Best biography movie questions of all time

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Foxcatcher picture

Question: Dave Schultz trained Kurt Angle. Did Kurt (or at least someone playing him) appear in the film?

Answer: No actor is credited for the role of Kurt Angle, and there are no overt references to him in the film.

BaconIsMyBFF

Thank you.

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Private Parts picture

Question: Did that woman really manage to put that huge sausage down her throat or was it really good cgi?

Answer: She actually can do it, and became somewhat famous for it. She was on the Howard Stern radio show, and WOR-TV show several times.

wizard_of_gore

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12 Years a Slave picture

Question: In one of the very first scenes set in one of the plantation slave huts, Solomon is struggling to sleep. He is sleeping on the floor squashed amongst many other slaves. During this scene, what looks like a white youngish woman encourages him to touch her. A little earlier we see her sitting on the porch of the slave hut eating alone whilst the slaves are eating. As far as I could tell, she doesn't appear again in the film. Who is she? Does she play a greater role in the book? Was there more of a story here that ended up on the cutting room floor?

Answer: It was a fellow slave. As to whether or not she has a greater role in the book I can't say, but I interpreted the scene to demonstrate how far removed from his former life Solomon had fallen; rutting on the floor in front of everyone else like an animal.

Phixius

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Man on the Moon picture

Question: What is the meaning of bit at the end of the movie, the big guy with the sunglasses? It shows Andy's 'sidekick' and the guy on stage, who was in the suit entertaining the crowd?

Answer: We're supposed to wonder if Andy didn't really fake his own death.

Xofer

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Ted Bundy picture

Question: How did Ted Bundy manage to fool law enforcement, and evade them for years before finally being arrested?

Answer: I don't think he fooled police. He was clever and able to commit murders without leaving enough evidence to directly tie him to the crime. Eventually there was enough physical as well as circumstantial and eye witness accounts to convict him. He evaded police for stretches of time by flying under the radar and carefully calculating his moves. Weird writing about this as he terrorized my city.

raywest

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King of Kings picture

Question: How did anyone ascertain that Orson Welles read the spoken narrative in this film and that it was written by Ray Bradbury? Similarly, how did they come to know that Agnes Moorhead coached Jeffrey Hunter with dialogue? None of these persons feature in the credits though things like the choreography for Salome's dance are printed.

Answer: In the introduction he wrote for Ray Harryhausen's book, 'Film Fantasy Scrapbook', Bradbury mentions writing Orson Welles' narration for 'King of Kings'. A number of online sources cite Agnes Moorehead as coaching Hunter on the post-filming dialogue. She had years of experience performing in radio drama and had a Master's degree in Public Speaking. She likely coached other actors. Not every person involved in a film's production is credited and a voice coach is not a particularly significant role, even for a notable actress. Bradbury was not the screenwriter and only wrote the narration. Scripts often have multiple writers (i.e. script doctors) who are uncredited. Welles demanded more money to allow his name be listed in the cast credits, so the studio left him uncredited. Even uncredited, his voice is quite recognizable.

raywest

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Rush picture

Question: Why does James vomit before each race?

Answer: It's a case of bad nerves before a race and has developed into a habitual behavioral pattern.

raywest

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Chosen answer: According to Tim Burton in an interview at the time, they were "taking a little vacation from each other", - he also said that he was not sure what the situation between them was, which certainly implied a falling out. Danny Elfman is a bit more open, describing what happened as "a family feud" - he says that after working on six films together in ten years, they had a bit of a creative fallout, which led to Howard Shore doing the music for Ed Wood. Afterwards, according to Elfman, they realised that they missed working together and went back to collaborating happily.

Tailkinker

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Valkyrie picture

Question: Why did all of the officers and high-ranking officials put out their cigarettes when Hitler's plane landed at the airfield?

Answer: Hitler was fanatically anti-tobacco: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/07/the-nazis-forgotten-anti-smoking-campaign/373766/.

Brian Katcher

Answer: They are supposed to stand at attention when he arrives and salute when he walks past them. It is considered bad form to salute the Führer (or any leader) with a cigarette in your mouth or hand.

lionhead

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Rob Roy picture

Question: After Mary is raped, she begins cleaning herself off in the water in front of Alasdair who immediately figures out what happened and of course wants to tell Rob, so he'll avenge her. But she's extremely adamant that Alasdair not tell Rob about it. But if she REALLY didn't want Rob to know, wouldn't she have waited until she was alone to clean herself up? I'm always confused by this, because when she tells Alasdair to keep quiet, she never seems to be hinting that she doesn't really mean what she says. On the contrary, she's very passionate about it.

