MovieChat Forums > Frances (1983) Discussion > Pack of lies! "Harry York"...WHO??

Pack of lies! "Harry York"...WHO??


I can't think of another "Hollywood bio-pic" since 1980 that re-writes the "real life story" of its subject as egregiously as Frances did! The script is atrocious--and the completely made-up character of "Harry York" (played by Sam Shepard) is an utter desecration of the memory of a woman who HAD no "savior" at every turn. He even helps her escape from the lunatic asylum (with an ice pick, no less...perhaps a nod to the idea that lobotomies were once done with ice pick-lick instruments? WHO KNOWS, in this giant mess of a script?. And, FACT: SHE DID NOT HAVE A LOBOTOMY! Case closed! The whole point of Frances Farmer's true story is that she lived her life in Hollywood WITHOUT any "white knights"...and for these writers to have invented this fake "romantic interest" casts a phony-baloney pall over the entire film. Yes, Jessica Lange looks eerily like Frances--but on further, recent study, her shrieky, shrill, borderline annoying performance does not stand the test of time. Geez, even the hoot-out-loud hilarious Mommie Dearest (which was made the year before this film) got the facts better than this one! Poor Frances deserves much better treatment than this one. Poorly- directed, execrably-written....PASS!!

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Lol, it's far from poorly directed. It's still a good film, it's just not accurate. It's not the first nor will it be the last, unfortunately.

Also, as far as inaccurate films go, the most inaccurate film has to be American Hustle. Nothing about that movie is even close in terms of how it depicts it's subjects. I'm sure David O Russell is similar to Graeme Clifford, they both take creative liberties and tell the stories they want rather than depict things as they are. It's annoying for sure, but their films have to be enjoyed as just works of creative fiction and acting, rather than biopics.

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