I often say when it comes to film that there are no stars anymore. There are celebrities certainly but there are no longer larger than life people on the silver screen. There are no stars.
Why do I say there are new stars left anymore? While there are certainly celebrities, the era of the star is gone. Those in Hollywood would try to portray themselves as refined and dignified. Would Maureen O’Hara or Marlene Dietrich twerk at the Oscars? Could you picture them even considering doing something like that? Glenn Close, a highly regarded actress, did just that. Why? Why get trashy?
I enjoy Adam Sandler movies, but would Burt Lancaster or Kirk Douglas have done what Al Pacino did in Jack & Jill? With this I am a little conflicted. I do think it is funny, but it also seems to be something beneath a storied actor to do. John Wayne reportedly had the opportunity to play the Waco Kid in Blazing Saddles and while he liked the script, turned it down because it was not appropriate for his image but as the story goes said he would be one of the first to see it.
Another thing is that a name no longer guarantees success. You don’t go to see a Robert Downey Jr. movie or a Tom Holland movie. There was a time however you went to see the next John Wayne film or the next Jimmy Stewart film or the next Marlene Dietrich film or even the next Charles Bronson film because those stars were attached. Their name alone guaranteed butts in theater seats but those days are gone.
At one point the appearance of a celebrity was treated as something great and grand. It was as the gods came down from Olympus. They were larger than life figures that occasionally descended from the heavens to interact with us mere mortals. There was glitz and glamour at every event they showed up to. Would seeing Timothée Chalamet or Zendaya or Gal Gadot trigger the kind of reaction that seeing James Dean once did? Probably not.
There are no larger-than-life famous figures anymore in entertainment. I chose John Wayne for my picture here because he was one such larger than life star. There is still a certain mystique and aura around him thanks in part to the image he projected while alive as well as the status of his work but there are others. Jimmy Stewart. James Cagney. Humphrey Bogart. Lauren Bacall. They all have a certain mystique and magic when you say their names and think about their work.
I would say the larger-than-life era of the celebrity ended in the 80s. Schwarzenegger and Stallone were probably the last of that type in part because of their work of the time but even they have lost a bit of their sheen. I am not saying they were the equals of anyone I have previously mentioned but through their films they created a persona that was so great that people behind the Iron Curtain were willing to risk serious consequences to see their films.
In a desperate attempt to become more relatable and more like us the famous have lost that something special. There is no longer the glitz and glamour and the high society feel. Now they are no different than you or I and who cares about that? Heck! Some of them even have YouTube channels. Anyone can have a YouTube channel but not everyone can star in a movie.
Because of my age I only got the 80s taste of the star. And having seen them come down to Earth I am kind of sad. I still have a reverence for some of the older names I have mentioned here. They still are cinematic gods to me but that time is gone and I can only look at the past and think of what it must’ve been like.
It saddens me that we no longer have stars. They may have been as flawed as you or I but the image they portrayed gave us something to strive for. They were living myths we could try to become.
The myth is important and that is what they were. We need the positive myth to be help us be better. We do not need to see someone just like us. We need to see someone better than us. We want that heroic image or just that icon to look up to and emulate. We no longer have stars. We have nothing to aspire to be. For good or bad those days will never come again and in the end that is a loss for us all.
Warren Watched A Movie 