Talk:Docudrama

message: I disagree with this definition, and particularly with some of the examples.
A docudrama is a drama that recreates actual events in a theatricalized (live stage, film, video, audio) form.  Most content in docudramas is not footage of actual events, although some actual footage may be used at times.  
"America's Most Wanted" and "Hollywood True Stories" are not docudramas--they are (possibly bad) documentaries--they show (or purport to show) actual events.  Even if they show actors reproducing events, they are not dramatic plays.
Evem something like "From the Journal's of Jean Seberg", a documentary that uses an actress to portray the (dead) Seberg, is simply a documentary that uses dramatic techniques.
"Roots" is also not a docudrama--it is a historical drama based on a novel. 
"Peal Harbor" or "From Here to Eternity" are not docudramas because, although they concern true events, their main content is completely fictional.
"The Laramie Project," both the play and the film, is a docudrama.  It is a recreation of actual conversations and events.  There are also some written journals and transcripts that are performed, but still convey the facts as recorded.
:What astonishes me is that Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo isn't listed.  It's a highly-accurate filming of the book written by the pilot of the Ruptured Duck telling the story of his own experiences on the raid.  It's both thrilling as a dramatic presentation and an accurate recreation of the operation, making it a true docudrama.  JDZeff (talk) 20:45, 13 April 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Docudrama does not equal documentary presented with "drama" 

message: Docudrama and docu-fiction both seem to be dramatizations of real events.  The articles ought to be merged.  Docudrama is the more popular term, so it should stay. Ace of Sevens 12:36, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merge with [[Docu-fiction]] 

message: Borat is not a docudrama. It's more of a mockumentary. And why isn't "Good Night, and Good Luck." on here?
:Agree entirely with regard to Borat. As for Good Night..., I suspect it doesn't meet the article's criterion of "A strict focus on the facts of the event being treated, as they are known". As the earlier discussions on this page show, there is some vagueness about the exact cut-off point for determining what is or isn't a docudrama, but I would suggest that an essential aspect of it is that it depicts ONLY known events, without adding anything from the imagination. Thus, not all films based on true stories are docudramas - e.g. All The President's Men is not a docudrama. Barnabypage 14:53, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Borat 

message: I don't understand why The Day Britain Stopped is listed as a "film docudrama of note" . It is not a docudrama but a false documentary. There's a big difference! Also, Touching the Void and The Road to Guantanamo are listed as docudramas, when they are in fact documentaries (albeit including extensive footage of staged re-enactments). Moreover, the whole list of "TV series that utilize a docudrama style" is a bit odd. Shows like America's Most Wanted and Rescue 911 obviously owe a lot to the docudrama genre but it is going too far to have a list of them in this article. A filmed reenactment of one or two scenes is quite different from a docudrama. --Mathew5000 23:28, 13 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  ''The Day Britain Stopped'' 

message: I'm sorry, but America's Most Wanted, and certainly COPS, are not docudramas. A docudrama focuses on one real-life situation (either historical, or of current interest) and tells it in story-like fashion. The purpose is inform, as well as entertain.
*COPS is not fictional at all; it is footage of real life.
*America's Most Wanted doesn't qualify either, because its purpose is totally to inform the public and solicit help in catching criminals, not at all to entertain. It's also in anthology format unlike a docudrama, usually presenting more than one case per episode.
I also think the TV series section is probably inappropriate as well. Docudramas for TV are generally made as single movies, and I don't know that there are many series where one is presented every week. JustinTime55 (talk) 13:34, 11 May 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: For similar reasons, I've removed Washington Heights from the TV series list, and transplanted it in Reality television#Documentary-style (under Subcultures) Cheers, Bjenks (talk) 06:52, 16 May 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Reality TV is not docudrama 

message: The same standards the Wikipedia applies to real-world subjects should be applied here, too. Films which dramatize alleged paranormal events can't qualify as docudrama, because the events are not uncontrovertably accepted as true. So I removed A Haunting. JustinTime55 (talk) 13:59, 11 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Paranormal doesn't qualify 

message: *It's not proper to single out individual shows in the "See Also" section, which is intended for links to related subjects in Wikipedia. That's why there are lists of films and TV series higher up in the article; if the show qualified, that is where it would belong.
*This show probably doesn't qualify as a docudrama; if the real person is depicted in it, it is reality television, not docudrama, which has actors playing the persons involved.
*The link was improper (ambiguous): Pit Boss links to a casino supervisor; the TV show is Pit Boss (TV series) JustinTime55 (talk) 18:43, 27 October 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pit Boss 

message: In film school, I was always taught that the word "docudrama" has a very specific meaning, which bears no resemblance to the meaning given here.  With all due respect to a previous (notably anonymous) editor who said the exact opposite I'm about to say, a docudrama is a documentary presented with drama, or, more specifically, a documentary that focuses on re-enactment to such a degree that it resembles a dramatic presentation as much as, or more than, it resembles a standard documentary.  This is where the word comes from, it's a portmonteau of the words "documentary" and "drama" precisely because it blurs the lines between the two, whereas the vast majority of the examples listed on this page don't do anything of the kind, and are not docudramas by any stretch of the truth.  And I'm not just some student whining about Wikipedia focusing on the standard use of the word, as opposed to the more formal use of the word that I'm used to in academic circles; until I came to this Wikipedia page, I've never seen the word used in such a broad manner that it includes every movie that is "based on a true story."  The Discovery Channel series A Haunting, which purports to be a documentary series but almost exclusively features re-enactment footage, is a perfect example of a docudrama.  Movies cited in this article, such as Bobby and Good Night, and Good Luck, are absolutely not.  Minaker (talk) 05:49, 11 November 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  entire article based on an incorrect definition 

message: I was so sure -- so sure -- of my comments above that I had the audacity to contact famed and respected film historian David Bordwell and asked him for sources that could back up my claims about a narrower definition of the term "docudrama."  I was surprised when he took the time to respond -- and did so with a "docudrama" definition that closely corresponds with the exact Wikipedia definition I was arguing against.  My bad.  Minaker (talk) 22:04, 15 November 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  David Bordwell's take on what a docudrama is 

message: This article still seems to contain films that don't meet the definition of docudrama. The Day Britain Stopped is complete fiction (see the topic above), so doesn't qualify any more than The War of the Worlds (radio drama) would have. Neither do documentaries (Lost Tomb of Jesus) or mocumentaries (Execution of Gary Glitter]]). There may be more; I don't have time to go through them all. JustinTime55 (talk) 21:09, 3 February 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Keep to the definition 

message: That is not a good example to be citing since Roots, the book, was shown to have been plagiarized from a novel in its early sections.
Haley then added family yarns onto a novelistic core. So it's not the straight history book it was purported to be.
In style, it is not a docudrama. There are no tape recordings of what Kunta and Kizzy said. Their dialogue isn't coming out of someone's journal, or the minutes of a meeting, or a trial transcript.
It's an imagining of what they were like and what they might have said.
That's drama, not docudrama. There is nothing wrong with that, but it's not docudrama.
Varlaam (talk) 04:31, 30 June 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  ''Roots'' (1977)