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Some life stories are too scandalous to put on screen without sparking outrage. Join us as we count down our picks for the movie biographies made infamous by scandal, often before they even hit theaters! Do you think these biopics got a fair shake? Let us know in the comments below!
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00:00Let me tell you something, in this life, you're either a winner or you're a loser.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the movie biographies made
00:10infamous by Scandal, often before they even hit theaters.
00:21Number 11, Michael.
00:22Ready whenever you are, Michael.
00:50Number 11, Michael.
00:54And embrace the future.
00:59That's what people want.
01:01The Jackson family's reactions to the film have been mixed.
01:04After star Coleman Domingo claimed that Jackson's children Paris and Prince were helpful on set,
01:10Paris took the social media to allege that she had no involvement in the movie's development.
01:15The general public is divided.
01:17While hardcore MJ fans are thrilled to see the film, others feel that his complicated history is being buried.
01:23Joy, and peace.
01:27That is what I want the world to feel.
01:31Number 10, House of Gucci.
01:33I don't consider myself a particularly ethical person, but I am fair.
01:38Making a film about a highly publicized murder within Italy's most famous fashion family is bound to ruffle some feathers.
01:46In November 2021, the living Gucci relatives came out against House of Gucci in a coordinated statement,
01:52citing its inaccuracies and sensationalized treatment of Maurizio Gucci's murder, as well as the Gucci brand.
01:58Don't call me a cretin, sweetie.
02:01That's not what I said.
02:03I asked you not to be one.
02:05This is serious.
02:07And you're laughing it off.
02:09At least it's my name on the mugs, not yours.
02:12Our name.
02:13They took issue with the filmmakers for never consulting them.
02:17They also felt the film sanitize Patrizia Reggiani, Maurizio's widow who orchestrated his murder.
02:23Reggiani wasn't happy either.
02:25She raised a particular stink about not being contacted by on-screen portrayer Lady Gaga.
02:31The film's odd, campy tone didn't do much to overcome the charge of sensationalism.
02:36Signora Reggiani.
02:45It can call me, Signora Gucci.
02:54Number nine, The People vs. Larry Flint.
02:57The First Amendment will protect a...
03:00What did Grutman call me?
03:02Scumbag.
03:03Scumbag like me, well then it'll protect all of you.
03:07Because I'm the worst.
03:08It's only fitting that a biopic of the man who spent years dodging obscenity charges would ignite a public outcry
03:15of its own.
03:15As the founder of Hustler magazine, Flint's publications far out-sleazed Playboy and Penthouse in terms of explicit and violent
03:23imagery.
03:24He was almost forced to become a free speech advocate due to constant attempts to shut him down and imprison
03:30him on moral grounds.
03:31Reagan has rebuilt America and the moral majority is gaining power.
03:37You're fired.
03:39Excuse me?
03:40However, the movie's portrayal of a First Amendment crusader invited its own problems.
03:45Prominent feminist Gloria Steinem was a major critic of the movie's decision to paint Flint as a hero of free
03:51speech.
03:52Even Flint's own daughter came out against the film.
03:55I agree with Gloria.
03:56A lot of the things that my father's put me through growing up is not being shown in the movie.
04:02It's not being revealed.
04:04And I think that that's a lot of who my father is.
04:06My father humiliated me, made me feel bad because I was a woman.
04:10Number 8.
04:11American Sniper.
04:13Her arms aren't swinging.
04:14She's carrying something.
04:25Yeah, she's got a grenade.
04:26She's got an RKG Russian grenade she'd say unto the kid.
04:28Clint Eastwood's film about the military exploits of Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle was a magnet for debate.
04:35And no, we're not talking about that fake baby.
04:38American Sniper chronicles Kyle's four military tours during the Iraq War,
04:42presenting his enormous skill for killing with reverence.
04:46Its flat rendering of the conflict in the Middle East inspired charges of nationalism from viewers and critics.
04:52Seth Rogen tweeted, then apologized for,
04:54a comparison to the propaganda film featured in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.
05:08A 2016 piece in The Intercept reignited controversy.
