Which historical figures would you like to see good movies made about?

That is another reader request, and here the answer is simple: none!

I don’t like biopics, and I don’t know of many good ones. They seem too mechanical to me, too predictable, and too “paint by numbers.”  Too many parts of the movie have to be laid out didactically, and I rarely feel much of the dramatic tension.

Furthermore, a movie made about a person can skew your sense of history because a good movie will be so vivid.  Which should I trust “The Buddy Holly Story” or the book I read about Buddy Holly?  And no, I didn’t like Shakespeare in Love.

For “the others” I would be happy with any popular movie made about scientific figures, putting science in a positive light.  That said, I think Spock and “the Professor” from Gilligan’s Island are far more effective than a biopic of Ernest Rutherford.

Either way, I probably won’t go see it.  I want the direct falsehoods!