into a dread-
locked, face-painted Mel Gibson.
Hollywood has its way with
everything - screenwriters, ticket
prices, the dignity of any attractive
female under the age of 30 - so
why not add the general public's
conception of history to the list?
With biopics fast becoming Oscar's
safest bet (a staggering 50 percent
of acting wins in the past seven
years have gone to portrayals of
real-life people), count on a few
more replacements in your men-
tal image bank of famous figures.
Mary probably picture Gandhi as
Ben Kingsley and General Patton
as George C. Scott already.
Those who object to giving
history the glossy Hollywood
treatment have any amount of
inaccuracies to bemoan. There's
always the surface trend toward
beautification, although that's
arguably an inherent cinematic
quality - and not necessarily a bad
thing, either. After all, Bonnie and
Clyde couldn't ask for a more pic-
turesque immortality than their
Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty
incarnations, and Frida Kahlo
posthumously received an undeni-
able upgrade in the form of Salma
Hayek. Granted, Disney may have
taken creative license a little too
far with its supermodel-ish Poca-
hontas, but beautiful 14-year-old
Q'Orianka Kilcher's portrayal in
SUMMER SESSIONS 20071
"The New World" at least restored
the famous teenager's naivet.
Looks aside, there are more seri-
ous matters of factual accuracy to
consider. Just in terms of plot, it's
amazing how consistently movies
pound down their high-profile sub-
jects into absurdly simple cliches
despite exploring them specifically
for the singularity of their stories.
Geniuses inevitably undertake
long tic-filled descents into quirky
madness("TheAviator," "ABeauti-
ful Mind," "Pollack"), while musi-
cians seem to be forever throwing
away their god-given talent with
heinous drug problems ("Walk
the Line," "Sid and Nancy," "Lady
Sings the Blues"). Dime-store psy-
chology can apparently stream-
line even the most convoluted of
personalities.
But do blatant factual errors
take away from a great perfor-
mance? As imprisoned boxer
Rubin Carter in "The Hurricane,"
Denzel Washington met glowing
reviews, although fact-checkers
derided the film with accusations
of downright fabrication. Ditto for
"Shine," though Geoffrey Wright's
performance as pianist-cun-men-
tal patient David Helfgott earned
an Academy Award. Even Sienna
Miller's impressive recent turn as
Warhol muse Edie Sedgwick was
lost in "Factory Girl's" blase re-
ordering of dates, not to mention
its compression of her multiple
boyfriends into a single character.
To be fair, it's impossible to get
straight all the facts of any single
life, and perhaps it's not the true
objective. The highest artistic
goal of a biopic is at most to deliv-
er a general sense of the figure
cLOCKWISE FROM TOP
LEFT: Courtesy of New
Le Colmbomercy
an r er:Bros.
The fresh faces
of ancient history
sometimes become
their permanent
involved. Case in point: Director
Todd Haynes's ("Far From Heav-
en") upcoming Bob Dylan bio, a ,
piece which seems to be taking that
more creative route to an unprec-
edented extreme. With six differ-
ent actors playing Dylan at various
stages inhis career, the film's clear-
ly going for mood over direct truth
- hell, one of these Bobs is actually
a woman, the decidedly un-Dylan-
like Cate Blanchett.
Mere factual accuracy can't be
the only consideration. There's a
little something extra that distin-
guishes a good biopic portrayal,
some spark that can turn Jamie
Foxx into Ray Charles in a way that
might have eluded a comparable
actor like Will Smith.
Looks play a significant role,
but they aren't the whole formula.
In "American Splendor," a sharply
witty biopic of comic-book writer
Harvey Pekar, Pekar appears on
screen to narrate almost as much as
his actor alter-ego, Paul Giamatti,
and even mentions grumpily at one
point how little Giamatti resem-
bles him. He's right - Giamatti's a
bit heavier, with noticeably round-
er features. But it's hard to think
of another actor who could have
pulled off Pekar's lovable crotch-
etiness with such aplomb.
Playing an actual person is a
unique challenge and, side-by-side,
the choices of different perform-
ers make for an interesting cinema
duel - who's a better Andy War-
hol, Guy Pearce ("Factory Girl")
or David Bowie ("Basquiat")? Both
capture his unique mannerisms,
but it's Pearce who nails his indif-
ference.
The two recent Truman Capo-
tes are a trickier call, depending
entirely on whether you picture the
author of "In Cold Blood" as calcu-
lating (Toby Jones, "Infamous")
or merely cloying (Philip Seymour
Hoffman, "Capote").
