Biography

Is it ever appropriate for a director or author to distort the facts of someone's life in a biographical work?

This is an interesting question to me. Right off the bat I want to say "no, it's not appropriate," because viewers/readers of a biographical work don't want lies-they paid to see the truth about someone's life. However, I took some time to think about it. I have to agree with Francesca in the post below me. I believe that in a movie, distorting some facts in a biographical work is okay. Movies are very susceptible to criticism these days, and actors aren't going to want to star in a movie that they know is going to be boring or people won't go and watch. Directors also know that people aren't going to see a movie about someone who seems to lack any interesting qualities. By adding more "drama" and "hype" to a Hollywood movie, people would probably enjoy it more. Obviously the directors need to make sure they keep the majority of the facts of someone's life the same in a movie. They can't change major details/events in the person's life. If the person being depicted suffered a serious childhood trauma that helped guide them to where they are today, the director/producer can't leave that information out.

In a biographical book, I don't think it is appropriate for an author to distort the facts of someone's life. For starters, if it is an auto-biography, no one is going to want to read a book that is full of lies (an example I can think of is the book "A Million Little Pieces"). By creating a false autobiography, the author is subjected to a career of lies and unpopularity. If an author is writing a book on someone else, they don't want to distort the facts of someone's life because the author wouldn't want to get in trouble with the interview subject. By mis-documenting information about someone's life, it may present the subject in a negative light. Because biographies are supposed to be truthful and real, distorting the facts and reality would go against the whole purpose of a biography.

Distorting facts of someone's life to make it more appealing to a movie audience is more acceptable to me than distorting facts of someone's life in a book. When i use the word "distorting" I don't mean changing major details in the life of the subject. I'm talking on a small scale-changing ages/dates a person accomplished something, or exaggerating the respect/criticism a person may get in their life (i.e. an artist). Movies have to appeal to "Hollywood standards"-a boring movie isn't going to survive. If distorting facts slightly adds to popularity of a biographical movie, then that is fair in my opinion.