Krista

Chosen answer: She wants to clean herself thoroughly ASAP, so as to avoid pregnancy (though that way doesn't work anyway); if she waited until she was alone, it would've been too late to even try.

Xofer

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The People vs. Larry Flynt picture

Question: When Althea visits Larry in jail, she holds up a small notebook for a split second with something written on it. Does anybody know what it said?

Answer: It says "Can you guess where my finger is?"

Answer: It says, "Larry, where is my finger?"

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Cannibal! The Musical picture

Question: Does anyone know if there is a soundtrack (CD) for this movie available anywhere?

Answer: I doubt it as, the film was made during Parker's college years, but every song asis available as an mp3 at www.cannibalthemusical.net.

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Answer: Absolutely. White Castle is credited as the first "fast food" chain in the United States. The company began its traditional brick and mortar, fast food burger operation in 1921 but had operated as a food cart company since 1916.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: There is no double level bridge out of New York city.

I'm not sure what this comment is a response to, but it's not an answer to this question.

Bishop73

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Downfall picture

Question: Why is this movie parodied online?

Answer: The "Hitler in the bunker" scene is iconic for historical reasons, being something most people understand the significance of. Being subtitled in the film means it's very easy for people to keep the original excellent acting while simply replacing the words onscreen to change the context entirely. It also ends up being a bit self-reinforcing, once people get wind of it as a "template", they then start getting their own ideas. And there's the arguable "Streisand Effect", when the film company issued a wave of copyright takedowns in 2010, a lot of people "retaliated" by making and uploading even more.

Answer: Presumably, due to its popularity.

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Gandhi picture

Question: What reason did the British general give for having opened fire on the unarmed crowd?

Answer: Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer has said his intent "was not to disperse the meeting but to punish the Indians for disobedience." Earlier that day, Dyer has banned all meetings to avoid any insurrection, but many still gathered to celebrate and protest. Dyer saw it as defiance of his order and thought it could be another mob insurgent he had seen earlier. Some reports also state while the crowd was "unarmed", that only referred to being unarmed with firearms and many in the crowd did have other types of weapons. It also seems at the time it was standard practice for the British Army to use necessary lethal force for civilian crowd control, although many saw Dyer's action to be in excess.

Bishop73

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Walking Tall picture

Question: How could Chris have legally become sheriff? Wouldn't he have had to go to law enforcement school or academy before he could have been considered for a role as sheriff?

Answer: The role of sheriff is an elected, political position, and as recent US politics have shown, one can be elected to office with little or no previous relevant experience.

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Answer: His belief in a family curse.

Captain Defenestrator

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Capote picture

Question: Near the beginning of the film, Capote is talking about a story involving a gay black man being in love with a Jew. Since all the rest of his anecdotes involve real people and/or works, does anyone know which book he's talking about?

Xofer

Chosen answer: He is talking about 'Giovanni's Room' a novel by James Baldwin.

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Answer: Preston was loosely based on the real-life Lincoln Kirstein. Prior to WWII, he was a noted writer and an influential person in the cultural arts in America. When the war broke out, he enlisted in the army with the rank of private. He eventually joined the Army's Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives unit, later known as the Monuments Men. He was selected for his abilities, regardless of his military rank. The movie reflected that.

raywest

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This Boy's Life picture

Question: In the book, Dwight and Toby paint the whole house white, including the piano. But in the movie, I don't remember that scene. They definitely have movie still photos though of Robert De Niro and Leonrdo DiCaprio covered in white paint. Anyone understand this?

Answer: It's typical in movies that more scenes are filmed than what makes it into the final film. This has to do with continuity, the film's overall length, plotting, etc. If a certain scene does not serve the overall story structure, then it is edited out. Sometimes the studio insists that certain scenes be cut, even over a director's objections. After a movie is released on DVD, the deleted scenes may be restored in a "director's cut" or there's a separate section showing all the edited portions.

raywest

Thanks! Just wanted to make sure I wasn't making it up.

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