And the jury's still out on the
better depictionofQueenElizabeth
I - young, fiery and determined
(Cate Blanchett, "Elizabeth"), or
aged, imperious and shrewd (Judi
Dench, "Shakespeare in Love")?
In any case, such casting mat-
ters make for an excellent little
cocktail-party game: In your own
biopic, who would play you? With
Hollywood's A-list on call, there's
no shame in going for a little
improvement (half of you probably
nominated Brad Pitt), although be
careful: There's always a chance
of Hollywood disappointment.
Consider poor Erin Brockovich.
The woman has saved countless
innocent lives from evil corporate
polluters, and yet she'll really be
known for the rest of eternity as
Julia Roberts.
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Choosing the right superhero actor
By ELIE ZWIEBEL
Daily Arts Writer
movie with your favorite child-
hood - or geek-hood - superhero
vitalized via some Hollywood
Jesuit University sfCleveland
In the wake of botched comic- star.
book adaptations like "Ghost
Rider" and "X-Men: The Last Rule No. 1 - It might seem
Stand," it's time to examine what obvious, but the actor should fit
it takes to make a great movie the part. If the comic-book version
superhero. Keep the following was muscle-bound, the film one
three rules in mind before you get should correspond. Likewise, if
your heart set on seeing Tobey the cartoon adaptation was young,
Maguire in "Spiderman 3," the the actor should probably not be
"Fantastic Four" sequel or any pushing 40.
No one would deny that Chris-
tian Bale had the youth - and
guns - to be the dark knight in
1 $ I . "Batman Begins" (2005). But Billy
Zane's pudgy pot-belly and flabby
arms made him a poor candidate
for "The Phantom" (1996). Even if
the superhero isn't trim and cut,
casting makes a big difference.
Patrick Stewart's bald head and
angular jaw suit Professor X per-
fectly in "X-men" (2000). In super-
hero talk, looks do matter.
Rule No. 2 - Either the actor
playing a superhero must be
dynamic or he must have no repu-
tation that precedes him. If the
actor is relatively unknown, the
audience won't want to cheer for
him. Think of superhero casting as
a Hollywood-meets-comic-book
draft for dorks. Everyone wants to
see the big names. Conversely, ifa
big name is cast but he doesn't have
the skills for the part - or if off-
screen image interferes with the
part - that actor or actress should
be immediately disqualified.
Prior to "Batman" (1989),
Michael Keaton had demonstrated
the ability to fit flawlessly in com-
edies, dramas and action films.
He had a range that allowed him
to set the bar for the filmic Bat-
man. Meanwhile, Ioann Gruffudd
- who? - was too unknown to be
Mr. Fantastic in the first "Fantas-
tic Four," and Michael Jai White
wasn't popular enough to be head
hellraiser in "Spawn" (1997).
While obscurity is a no-no in
superhero casting, an even bigger
one is picking a famous actor based
solely on popularity and without
regard for the actor's ability or
off-screen reputation. Halle Berry
is a poor superheroine as Storm in
"X-Men" and in "Catwoman" sim-
ply because she's no good in action
flicks - for further evidence, note
that poor excuse for a Bond flick
"Die Another Day" (2002).
Rule No. 3: The actor must
be able to be both the brawn and
the socially awkward alias. Every
superhero has an alias, and every
alias has a moral conflict. That's
what makes the character and
story interesting. It's the doorway
through which we can relate to
this otherwise unbelievable char-
acter. So the actor better be able
to be both of the character's per-
sonas.
Christopher Reeves defined the
modern Superman ("Superman,"
1978) as both an imperturbable
man of steel and an uncomfort-
able Clark Kent. Brandon Routh
in "Superman Returns" is believ-
able as Superman, but struggles to
exude the cheesy, awkward nature
of Clark Kent.
Tobey Maguire is an interesting
case. He was great as a high school,
or even collegiate, Peter Parker in
"Spider-Man" (2002). But his boy-
ish looks make him unbelievable
as the older, more mature and
weathered Parker or Spiderman.
Not only does he still look like he's
pubescent, he sounds it, toot when
his voice cracks in the "Spider-
Man 3" preview while saying "the
power," he doesn't exactly inspire
confidence.
So there it is. Now it's all the
more obvious why Jennifer Gard-
ner, Jessica Alba, Chris O'Donnell,
Hugh Jackman and too many more
failed as superheroes.When you're
having a debate with a friend over
who was the best Batman, you'll
have reason to discount Clooney
and Kilmer. And we should all for-
get that Kelsey Grammar was ever
mentioned in the same breath with
the word "superhero."
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