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Rod Edelman: Toronto Overview, Part 2

Each year, a smorgasbord of films are screened at the Toronto Film Festival. They include Canadian and other foreign-to-the-U.S. titles, low-budget independents, documentaries, and so forth. But these days, the films that garner the most attention are the big-budget, highly anticipated titles that feature top-of-the-line talent. Of course, the producers of these films are praying that their titles will charm the international critics and emerge from the fest with positive buzz and Academy Award hopes.

For years, actors starring in biopics have been winning nominations and awards in droves. So it is not surprising that plenty of biopics were screened in Toronto. They included: I SAW THE LIGHT, with Tom Hiddleston playing Hank Williams, the country-western singer; LEGEND, with Tom Hardy cast as both Ronnie and Reggie Kray, the infamous 1960s British thugs; TRUMBO, with Bryan Cranston as Dalton Trumbo, the blacklisted Hollywood scriptwriter; BORN TO BE BLUE, with Ethan Hawke as jazz legend Chet Baker; THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY, with Dev Patel as Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan; and THE PROGRAM, with Ben Foster as Lance Armstrong, a man who these days needs no introduction.

Not to forget BLACK MASS, with Johnny Depp as James “Whitey” Bulger, the infamous Boston gangster; and the ever-topical THE DANISH GIRL, with Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne playing Lili Elbe, who back in the 1920s was a recipient of “gender realignment surgery.”

Will Redmayne pull off a Spencer Tracy and Tom Hanks and win two consecutive Best Actor Academy Awards? Will Depp-- in a riveting performance, perhaps his best-ever-- also end up an Oscar nominee? (However, not all high-profile biopics were screened in Toronto. One example: STEVE JOBS, directed by Danny Boyle, scripted by Aaron Sorkin, and starring Michael Fassbender, which bowed at the Telluride festival.)

Oscar-hype aside, one issue involving making movies about real people has long-intrigued me. That is: If you are filming a biopic, what should be emphasized? Is it imperative that you tell your subject’s story as truthfully and objectively as possible? Is it okay to alter the facts of his or her life for the sake of narrative clarity or simply to add to the film’s entertainment value? Or is it somehow a combination of the two?

I posed this question to Scott Cooper, the director of BLACK MASS. His response was that, in this case, the truth was “very illusive. James Bulger had one point of view. The FBI had another. And others, too (had their perspectives). But (the bottom line) is that I was not making a documentary. Audiences do not come to the movies to come away with truth. (They want) deep emotion. What I was looking for here was deep emotion, and humanity.

“It’s too easy to simply make James ‘Whitey’ Bulger into a one-dimensional villain. This is the story I’m telling and this is as truthful as it can be. It’s really an emotional and psychological truth that I’m looking for.”

With Cooper’s comments in mind, Johnny Depp noted that he “approached James Bulger as a human, who was multi-faceted.” And Joel Edgerton, who plays FBI agent John Connolly, offered a comment that really sums up not just BLACK MASS but any biopic. Edgerton referred to the film as “our version of the truth.”

Rob Edelman has written several books on film, television, and baseball, and was a longtime Contributing Editor of Leonard Maltin’s annual Movie Guide. He teaches film history at the University at Albany.

The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.