0
Usenet Posted 17 years ago
Screenwriting

The Story Problems with Success

Has anybody encountered a dilemma with biopics that the more success that the person has, the harder it is to tell the story? Doesn't that often end up with a cliche solution of having a central struggle with drugs, alcohol, or some psychological disorder like The Aviator or A Beautiful Mind? Or there's the Underdog Approach, but that's not always applicable.
As it is right now, I'm blanking on great movies that show a rise to success that doesn't involve those techniques. I thought of Patton for a sec, but he's already a general, therefore, no rise to power. There's Evita, but that's a rise and fall and I only want the rise. Falling is such a downer.
  

Top answer

[nq:1]Has anybody encountered a dilemma with biopics that the more success that the person has, the harder it is to ... power. There's Evita, but that's a rise and fall and I only want the rise.

  • [nq:1]Has anybody encountered a dilemma with biopics that the more success that the person has, the harder it is to ...
  • power.
  • There's Evita, but that's a rise and fall and I only want the rise.
  • [/nq] If you're looking for stories like that you have to go to the "classic" biopics like "The Story of Louis Pasteur" and "Dr.
  • Ehrlich's Magic Bullet" Warner Brothers and other studios did a whole bunch of these inspirational historical biographies that were long on inspiration and short on history.
Free · every Monday

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.

2 Answers
0
[nq:1]Has anybody encountered a dilemma with biopics that the more success that the person has, the harder it is to ... power. There's Evita, but that's a rise and fall and I only want the rise. Falling is such a downer.[/nq]
If you're looking for stories like that you have to go to the "classic" biopics like "The Story of Louis Pasteur" and "Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet" Warner Brothers and oth
0
I read Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers: The Story of Success" over the weekend. He's the bestselling author of "The Tipping Point" and "Blink."
In his book he analyzes the success of Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy, Mozart, the Beatles, Bill Gates, power attorney Joe Flom, ******* hockey teams, and others. He explains many factors that contributed to their success, such as:
How people at

Related Questions