A Prince Biopic?

BET claims to give ten good reasons that it's not a good idea. (HT to Ann Althouse for putting me onto the BET slide show where they make their case.)

The two biggest reasons they give for not doing a Prince biopic is that biopics are generally not good and that Prince wasn't involved in the anti-hunger supergrouping of the 90's top US musical superstars, We Are the World. Althouse objected to the latter point as a good excuse for not portraying Prince's non-participation in that project, suggesting that exploring Prince's motives for saying no could be interesting.

I reacted over on Althouse's blog:

Movie biopics ARE generally, horrible though, as the BET slideshow points out.

Tonight, I watched the last half-hour of Jersey Boys. Horrible! (Of course, it might have helped if the Four Seasons' music, which I hated while growing up during the sixties, was good.)

But, in any case, the film industry has a way of butchering and pasteurizing their subjects, melding them into [indistinguishable] "musicaleverybodies." Didn't the Johnny Cash and Ray Charles biopics look like they were about the same person, that they led the exact same lives? Biopics have a way of disintegrating into kind of reality TV versions of 'Behind the Music,' every story the same.

When Hollywood went to work on telling George Gershwin's story (1945), almost none of it bore any resemblance to George Gershwin's story.

The same is true of 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' (1942), the biopic about George M. Cohan, which at least has the redeeming quality of being entertaining, spiced as it is by James Cagney's extraordinary, all-in dance stylings.

But there have been two more recent movie biopics that seem to have fairly hewn to the actual stories of their subjects' lives and careers.

The most creative of these is Kevin Spacey's 'Beyond the Sea' (2004). It's Spacey's telling of Bobby Darin's life story. There's little fiddling with the facts, though there are interesting flashbacks and flash forwards. You get a clear understanding of Darrin the man. Spacey, a terrific mimic, does a good job channeling his inner Darrin on the latter's catalog. A thoroughly enjoyable film.

Another successful recent music biopic is the 2014 release 'Ragamuffin,' focused on the life of Rich Mullins, an early practitioner of Christian contemporary music. Mullins' music was honest and so is this film. It shows the musician's quest to live a life of authentic Christian faith despite his rising fame. The music is great too. A film both enjoyable and deeply moving.

BET, I think, is wrong for suggesting that Prince's staying away from mass social activity renders him unfit for film treatment. His reasoning [as Althouse suggests] may warrant exploration. What were his reasons for doing big charitable events, while keeping his significant personal philanthropy quiet?

In fact, a similar shying away from association with big causes--in spite of appearances and reputation to the contrary and a few exceptions--will face any prospective producer of a Bob Dylan biopic. Dylan's 'Blowin' in the Wind' was an anthem for many in the 60's civil rights movement. But his connection to the movement or to the protests of the war in Vietnam were limited to non-existent. Dylan wasn't really a cause guy; he was more of a Dylan guy.

In the end, I think it's the music that matters most.

[Blogger Mark Daniels is the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]

Saturday Song #1: 'Someone to Watch Over Me' by Willie Nelson

This great Gershwin tune gets a beautiful treatment by Willie. I love it!

Saturday Song #1: "Someone To Watch Over Me"

Like the Beatles' 'I Will,' this George and Ira Gershwin tune is a love song to some unknown love.

But this version by Frank Sinatra from the 1950s is so plaintive and emotional that Old Blue Eyes seems to turn the words into a plea to a very particular woman, someone he misses desperately. Or maybe he misses the chance at love with her he never had.

George Gershwin, of course, is one of the musical giants of the twentieth century. But the lyrics by his older brother, Ira, are always amazing too. After George's untimely death, Ira continued to his work as a lyricist with other composers.

Neither...Nor

I was writing something earlier today and wondered about the proper use of the words, neither and nor in the same sentence. Grammar Girl helped me out.

By the way, Oxford says that both the words, neither and either, can be pronounced with long e's or with long i's in their first syllables. So, neither you with your long e, nor I with my long i are grammatically incorrect. No need to call the whole blog off.

Of whom were these words spoken?...

And, by whom?

"Your success here is assured. You’ve got youth, energy, humor, looks, and fun. That’s exactly what the English like.”

What struck me in these words is how easily someone could have written them to one of the young Beatles. They had all of those attributes bundled in with their talent and so won over their fellow Brits, as their Command Performance before the Royals famously underscored.

And the act about which the words above were spoken, in fact, became favorites of the Prince of Wales.

Who were the words written about?

The sister and brother dance team of Adele and Fred Astaire, who became a huge hit across the pond a few years before Adele retired from show business and Fred became a triple-threat movie icon: dancer, actor, singer. (Some people forget how successful Astaire was as a singing recording artist. In the 1930s, recordings by Astaire, regarded by many as the greatest dancer ever, often outsold those of Bing Crosby, the crooner of the age. George Gershwin, I've read, wept on hearing recordings Astaire made of Gershwin compositions. Astaire, Gershwin thought, was the first singer to really understand what George and Ira had in mind in their music.)

The laudatory comment about the Astaires was made by English playwright Noel Coward and it strikes me as spot-on. Fred Astaire, like his contemporary Cary Grant, and like the Beatles, was more than just talented. He was a personality. Fun, accessibility, and the joy of life, however studied and however attributable to his storied perfectionism, were at least as important to Astaire's success and to the enduring attractiveness of his movie performances as was his talent.

Coward was right.

The quote is cited in a wonderful article here.

By the way, I spent some time analyzing the appeal of the Beatles here.