05:12It alleged that Navy documents suggest Kyle, who died in 2013, mischaracterized his military record.
05:19Kyle's co-author, Scott McEwen, dismissed this as an attack from the political left.
05:24Baby, I can't hear you. Hello?
05:27I'm ready.
05:30I'm ready to come home.
05:33Number 7. The Iron Lady
05:35There will be no appeasement.
05:37This is a war.
05:39It's a war they started.
05:41And by God, we will finish it.
05:43When Meryl Streep disappeared into the role of conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher,
05:48viewers who remembered the real Iron Lady were puzzled.
05:52Sympathizers felt the frame narrative of Thatcher, who was still living,
05:56spending her last years with dementia, and hallucinating her late husband Dennis,
06:00was exploitative and insensitive.
06:02You're dead, Dennis.
06:04Ah, well, if I'm dead, who are you talking to?
06:08Show it, darling.
06:10They even complained that Streep was overacting the part.
06:14Critics felt the movie far undersold Thatcher's heavy-handed leadership.
06:18Even those who enjoyed Streep's performance seemed disgruntled with the movie's treatment
06:22of the real woman.
06:23In fact, conservative MPs sought to debate the film in the House of Commons.
06:28Just going to get dressed.
06:31Should I call someone, see if anyone can come and do your hair?
06:35No.
06:37You do it.
06:41Number 6.
06:42Wired
06:43Elvis and the Colonel are here?
06:45Yeah, they're backstage in Danny's dressing room and they're dying to meet you guys.
06:48Tell them we'll be right there.
06:49Elvis and the Colonel, this is great!
06:52Capturing the live wire that was Saturday Night Live legend John Belushi would be tough
06:57for any standard Hollywood biopic.
06:59Wired was based on an equally disliked biography by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward.
07:04The movie was a disaster.
07:06It couldn't find a distributor, which could have been because of the film's subject as
07:10much as its poor quality.
07:12I wonder if anybody will recognize us.
07:14Where the party never ended.
07:16A wild man.
07:17Totally wild.
07:19Belushi's co-stars and loved ones publicly denounced Wired.
07:22They didn't have to go to the trouble.
07:24The movie died a fast and quiet death.
07:27It received an initial VHS release, but as of 2026, has still not been released on DVD
07:33and is not on major streaming channels.
07:35Man, this is one to tell the old grandkids about, huh?
07:38You weren't kidding.
07:44Wow!
07:45It's him!
07:47Number 5.
07:48Bohemian Rhapsody.
07:49Good thoughts.
07:50Good words.
07:51Good deeds.
07:54Just like you taught me, Papa.
07:56Plans for a Freddie Mercury biopic had been several years in the making.
08:01Once it finally got off the ground, director Bryan Singer was fired near the end of production
08:06for his erratic attendance and behavior.
08:08Once released, the movie's messaging of events and aspects of the Queen frontman's
08:13personal life received intense scrutiny.
08:16The movie's inaccurate timing of his HIV diagnosis, which was placed in the narrative
08:21for dramatic effect, was particularly criticized.
08:36Critic David Elrich even called it perverse, and its Oscar win for best editing didn't pass
08:41the smell test.
08:43The movie's frantic, jittery cutting went viral in the aftermath.
08:46You've got a gift, you all have.
08:49So tell me, what makes Queen any different from all of the other wannabe rock stars I
08:54meet?
08:56I'll tell you what it is.
08:58We're four misfits who don't belong together playing to the other misfits.
09:03The outcasts, right at the back of the room, who are pretty sure they don't belong either.
09:07Number 4.
09:08The Blind Side.
09:09The material.
09:10Michael Orr.
09:11I gave him this test verbally.
09:12Is that even allowed?
09:14A C?
09:15On how big a curve?
09:16He's been listening all along.
09:18It's amazing what he's absorbed, and trust me, he's listening to you too.
09:21Ostensibly about NFL player Michael Orr's rise from homelessness to football stardom,
09:26the movie centers on the Toohey's, the family who took him in and introduced him to football.
