Film Junk Poll: What is the Best Musical Biopic?

Posted by on June 20th, 2014   Filed under: Polls

pollmusicianbiopic

With the release of Jersey Boys this weekend and also the recent casting news for the N.W.A. biopic, it seems like a good time to take a look at some of the best musical biopics from over the years. While many of these films are laden with cliches, the best of the bunch stand out thanks to great performances and/or an unconventional approach to the material. They also present worthy stories that resonate with viewers who aren’t necessarily fans of the musician or band. Sometimes mixing fact with fiction is also effective, but for this particular poll, I excluded movies that are only “loosely based” on real-life musicians. So what is the greatest music biopic of all time? Cast your vote in this week’s poll and then sound off in the comments below.

What is the Best Musical Biopic?

pollcode.com free polls 


  • PlanBFromOuterSpace

    Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story! Sure, it’s not based on a real person, but a lot of musical biopics look more like each OTHER than a unique story about a specific real-life person.

  • Deven Science

    Man, this is a tough poll! Turns out there are a lot of good music bio pics. There’s three or four I want to vote for. Amadeus, Great Balls of Fire, and The Buddy Holly Story are the top three for me.

  • Sam

    8 Mile might be pulling off an upset

  • Can’t agree more. It also does an nice job of getting you through fifty years of musical history. Barring that movie, my vote goes to I’m Not There. Sean, you gotta re-watch that bad-boy. It’s awesome.

  • Lisa

    Amadeus, a biopic? Are you a fucking retard?

  • Sean

    How is it not?

  • Lisa

    1. The film is about Salieri’s relationship with Mozart — a story that is more or less fabricated (like the fact that he “assasinated” Mozart). Large portions of the story is false and completely made up.

    2. The film is extremely ironic and satirical, and not to be taken seriously.

    A biographical film is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people, and differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story historically correct.

    Ed Wood is a biopic. Man on the Moon is a biopic. Amadeus, however, is a half-serious, half-satirical film based on a stage play — which again is “based on a true story”.

  • Sean

    I guess it depends how important you think adhering to the truth is. I’m Not There is a pretty unconventional biopic too.

  • Lisa

    That being said, this list is scandalous. I’ve already mentioned two good films that never made the list. But there are even more important films, all of them masterpieces that would completely blow away any competition that exists on your list, that were completely overlooked:

    The Elephant Man (1980), Downfall, Gandhi, Lawrence of Arabia, The Pianist, Raging Bull,

    You also got films like Hunger, Coco Before Chanel, Malcolm X, The Aviator, Nixon, Erin Brockovich, A Beautiful Mind, Donnie Brasco, Chaplin and Capote (of which the late Philip Seymour Hoffman won his only oscar).

    How about you tear down the list you have made (with the exception of La Vie en Rose), and make a new one with the above mentioned ones?

  • Sean

    None of those are MUSICAL biopics. Except maybe The Pianist.

  • Lisa

    My mistake. I apologise.

  • Lisa

    I haven’t seen that film. But if you’re referring to the variation of actors playing Dylan, I don’t see how that should have any relevance to the legitimacy of the story.

    Amadeus, on the other hand, is historical revisionism (except the fact that the film clearly doesn’t take itself that seriously).

  • Sean

    It fictionalizes things and uses each of the actors to represent different facets of his life and personality.

  • Maureen W.

    I would argue all biopics are historical revisionism, period. In this list, 24 Hour Party People and the Doors play around with the truth quite a bit, probably just as much as I’m Not There and Amadeus.