Save the world with Ben and Matt

Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and the importance of film texts to critical discussions of star campaigning

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7707413
AutoresJoshua Gulam (0000-0002-1648-9790, Liverpool Hope University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2019
Volumen10
Número4
Páginas543-558
Fecha de publicación2019-10-02
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCelebrity Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1939-2397 • E-ISSN: 1939-2400
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/19392397.2019.1673015
OpenAlexW2952514056
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas18

By looking at films such as Good Will Hunting and Argo, this paper provides close analysis of the on-screen roles of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, alongside a discussion of their involvement in social and political causes. Existing scholarship about Hollywood campaigning tends to gloss over the importance of films, viewing on-screen roles as secondary to a star’s off-screen activities. Instead, I argue that on-screen roles are directly relevant to any understanding of activist endeavour. Building on ideological critiques of celebrity humanitarianism, the goal is to show how films are crucial in shaping not just the media and institutional traction of Hollywood star campaigners, but also the wider instrumentalities that their campaigning performs. The paper concludes that close analysis of the on-screen roles of individuals like Affleck and Damon can help to reveal just how embedded the phenomenon of star campaigning is within neoliberal capitalism, as well as dominant discourses of race and gender. It can also uncover slippages in this phenomenon, whereby stars are able to mobilise their on-screen image to amplify attacks against the same hegemonic forces

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Epistemology · Hollywood · Ideology · Media studies · Phenomenon · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Sociology · Cinema and Media Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Philosophy