Mapping the British Biopic: Evolution, Conventions, Reception and Masculinities

Mapping the British Biopic: Evolution, Conventions, Reception and Masculinities Matthew Robinson A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of the West of England, Bristol for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Arts, Creative Industries and Education, University of the West of England, Bristol June 2016 90,792 words Contents Abstract 2 Chapter One: Introduction 3 Chapter Two: Critical Review 24 Chapter Three: Producing the British Biopic 1900-2014 63 Chapter Four: The Reception of the British Biopic 121 Chapter Five: Conventions and Themes of the British 154 Biopic Chapter Six: This is His Story: ‘Wounded’ Men and 200 Homosocial Bonds Chapter Seven: The Contemporary British Biopic 1: 219 Wounded Men Chapter Eight: The Contemporary British Biopic 2: 263 Homosocial Recoveries Chapter Nine: Conclusion 310 Bibliography 323 General Filmography 355 Appendix One: Timeline of the British Biopic 1900-2014 360 Appendix Two: Distribution of Gender and Professional 390 Field in the British Biopic 1900-2014 Appendix Three: Column and Pie Charts of Gender and 391 Profession Distribution in British Biopics Appendix Four: Biopic Production as Proportion of Total 394 UK Film Production Previously Published Material 395 1 Abstract This thesis offers a revaluation of the British biopic, which has often been subsumed into the broader ‘historical film’ category, identifying a critical neglect despite its successful presence throughout the history of the British film industry. It argues that the biopic is a necessary category because producers, reviewers and cinemagoers have significant investments in biographical subjects, and because biopics construct a ‘public history’ for a broad audience. This thesis provides a timeline of British biopics released from 1900 to 2014, constructing an historical overview of the continuities and shifts the genre has undergone. It also constructs an assessment of the representation of masculinity in the biopic, including detailed textual readings of representations of masculinity in biopics released between 2005 and 2014. This rectifies the critical neglect of masculinity in the biopic, despite the majority of biopics being about men. Following a critique of existing critical approaches to the biopic, including the viability of applying American paradigms to the biopic as a whole, subsequent chapters analyse the major aspects of the British biopic: a history of the production and reception of biopics and a survey of the biopic’s conventions. An inter-chapter introduces the nature of representations of masculinity in the British biopic using specific paradigmatic examples and the final two chapters focus on a detailed analysis of the representation of masculinity in particular films from the contemporary period which are mapped onto contemporaneous understandings of masculinity. One chapter considers the diversity of homosocial representations and those depicting ‘wounded’ men; the other discusses the ways in which selected films depict wounded men rehabilitated through supportive homosocial bonds. The thesis makes a contribution to knowledge in three ways: 1) an understanding and analysis of the biopic, a genre that has attracted few studies; 2) an historical overview of the British biopic which has not yet been attempted; 3) a detailed analysis of the representation of masculinity in the British biopic which, the thesis argues, is a distinctive and largely neglected aspect. The thesis argues that the British biopic has specifically national characteristics and that these patterns offer evidence of a profound difference between British and American paradigms. 2 Chapter One Introduction The biographical film, or ‘biopic’, conventionally focuses on actual individuals who embody wider ideals, values or anxieties within society. Foregrounding the ‘truth’ is the biopic’s ambition; it claims to offer a ‘truthful’ representation of individuals and the world in which they lived; it blends documentary techniques, extensive research into the historical figure, and the visual setting of different time periods to authenticate its representation. Through these characteristics the biopic gains its powers of persuasion. Alongside these ‘truth claims’ made within the text, the biopic reflects underlying cultural assumptions and values as well: the biopic projects particular figures as markers of historical significance. The figure selected for a biopic indicates who is valued within the wider culture and is considered worthy of remembrance in different historical periods. This ‘remembrance’ is ideological; the biopic elevates certain individuals but marginalises others. This study of the British biopic has three aims. First, as a study of genre, it documents the British biopic through a longitudinal study of the genre’s releases between 1900 and 2014. From this ‘timeline’, located in the appendix, this study constructs an historical overview of the biopic which charts the broad continuities and shifts within the genre since 1900. This provides an introductory platform from which further scholarly research can be conducted. Second, it offers a revaluation of the British biopic through an exposition of a broader debate regarding the historical film, identifying a critical neglect of the genre despite its sustained and successful presence throughout the history of the British film industry. It argues that the biopic is a necessary category and that producers, reviewers and 3 cinemagoers have significant investments in subjects and how they are represented. The third aim is to provide a detailed textual reading of the representation of masculinity in biopics. The representation of women in biopics has recently been the subject of scholarship but analysis of male-centred films is absent, despite men forming the majority of biopic subjects. This study considers two specific patterns of masculine representation: the depiction of ‘wounded’ men, and homosociality. These offer evidence of a profound difference between British and American biopic production, prompting an evaluation of the relevance of American paradigms to British biopics. Through addressing these questions, this thesis offers a contribution to knowledge through its detailed analysis of a genre that has attracted very few studies. This first chapter provides a broad summary of the genre’s significance, and outlines the structure and methodology of the remaining chapters. Prestige and Controversy In British cinema the biopic has always been intertwined with notions of quality and cultural capital: cultural legitimacy is established across films through the dissemination of ‘highbrow’ cultural material in popular media conventions. Though biopics require some audience knowledge of history and of the figures portrayed, they do not assume a degree of cultural competence. However, their cultural status is often elevated through the association with sources which are perceived to possess high cultural value, such as plays, literary novels or respected biographies. For instance, The Madness of King George (1994) was adapted from the play of the same name, and many biopics are literary adaptions. Biopics frequently focus on subjects from ‘high-culture’ including painting, classical music and canonical literature. They frequently utilise actors who work across film and 4 theatre. Writing about British middlebrow culture, Lawrence Napper comments on this “blurring of the boundaries” between media, noting that in the interwar period, theatrically trained actors, pictorial aesthetics and literary adaptions “were transferred to new media, and deemed to carry their meanings (and also their cultural status) intact across the adaption process” (Napper 2009: 9). Middle-brow culture is democratic, exhibited in the mass-culture sphere of cinema, but it also defers to, and legitimates, the high-brow culture. It is assumed to entertain but also to carry an educational function, and biopics, which construct public history and notable individuals from the past, form one particular example. This cultural legitimacy is reinforced through the prestige of awards and ceremonies, events in which biopics have been recognised as significant British cultural achievements. Charles Laughton was the first British actor to receive the Best Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of a monarch in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). Between 1933 and 2014 five ‘British’ biopics won the Academy Award for Best Picture: Lawrence of Arabia (1962), A Man for All Seasons (1966), Chariots of Fire (1981), Gandhi (1982) and The King’s Speech (2010). This compares favourably with the seven American biopics which won the Award in this period: The Great Ziegfeld (1936), The Life of Emile Zola (1937), Patton (1970), Schindler’s List (1993), Braveheart (1995), A Beautiful Mind (2001) and 12 Years a Slave (2013), the latter of which was directed by a Briton, and had British funding. Domestically, prestigious screening events underscore how biopics are perceived to embody a specific version of national identity and celebrate the ‘national character’. The selection of films shown for the Royal Film Performance, a 5 screening attending by members of the royal family, suggests the selection committee has favoured middlebrow productions with high production values and “true story” status (Spicer 2005: 188). This is corroborated by the number of biopics shown since the screenings began in 1946, including Scott of the Antarctic (1948), Beau Brummell (1954), Anne of the Thousand

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