Why I Am No Longer Fully Convinced With A Biopic Or Biography…

I guess I was naive.

I expected Biopics to be historical documentaries.

Then I expected the same with biographies.

I lived in an idealistic world where biopics and Biographies presented the real lives of people.

As most Biopics had this interesting sentence at the start of the movie: Based on true events.

But the more I watch these Biopics. And read these biographies. I am discovering a curious trend:

Firstly, the onscreen or literary edition of life seems more colourful than our normal lives. Our daily lives doesn’t seem to have the unusual drama that seems to appear in ‘reel life’.

Secondly, it seems to magnify emphases that supports the world-views of the directors or producers. What is minimised or totally left out are events or moments that would conflict with what they would want to project.

Thirdly, embellished scenes or sections in the biopic/biography are outlandishly distant from real life of the person or event . It either never happened or it happened in someone else’s life.

Finally, and most dangerously, we tend to believe what we see or we read in the biopic/biography and we potentially forget the facts of the real event or person in history.

We are shaped by what we see. We tend to believe what we are ingeniously shown.

We are shaped by what we read. We tend to believe what is craftily presented to us in written form.

The truth seems to be secondary. The ‘agenda’ is primary.

What I want the world to believe is more important than truth itself.

The more we believe it, the more we mould ourselves to consider it as the truth.

There was guy called Dave. He did some great stuff. He also did some normal stuff. But then there was ugly dark stuff he ended up doing. But he was considered a hero in his time and honoured as a legend beyond his generation

Well, many years later there was a biography written about him. The biography covered everything about him. Yes, the good, the bad and the ugly. It covered everything that would make sense to the Author’s timeline and purpose. In the final analysis, it was not about Dave. It was how the Author wanted it. It was how the Author wanted the world to see Him through Dave’s life.

But this was a different kind of Author. A different Director. This is God Himself.

The Bible is God’s Word. The Bible calls David(Dave), a man after God’s own heart. But the Bible covered everything that David did. Because when God writes a story He states it the way it is.

It was about truth . The real truth.

It was about justice. The real kind.

It was about faithfulness. Even in small things.

It was about fame. God’s fame.

What are you watching today?

What are you reading today?

Regardless of who shapes it or irrespective of the agenda you are unwittingly forced into, never let go of these essential core values:

⁃ Truth

⁃ Justice

⁃ Faithfulness

⁃ God’s fame

Enjoy the Biopic or the Biography, but never forget your core values.

There is one song(by the band 4Him)which I have treasured for the last two decades. The lyrics captures my heart’s cry:

From the time, time began You

Always chose a man

To lead the people safely by Your Way

To be a voice and echo what You say

Like David or Abraham

Your Word is full of such men

And if the Bible had no closing page

And still was being written to this day

I want to be a man that you

Would write about

Oh a thousand years from now

That they could read about

Your servant of choice in whom

You found favor

A man who heard Your voice

Generations away it is my prayer

That they will look back and say

“Oh to have that kind of faith

And love

What a solid man of God he was”

I don’t know how ‘solid’ I would become. Or would I ever have ‘that kind of faith’.

But this is my prayer:

Help me Lord, to live for your fame alone. In truth, justice and faithfulness.