A study of Richard Dyer’s work on STARS

A consideration of Richard Dyer’s work on stars and star status

Richard Dyer -STARS “stars do not exist outside of

such texts [films]”

social phenomenon Stars as a social phenomenon - how stars

are understood as fulfilling a social and cultural function

Consider Stallone’s roles in the Rambo films. Was he winning the war in Hollywood which the USA lost?

images Stars as images uses semioticsand cultural studies to ask about the social meanings of

stardom in general and specific stars in particular

and how these meanings are produced or constructed.

How do stars acquire social meanings, not only through their films but also through other agencies involved in the production of a star’s image

studio promotion, fan magazines, publicity in newspapers popular journals, film reviews critical articles?

signsStars as signs is about the problems

associated with a star and a particular representation of a character in a film and how the two interact.

E.g. Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop or Clint Eastwood performing with an orang-utan

Construction Dyer starts by establishing the basic principles of constructedness

and places this in an analysis of its place within the

relations of production and consumption this allows us to move forward to the analysis

proper of star images and the cultural specificity of their

meanings/effects we can then use this knowledge of the stars in

the analysis of films in which they appear.

Construction 2

STAR

Social values

Film industry

audiencesactor

Agents of film studios

The Star Paradigm

Are there conflicting aims or do they all coalesce in the production of a star?

Stars as constructions

…a star isan image (not a real person) that is constructed (as any other aspect of

fiction is)out of a range of materials (e.g.

advertising, magazines, etc. as well as films)

Marlon BrandoIf we look at these Marlon Brando publicity shots,we can perhaps establish what star ‘image’ was being perpetuated

Marlon Brando

One-eyed Jacks, 1961

Marlon Brando

The Wild One, 1954

The Wild One, 1954

Marlon Brando

On the Waterfront, 1954

Marlon Brando

Guys and Dolls, 1955

Marlon Brando

On the Waterfront, 1954

Real?Not one of these images is the ‘truth’ there is a gap between what is constructed as the star image and what other possibilities in reportage

about the star which somehow never get to be a real emphasis in the image.

Examples of star construction study background information on the business of

creating a star looking at the institutional factors the role of the agent in placing his/her clients and

casting agencies the studio’s promotion department in

establishing/promoting the star image this department would work through direct promotion,

especially the photography department producing pin-ups for fan magazines, gossip columnists and the press

the search for ‘vehicles’ for the furtherance of the star the analysis of box office receipts, opinion polls and

critics’ reviews in order to determine the direction of the star image

Ursula AndressDr. No (1962)

The impact of Ursula Andress’ first appearance, emerging from the sea with her conch, basically set her star image.

Fun people

The publicity photos for Dr. No set Connery and Andress up as ‘fun people’.

and… Collect a range of materials or ‘media texts’

through which star image is established to demonstrate where those ‘images’ are produced for public consumption.

These materials would include studio promotion and publicity stills, fan magazine articles and pin-ups, newspaper reports, features and reviews, and stills from the stars’ films and a couple of extracts from the films themselves.

ArnieLet’s use Schwarzenegger as amodern example of this collectionprocess

Roger Ebert review of T2 Schwarzenegger's genius as a movie star is to

find roles that build on, rather than undermine, his physical and vocal characteristics. Here he becomes the straight man in a human drama - and in a human comedy, too, as the kid tells him to lighten up and stop talking like a computer. After the kid's mother is freed from the mental home, the threesome work together to defeat T-1000, while at the same time creating an unlikely but effective family unit.

Rolling Stone review of T2 (extract)

Schwarzenegger has fun saying things like "Chill out, dickwad" and "Hasta la vista, baby." But the star's quips are predictable, the stock in trade of an icon for hire. It's Cameron's show; he's the reigning king of movie pow, with dark wit and a poet's eye for mayhem. T2 cost a reported $100 million, and you can actually see where the money went. The visual and makeup effects are state-of-the-art, making Terminator 2 the big-daddy action entertainment of the summer.

Business Data for T2 (IMDB) Business Data for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) Budget $100m (USA)

Opening Weekend $52.306m (3 July 1991) (USA)

Gross $310m (Non-USA) £18.179m (UK) $204.843m (USA) $514.8m (worldwide)

Admissions 3,773,320 (Spain)

Theatrical Rentals £8.948m (UK) $112.5m (USA)

Filming Dates October 1990 - April 1991

Copyright Holder Carolco Pictures Inc. - Carolco International N.V.

