American studies: key topics and perspectives

¶ … trip: Pack and re-Pack your goals and dreams

Isn't it everybody's dream to be rich, talented and world famous? Well you better prepare for the worst.

Unless you get a grip on reality before it's too late, the road to superstardom is an unfulfilling and pitiful path that dead-ends in a tragic nightmare, according to the storyline of three modern films.

The main characters of the films "Nashville," "The Rose" and "Citizen Kane," all worked hard to make it to the top but hit the downhill slide as their original goals were lost in the quagmire of excessive behavior that followed meteoric success. The characters of these films illustrate that fame, wealth and superstardom without direction can blind us and isolate us from the very real people with whom we share the world. Where did they go wrong?

Let's take a look to avoid the pitfalls.

In all three pictures, the main characters' successes far exceeded their expectations and they have become swept up by all the hype, glitter and glam that give them their public persona. Rather than continually celebrating their celebrity with partying, debauchery and nonsensical activities with foolish hangers-on, the would-be superstar needs to aim for the future to give the present any meaning.

If the main characters of the films re-adjusted their value systems and changed their goals to focus on new aspirations, they may have survived their success.

Living life in the public eye is a contributing factor to the would-be superstar's demise. It becomes, as it did to the Janis Joplin-like Rose, that being recognized is a handicap. For example, could you imagine that every time you had a drink it could be written up in The National Enquirer or STAR that you're a drunkard?

To live with that kind of worry is enough to make anyone drink heavily in private, even if it's just for spite.

In the newspaper business they say, "Never believe your own publicity," and this was the first rule the characters in these films broke. If anyone should have adhered to this, it should have been Kane, whose life was based on that of the newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Like the lead characters in the other films, Kane became preoccupied with his own pleasures in an attempt to escape the isolation he felt from living a very public life. This fixation with pleasure in the "here and now" and his preoccupation with his public image is what ultimately led to his demise.

The film "Nashville," an account of a weekend in the life of the country music industry, also proved that "them good 'ol' boys 'n' girls" can't survive the debauchery that comes with fame any better than their city-slicker cousins. Even the Loretta Lynn gets whacked here, and ironically this tragedy occurs just as she finally brings the house down.