MovieChat Forums > Beyond the Sea (2004) Discussion > Best Music Biopics?

Best Music Biopics?

posted 17 years ago by mercycroft
12 replies | jump to latest

There is already a comparison on this board between Walk the Line and Beyond the Sea. I didn't care for either very much, though I was probably more interested in Beyond the Sea because I'm pretty sick of the drug-addicted artist thing and wanted to kick "Johnny Cash"'s ass halfway through IWTL.

So what are the best musician biopics?

On my list:

1) Sweet Dreams --Jessica Lange doesn't sing Patsy Cline, but you'd hardly know it her lip syncing is so great. Wonderful film.

2) Coal Miner's Daughter--Sissy Spacek doing all the singing herself, she was even nominated for a Grammy. Plus, tremendous acting from both her and Tommy Lee Jones. Beverly D'Angelo does a good Patsy Cline.

3) What's Love Got to Do with It? SO AMAZING. Whatever happened to Angela Bassett?

4) If you can consider The Rose a loose biopic on Janis Joplin, which most people do, I'd say it's in.

I haven't seen The Doors or Backbeat. I remember La Bamba and The Buddy Holly Story were supposed to be good.

And who SHOULD have their music biopic done?

Jimi Hendrix
Dolly Parton
The Mamas and the Papas
Doris Day
Cat Stevens

[–] purplebear17 17 years ago

1.Buddy Holly Story
2.Selena
3.Ray
4.Coal Miner's Daughter
5.Funny Girl

[–] Isaac5855 16 years ago

I agree with your assessment of Lange in SWEET DREAMS...a lot of people thought she was miscast in this film, but I thought she was wonderful and she does one of the best jobs of lip-synching I have ever seen. COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER was excellent, but I don't think Spacek deserved the Oscar over Mary Tyler Moore. Both Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne were superb in WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH? though I think the screenplay for that film was a little one-sided...Ike Turner comes off like the Devil and Tina comes off like Mother Theresa and Tina was hardly Mother Theresa. As for future biopics, I loved the fact that you mentioned Doris Day. I would love to see a movie about her life though I doubt if they will do it as long as she's alive.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] dawnm5 14 years ago

I loved this movie. I'm a big Bobby Darin fan. My mom used to listen to him all the time.

The Buddy Holly Story
The Glen Miller Story...with Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson. I absolutely LOVE this movie.
Funny Girl...My favorite movie ever. Funny Lady was really good too, even though it got terrible reviews.
Labamba
Walk the Line
Coal Miner's Daughter

Someone needs to make a really good Movie (not TV) about Elvis. Because I don't think anyone has ever done one.

[–] rooprect 14 years ago

The following "biopics" are about as factual as Peewee's Big Adventure, but I thought they were great movies:

1. Amadeus (Mozart)
2. Immortal Beloved (Beethoven)

I also liked

3. Til the Clouds Roll By (Jerome Kern)
4. The Five Pennies (Red Nichols)

I'd like to see biopics about:
Nina Simone
Schubert
Jimi Hendrix
Louis Armstrong
Stuart Adamson - surprised if anyone knows the name, but his life, disappearance & death was one of the weirdest mysteries ever

[–] Adler-99 13 years ago

Lots of good ones mentioned here. Can't forget "Ray." I thought Jamie Foxx really was Ray Charles; that's good acting. (Btw, I never got that feeling from Joaquin Phoenix's Johnny Cash.)

[–] eduan 12 years ago

My favourites include (some aren't traditional biopics, but I think they fall in this category):

Amadeus (Mozart)
Nowhere Boy (John Lennon)
The Rose (Janis Joplin)
De-Lovely (Cole Porter)
Farinelli
The Pianist (Wladyslaw Szpilman)
Walk the Line (Johnny Cash)
I'm Not There. (Bob Dylan)
Ray (Ray Charles)
Copying Beethoven
Hilary and Jackie (Jacqueline du Pré and Hilary du Pré-Finzi)
The Soloist (Nathaniel Ayers)
What's Love Got to Do With It (Tina Turner)
The Runaways (Joan Jett, Cherie Currie and co.)
La Vie En Rose (Édith Piaf)
Selena
La Bamba (Ritchie Valens)

[–] bobn425 9 years ago

best...buddy holly story, sweet dreams..what's love got to do with
it

it is absolutely criminal that there has never been
a biopic about the best singer..IMHO..in the history
of music, roy orbison. he has been gone for decades
and still nothing.

aside from the incredible music he left behind,
he led a truly tragic life, losing his first wife
in a cycle accident right in front of him and
then his first two sons in a fire that destroyed his home
and in spite of what would have broken anybody
he continued his career and then passed away
in his early fifties.

I had the honor of watching him perform live
at town hall in new York city about two years
before he died and I have never ever been
more thrilled.

that man overcame every single unspeakable tragedy
thrown in his path and yet continued to entertain
millions and leave an incredible legacy behind.

if roy orbison's life isn't interesting enough
for an awesome biopic, then nobody is.

[–] MsLadybird99 9 years ago

All of the mentioned above and:

Lady Sings The Blues
All That Jazz
Sid and Nancy

~~
As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.

[–] jcooper-alias54 9 years ago

Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (of "The Tudors") does a wonderful job as Elvis in the biopic of the same name...

I also liked Kurt Russell's performance in his Elvis film...

My favorite biopic is still "Lady Sings The Blues"...Diana Ross is still astonishing 40 years later...

I'm looking forward to seeing Matt Bomer play Montgomery Clift in 2016...

[–] mnphotoguy99 (413) 5 years ago

Updating this question/thread for 2019....how about Bohemian Rhapsody (Freddy Mercury / Queen)?