Biography for Arnold Schwarzenegger

Birth Name Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nickname Arnie Austrian Oak Conan the Republican Styrian Oak --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Height 6' 2" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mini biography Growing up in a small, isolated village in Austria, he turned to bodybuilding as his ticket to a better life. After

conquering the world as the greatest bodybuilder who ever lived, he went to America to make his name in motion pictures. Hampered by his impossible name and thick accent, success eluded him for many years. It wasn't until he found the tailor- made role of Conan that he truly came into his own as a performer. A succession of over-the-top action films made him an international box office star. By alternating violent action films with lighter, comedic fare, he has solidified his position as one of the most popular--if not the most popular--movie stars in the world.

WorkWho is Arnold Schwarzenegger?How is he a star?Who constructed him?What does he mean?Trailer for T3

Stars in Relation to Industry and Audience

stars are:commoditiesproduced and consumed on the strength of

their meanings

Commodities a) capital. Stars represented a form of capital possessed by the

studios. Robert A. Brady sees this as part of the `monopolistic' character of the

Hollywood industry: `...each star is to some extent a holder of a monopoly, and the owner of contracts for the services of a star is the owner of a monopoly product. The majors dominate the employment of this individual monopoly talent.'

b) investment. Stars were a guarantee, or a promise, against loss on investment and even of profit on it.

c) the market. Stars were used to sell films, to organise the market. Alexander Walker talks of `the use of a star to stabilise audience

response'. Alice Evans Field writes: `Star names on the theatre marquee, above the

title of the picture, draw' great audiences not only because of their personal magnetism but also because they are symbols of certain types of entertainment and because they assure production efforts far above average.' This suggests how stars both organise the market and act back upon the 'quality' of the films they are in.

Labour Bourgeois economics normally considers capital

as wealth, but labour is important too So a star is produced not only through the labour

of the studios but through the efforts of the star him/herself.

In other words, there is the labour of producing the image, which, once produced, is then in turn raw material to be further transformed by labour.

A model for work in this area might propose that:

a star is a raw material (a living person) who through labour (their own and others) is transformed into an

image. This image is a product which is both a form of capital (owned by the studio, or else by the `person' who

performs the image of the star) and a form of raw material ('concealed labour') which through further

labour produces products (films) that are sold (in the market, to an audience)

for a profit (which is the difference between the cost of capital + raw material (itself a form of labour) + labour (without which the product has no value) and box-office receipts

Phew!

Meanings Although stars and films are commodities,

their only `value' (i.e. what people use them for) resides in what meanings and effects they have. Stars/films sell meanings/effects.

stars embodysocial values that need, or are felt to need assertion

or re-assertion

'embody'Stars seem actually to possess or even to

be the values in question; they seem not to be cinematic

constructions or representations of those values.

(Here the confusion over the star-as-image and the star-as-person has a crucial role).

`social value'

That is, widespread and shared values, attitudes, ideas about life, including social types, stereotypes, sex roles, etc.

A key issue here, always, is whether these values merely represent what most people happen to think ('consensus') or whether they are values that support the particular world-view of a socially dominant group but are made to appear what most people happen to think ('hegemony').

It is in sorting through this issue that one engages with the production-consumption/ industry-audience relation, not just as something confined to a particular form of aesthetic commodity production but as a fully social practice.

In other words, it is not just a question of working out the relationship between cinema and society, but rather of understanding cinema as a social practice that is a full part of the way that society itself is formed.

`need, or felt to need' The reason for saying 'need or felt to need' is

that there is always a danger in asserting that something is simply spontaneously `needed'; the mass media also stimulate and define needs, and these needs may have the effect of serving specific interests (e.g. of class or gender) rather than expressing general wants.

E.g. Spike Lee films produce ‘stars’ who speak for their audience’s needs,

Or even James Bond films

`assertion, or re-assertion'The star might reaffirm society’s views orserve the need to give expression to

alternative or oppositional values (possibly, but not always, to discredit or `recuperate' them), e.g. 'rebel' stars such as Brando or Dean

Social Values what social values are embodied? with what kind of emphasis?

(e.g. does the image invoke notions of traction and 'time-honoured' values, or does it offer itself as something new or 'radical'?

Is it confused as to values, or clearly asserting one set of values over against others?)

what does the expression of these social values with this kind of emphasis seem to speak to in the values of the society in which we live'?

(e.g. how far are the values in question ones that everyone gives assent to'?

How far are they only relevant to one section of society? Have these values been at issue in the media or in everyday

conversation in the past year or so?)