There's a reason why most biopics shuffle events around, exaggerate or downplay things, and sometimes even misrepresent real people by slanting someone as a villain/hero. And this is what makes biopics hard! If you follow a biography to the T, then it's just a textbook and nobody likes that. If you fictionlize it too much, then you get Amadeus-style 'inspired by' stories that are enjoyable but barely recognizable as history. If you do like me and turn it into fantasy, then you have to wrestle with problems like yes, this Catholic priest is a werewolf, this is fine, but what is not fine is getting the color of his vestments wrong for the time of year *cough*
It's not like Kelly doesn't know how to change elements of a biography to serve a narrative. She turned Williams and her 11 siblings into just her and one older sister, after all. I don't know enough about Williams to say how closely Kelly stuck to her biographical timeline, but if it was anything like Vivaldi's Muse, her decision to follow the timeline to the letter despite what changes she made to characters is confusing and jarring.
Anyway, I have realized that nothing ever came from the plot point of William's mother vomiting blood (that seems like a fairly major event to me), nor of William's decision to find out more about the Ghost Dog story despite Nanny's refusal to help (the Ghost Dog just ends up going away anyway). However I did come across a John the Conqueror King personage in relation to Hoodoo religion, perhaps this is the same Johnkankus we also got no info about.
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Date: 2025-01-01 01:08 pm (UTC)And this is what makes biopics hard! If you follow a biography to the T, then it's just a textbook and nobody likes that. If you fictionlize it too much, then you get Amadeus-style 'inspired by' stories that are enjoyable but barely recognizable as history.
If you do like me and turn it into fantasy, then you have to wrestle with problems like yes, this Catholic priest is a werewolf, this is fine, but what is not fine is getting the color of his vestments wrong for the time of year *cough*
It's not like Kelly doesn't know how to change elements of a biography to serve a narrative. She turned Williams and her 11 siblings into just her and one older sister, after all. I don't know enough about Williams to say how closely Kelly stuck to her biographical timeline, but if it was anything like Vivaldi's Muse, her decision to follow the timeline to the letter despite what changes she made to characters is confusing and jarring.
Anyway, I have realized that nothing ever came from the plot point of William's mother vomiting blood (that seems like a fairly major event to me), nor of William's decision to find out more about the Ghost Dog story despite Nanny's refusal to help (the Ghost Dog just ends up going away anyway). However I did come across a John the Conqueror King personage in relation to Hoodoo religion, perhaps this is the same Johnkankus we also got no info about.