Robert Downey Jr. Case Study

Christine Gledhill

Stars as capital value

Robert Downey jr is most known for playing to role of Tony Stark in the Iron Man franchise, because of this any film he appears in after this tends to do well finically due to his star power. This is shown as he is worth $170 million dollars.

Stars as Construct

Robert Downey Jr has a constructed image of a fun "joker", who doesn't really care about being serious. He himself as probably constructed this image to help bury his history with drug related problems in the past. He even has a funny story about him getting clean, allegedly buying a burger king and it tasting so bad that he decided to re-think his life and dumped all of the drugs in his car in the ocean.

Stars as Deviant

Robert Downey Jr. has had a long history of drug related chargers, including one occasion where he was found speeding down a main road with an unloaded magnum and a car full of Heroin and Cocaine. He has also been to rehab a dozen times until finally getting clean in the late 2000's.

Stars as Cultural value

Robert Downey Jr, has described his beliefs as being a mixture of Judaism and Buddhism, saying he follows ideologies of both. He has also shown interests in the Christian and Hare Krishna ideologies. However, he does not try and influence others with his own ideologies and keeps them to himself as his personal belief systems.

Star Qualities

 After watching the trailers for Iron Man, Sherlock Holmes and Tropic Thunder, I can see that Robert Downey Jr’s star qualities are humour and wit. When an audience watches a film featuring Robert Downey Jr, they expect the sharp wit and one-liners that he uses in the majority of his films. All three of the trailers show his ability to play different roles while still mixing aspects of his personality into every one, however this could be a negative as an audience may grow tired of the same personality across different films. Most of his trailers promise the same thing, quick wit and one-liners. A pro of using a star this way is that they are instantly recognisable and a fan of Robert Downey Jr, would watch a film he is in because of what they expect, they want to see his quick wit. However this could also be a negative as a different audience may grow tired of the similar characters and lack of diversity.

Franchises

Robert Downey Jr, is the star of the Iron Man franchise. This franchise is so popular as it reflects real world issues. The first film starts in the Middle East, where terrorists kidnap Tony Stark. This reflects the real world issues going on in this age. The threat of terrorism is very real and this was made after 9/11, showing that it does indeed try to reflect those issues. The reason the films decides to reflect real world issues is because audiences are becoming more demanding, they no longer want to see the all-American hero who defeats the bad guys without breaking a sweat. They want to see someone go through the struggles and trials that any one in an extraordinary situation like that would go through. The sleeper curve theory suggests that popular culture is “locked in a spiral dive of deteriorating standards” and that “the cheapest thrill wins out every time”. This could be related to the Iron Man film franchise as the audience want to see the good guy succeed, and they get the “thrill” from experiencing the narrative.

However, a reason for the decline in film popularity is the rise of video games. Video games are now more advanced and hold more complex narratives than early video games from the 1980’s. They are a good alternative to film as it is almost like watching a film, except you control what the protagonist does and how he acts. Because of this, video games are making a more sophisticated audience, and because of this, an audience taste in film is becoming more sophisticated, which is why, as stated before, the classic “All-American Hero” is no longer needed. Instead, fans want a continuing narrative in order to satisfy these more sophisticated audiences. Another part of this is ideologies, an audience wants their ideologies to be reflected in films, but also they want to be offered escapism, by concentrating on the events and problems of another person, they can stop reflecting on their own troubles and “switch off” however to do this, the audience needs to be able to relate to the character in which they wish to escape with. The mix of familiarity and extraordinary situations means that the audience are comfortable in the fact that their ideologies are being reflected whilst being drawn in by the extraordinary situations.