09:31I've seen that look many times.
09:33She's about to get her way.
09:34Despite lackluster reviews overall, Sandra Bullock's performance was praised and won an Oscar.
09:40Critics and viewers alike raised questions about the movie's white savior narrative.
09:51Orr himself took issue with his portrayal, particularly calling out his lack of experience with football before the family as
09:59completely untrue.
10:00In 2023, the movie's reputation took another hit when Orr and the Toohey family became embroiled in a lawsuit.
10:07Orr revealed the family never adopted him, only signed him into conservatorship.
10:12His lawsuit against the family alleges massive amounts of money touting his story as their own success.
10:18You were pretty upset.
10:20You asked a lot of questions.
10:22I'm just trying to get to the bottom of this.
10:24But all the questions you asked were about why everybody else wanted me to go to Ole Miss.
10:29Okay.
10:30Not once did you ask why did I want to go there.
10:34Number three, blonde.
10:48Much has been made of Marilyn Monroe's tragic upbringing, manipulation in adulthood, and untimely death at the age of 36.
10:56Like the book it's based on, blonde treats these facts as suggestions.
11:00Released with a still-scandalous NC-17 rating, the film paints Monroe's suffering with a broad brush.
11:07Critics and viewers took particular issue with its relentless exploitation of the star's suffering,
11:12especially given that much of it never actually happened.
11:15What were you thinking of?
11:19I wasn't thinking.
11:27Uh, maybe...
11:33Fictional scenes involving a brutal and nightmarish depiction of Monroe terminating a pregnancy were especially despised.
11:40For a woman as manipulated and misunderstood as Marilyn Monroe, to many, blonde just felt like another attempt to cash
11:47in on the trauma.
11:48Oh, mother.
11:49Oh, mother.
11:58Oh, mother.
12:04Number two, Nina.
12:06Do you know who I am?
12:08Yeah.
12:09My mother used to listen to you.
12:11Nina Simone!
12:14The star of a biopic doesn't necessarily need to be a one-to-one copy of the subject. However,
12:20given Nina Simone's identity as a black woman with distinctive natural features,
12:24audiences felt this should have been a consideration in the casting process.
12:28Zoe Saldana's portrayal of the activist and virtuoso of Song was lambasted before the movie
12:33even began filming. I guess getting stressed or being hurt by the comments is that I'm doing it
12:41for my sisters. I'm doing it for my brothers and I don't care who tells me that I am not
12:46this and I
12:47am not that. I know who I am. In 2012, the announcement that she would replace original
12:51star Mary J. Blige drew immediate controversy. Simone Kelly, Simone's daughter, was among the
12:57critics. Her performance required a prosthetic nose and a darker skin tone. The film failed to
13:03find distribution until 2016. Saldana later admitted regret for taking the role.
13:08If I can have that for half of my life, no fear. That's the only way that I can describe.
13:21Before we continue, check out this single from Sound Mojo's Aria, Songs from Iran,
13:27reimagining Persian melodies as modern rock, metal, and pop songs. Check out the full track and album below.
13:40When I rise, you fill my head. In every dream, it's you I've made.
13:48Number one, The Conqueror. You return empty-handed from the chase, my son.
13:53Not so, fine gazelle. Now we seek bigger game, Hunlan.
13:57If this movie were made today, John Wayne playing the infamous Mongolian Emperor Genghis Khan would be a
14:04massive scandal. In 1956, the scandal was his terrible acting.
14:20Unfortunately, as awful as it is, The Conqueror's legacy is much more damaging than miscasting and bad filmmaking.
14:27The scenes that stood in for the Gobi Desert were actually shot in Utah, just downwind from nuclear
14:32testing sites. Wayne, several of his co-stars, and dozens of other cast and crew developed cancer
14:38over the years. Exposure to radioactive fallout is strongly believed to be the culprit. Though the
14:44evidence is still inconclusive, The Conqueror is still often cited as one of the most dangerous movies ever made.
14:59Do you think these biopics got a fair shake? Tell us in the comments.
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