https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battling_Siki
This guy’s life story is insane.
1st. He’s born in Senegal, technically part of France at the time, brought to Europe and then abandoned. I feel like that’s already more story arc than most movies these days.
2nd. Becomes a teenage boxer. Mediocre boxer.
3rd. Joins France in WWI. France wins the war. He’s a decorated hero, but still black and something of a 2nd class citizen.
4th. Becomes a championship boxer. Shockingly defeating the white French national hero in a huge fight (that may have been fixed) in front of 55,000 people. Also Ernest Hemingway was there front row and he wrote a story about it.
5th. Moves to New York. Refuses to throw fights. Becomes alcoholic and bitter.
6th. Gets assassinated. Dead at age 28.
Tell me this isn’t some sort of Oscar bait fiction?
I believe you have your answer right there.
Honestly, there is about three movies worth of story in there. A lot of people seem to think that a movie has as much plot as a novel when it can barely hold more than a few short stories.
Depends on the storytelling style. If you turned Forrest Gump into a TV show you could probably get 20-30 hours worth.
But even then, Forrest Gump is really three short stories intertwined; Forrest’s relationship with his mother, Jenny, and Lieutenant Dan. It is also highly episodic and efficient.