Historical Adaptation - Research Question

PROBLEM

Robert Rosenstone starts his chapter in Lights, Camera, History : Portraying the Past in Film (2007) with:

“Nobody has ever had much good to say about the biographical film - a form usually dismissed with a kind of sneer as the “biopic.” Though over the last forty years, fourteen of the Academy Awards for Best Picture have gone to such films, these have presumably been given for dramatic excellence rather than historical insight or truth.” (p. 11)

After a preliminary scan of the available literature on historical and biographical stories in cinema, there seems to be a consensus that critics traditionally turn up their noses for historical films, and that these films are often not as well attended as other genres. Some examples however excel beyond such constraints by gaining success critically and at the box office. How a number of noteworthy filmmakers achieved this will be my specified field of qualitative research.

QUESTION

What processes and techniques did the screenwriters and directors of The King's Speech and Twelve Years a Slave apply in interpreting and adapting historical stories within the recent understanding of the genre, and how did this contribute to both films achieving critical and box office success?

METHODOLOGY

To achieve this I would firstly require a thorough understanding on what the current conventions of the genre are and how this is reflected in other successful films. Secondly, relevant professional and academic insights will be collected on the above mentioned films.

IDENTIFIED LITERATURE

Brown, T. Vidal, B. 2014. The Biopic in Contemporary Film Culture. Routledge. New York

Bingham, D. 2010. Whose Lives Are They Anyway?: The Biopic as Contemporary Film Genre. Rutgers University Press. New Brunswick, New Jersey and London

Custen, G.F. 1992. Bio/Pics. How Hollywood Constructed Public History. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication. United States

Francaviglia, Richard V., Rodnitzky, Jerry, Rollins, Peter C. 2007. Walter Prescott Webb Memorial Lectures : Lights, Camera, History : Portraying the Past in Film. Texas A&M University Press

Rosenstone, R.A. Second edition 2013. History on Film/Film on History. Routledge. London and New York

Sanello, F. 2003. Reel v. Real. How Hollywood Turns Fact into Fiction. Taylor Trade Publishing. Maryland