Gods Like Us
On Movie Stardom and Modern Fame
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3.5 • 6 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
WITH 8 PAGES OF BLACK-AND-WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS
How—and why—do we obsess over movie stars? How does fame both reflect and mask the person behind it? How have the image of stardom and our stars’ images altered over a century of cultural and technological change? Do we create celebrities, or do they create us?
Ty Burr, film critic for The Boston Globe, answers these questions in this lively and fascinating anecdotal history of stardom, with all its blessings and curses for star and stargazer alike. From Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin to Archie Leach (a.k.a. Cary Grant) and Marion Morrison (a.k.a. John Wayne), Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts, and such no-cal stars of today as the Kardashians and the new online celebrity (i.e., you and me), Burr takes us on an insightful and entertaining journey through the modern fame game at its flashiest, most indulgent, occasionally most tragic, and ultimately, its most revealing.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this fascinating cultural study, film critic Burr explores the rise of stars in the early film industry. Burr argues "that every successful star creates a persona and within that persona is an idea the films are merely variations on the idea." Early stars were Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Bette Davis, and Clark Gable, but Brando broke the mold, and now, Burr argues, "his DNA... courses through our young actors and movie stars." Burr chronicles the star system silents, talkies, movie factories, postwar studios while citing factors such as television ("evoked not glamour, but ordinariness"), music (Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Madonna), MTV, HBO, and YouTube ("teenagers have at their disposal the fundamental moviemaking facilities of a Hollywood studio in the 1930s"). In this solid analysis of celebrity, he offers insight on the career arcs of Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise ("not an actor but a huge global superstar"), Harrison Ford, Kevin Costner, and Jodie Foster.
