Reason for star decline.

“Neither producers nor audiences need stars anymore”-How far do you agree with this statement?

I do not agree with this statement because even though franchises have dominated the cinemas there are still come individual stars that can make a film number one at the box office just for staring in it showing that star driven films are still important. These are less important that franchises but they still play a part in cinemas and are still important to audiences.  For example DiCaprio and ‘Revenant’ knocked ‘The force awakens, Star Wars’ off the tops spot at the box office showing that just because DiCario stared in the movie means that he is able to knock a franchise off the number one in the box office and that star driven movies are still somewhat popular. 

Star qualities are the reason why films are important and identifiable, if there is a particular star in a movie with a good track record of movies and are unique then it is certain that it will generate a large audience. They must also operate between ordinary and extraordinary and offer a variety of things as although the audience want their expectations to be met they don’t want the film to be predictable and become bored of the film and actor.

Stars as construct is the idea that stars are very much involved in the construction of their image.  This shows that they are apart of the representation given off to audience, Gledhill wore that the audience want to know the ‘real’ person, but also the ‘real’ star, a perfect example of this would be Tome Cruise. Tome Cruise is the representation of the heroic male in the majority of films he stars in, we also see him as American and patriotic as many of his roles are based around America and social difficulties and changes. He is also seen as a family man in his roles, but also in every day life as he is always pictured with his family showing he is very family orientated.  This makes Tom relatable for the audience, as they believe he acts and thinks like them.

Another idea put forward by Gledhill was stars as cultural value, this is when the actors make the transition to film star when they have clearly identifiable star qualities that both audience and producers can identify. A good example for this would be Arnold Schwarzenegger, he is the symbol of power, masculinity and one liners. Schwarzenegger was the former Mr.Universe and the greatest body builder; this is reflected in the characters he plays, as he is always the strong masculine male lead, which builds up the expectation that if he stars in a film he will be exactly that. Film stars like Schwarzenegger also appeal to the audience as the character he plays as he embodies, promotes and reinforces the ideological perspective.  Ideological perspective is a belief system/set of beliefs that shape the way we perceive the world, this is show through Schwarzenegger a she usually plays the general protagonist/ good guy role that up holds the law, opposes evil and fights for justice. Mainly his role in ‘Commando, 1985’ reinforces the ideological perspective   of the USA, with him embodying the American view that the USA promote freedom, whilst the South American government promote autocracy. The USA win due to Schwarzenegger and the perspective is reinforced even more and crates a positive view of America in the audience’s minds.

On the other hand stars aren’t as important as we as an audience prefer the characters they play as they are more relatable and representative of us, we find a link between us and the character which is what we cannot do with the star as they do not face the same problems.  For example in ‘Harry Potter and the half blood prince’ we see Harry and his friends facing teenage problems such as school, relationship and growing up which is a lot of the problems teenagers face now so we are able to connect with the characters, but we know Daniel Radcliffe and other cast members do not face these problems so the character is relatable not the star.  Another reason we prefer characters is the fact film stars are fallible due to social media, we see them as equal and we don’t look up to them on social media as we can come into contact with them and on social media they are no better or worse than us, however characters are simple and unchanging so we love them for that as we see them in the film and only in the film making them untouchable and puts them on a pedestal.

Reasons for decline

Shift from stars

Conclusion