Celebrity: Sean Penn - Term Paper Example

Celebrity: Sean Penn Celebrity is simply being famous and in the public eye. It often involves success in a high profile profession such as professional sports or the media. However, there are celebrities such as Anna Nicole Smith who are celebrities because they are famous for being famous and no other reason. Sean Penn is a celebrity who is famous for both his acclaimed career in film and a man with a high-profile and very public private life. California-born Sean Penn is the second son of actress Eileen Ryan & director Leo Penn. He was born, Sean Justin Penn, August 17, 1960 in Santa Monica, California, USA. He is the middle brother of musician Michael Penn and Chris Penn. He and Robin Wright lived together from 1991 until their marriage in 1996. They had two children before their marriage. His daughter, with Robin Wright, is named Dylan Penn (b. 13 April 1991). His son, also with Robin Wright, is named Hopper Penn (b. 6 August 1993). He appeared with his brother Chris Penn in At Close Range (1986), in which their actress mother, Eileen Ryan, played their grandmother. His complete filmography is included in the appendix. Will the real Sean Penn please stand up. There are at least three Sean Penns. First and foremost, there is the exceptionally gifted film artist who has acted, directed and produced movies, documentaries and music videos. Second, there is the bad boy Sean Penn who was charged with assaulting Madonna when the two were a couple and more recently said that his Haitian aid efforts began with him taking suitcases full of cash to Haiti. Finally, there is a third Sean Penn, the philanthropist, political activist and all around good guy. The latter, many have suggested, is ineffective and self-serving. This dichotomy between bad boy and good boy, one could suggest, has been the only constant in his image. This discussion will not take the form of a simple biography of Sean Penn. (“Appendix I: Filmography” details his career.)That information is freely and widely available if not already well known. Nor will it focus solely on his critically acclaimed professional life as an actor and director. Rather it will weave together strands of his public and private life in a semiotic analysis of Sean Penn as a celebrity. The Three Faces of Sean Penn Bad Sean kicks Good Sean in Professional a photographer in Haiti Sean with the Oscar According to Drake and Miah (2010), “in the last fifty years or so [celebrity] has been used in a more negative manner, to describe someone famous for not doing very much, and contrasted with the term "hero" denoting someone of more verifiable talent and accomplishment.” Penn has done much and much well in his profession of cinema, however he is also a celebrity for his very public private life: A private life that has included unacceptable behavior, assaulting his spouse, and ineffectual behavior, his day in New Orleans following hurricane Katrina. His current efforts in Haiti, his goofy visit to New Orleans in the wake of Katrina, hobnobbing with Hugo Chavez and playing Harvey Milk all speak to his craving for political influence and power if not position. This is a goal common to many celebrities. Arnold Schwarzenegger is governor of California, hip hop artist Wycliffe Jean aspired to be President of Haiti, a professional wrestler, Jesse Ventura, is a former governor and in the 1980s the President was an actor. Drake and Higgins (2006) took note of this crossover phenomenon in, “ Im a Celebrity, Get me into Politics”. They also explored the interesting question of whether celebrities believe their fame makes them able to contribute intelligently to public discourse or whether they simply see it as another venue to exercise their celebrity. In the case of Penn, both may be true, his interventions in New Orleans (he was accompanied by his photographer) and Haiti have been carefully managed from a public relations point of view. At the same time he has freely pontificated on the errors in American policy with regard to both Iran and Venezuela. The latter, support of outsiders and contrarian sentiments, can also be seen as an attempt to solidify the bad boy side of his image. The Haitian experience demonstrates another celebrity aspect of his very public efforts at disaster relief. There are literally hundreds of international aid organizations in Haiti from the United Nations, American government departments and agencies and non-governmental agencies. Penn could easily have lent his time, energy and image to one of their programs. He did not. Instead he chose to set up his own organization, the J/P Haitian Relief Organization. Its website features prominent photos of Penn as front line aid worker. (J/P Haitian Relief Organization) The offspring of actors and raised in Hollywood he seems destined to have become an actor. The good boy/bad boy dichotomy emerged as quickly as did his own career as an actor. His first role was as Kid on an episode of Little House on the Prairie, a bucolic melodrama that translated the ideal family to the pioneer era and starred Michael Landon as the archetypal Dad. It was the ideal role for good boy Sean Penn. However, is breakthrough role in film came eight years later as Jeff Spicoli, a surfer dude, who has been stoned “since the third grade” according to another character in the movie. (“Fast Times at Ridgemont High”) In many film roles Penn has managed to combine both good boy and bad boy in one character. In 1995 in Dead Man Walking he portrayed (brilliantly) Matthew Poncelet. Poncelet is on death row in Louisiana having committed brutal rapes and murders. He is guilty, this is not a story of wrongful conviction. He is a bad boy. However, in conversation with Sister Helen Prejean (Susan Sarandon) Poncelets humanity, his emotional life and his dignity are all revealed as he prepares for his execution. There is no last minute reprieve, but the film is a story of redemption as the sociopathic Poncelet is revealed to be human, perhaps all too human. Stephen Marche frames his discussion with the idea that celebrity culture is the new world religion. If that is true, then Sean Penn can be seen as the personification of the modern tripartite God. Sean Penn encompasses the Holy Trinity of celebrity. As the accomplished and gifted actor he is God the Father; as the man, the celebrity with the vices and foibles of man, he is God incarnate, Jesus Christ, the man of constant sorrows; and, as a political activist and philanthropist he is the Comforter, the Holy Ghost. On another level, the three personas of the celebrity Sean Penn can be seen as the Freudian id, ego and super-ego. According to Freudian psychology the id is our uncoordinated instinctual drives, the ego is the organized, realistic part of our personality and the super-ego is our moral compass. Sean Penn the violent, frequently drug and alcohol abusing wild man manifests the id. As a student of film, a gifted actor and an insightful and organized director he epitomizes the ego. Thirdly, as a political gadfly and contrarian he presumes to be Americas moral compass. These tripartite presentations of Sean Penn capture an essential component of contemporary celebrity. According to Drake and Miah celebrities are the grid. He refers to the electrical transmission system (known as the grid) that keeps our current technology functioning. The power grid keeps everything from oil refineries to laptop computers functioning. According to Drake celebrity is the grid that underlies our current culture and keeps it chugging along. In light of this observation it is not surprising that celebrity is all encompassing. Sean Penns private life is public because he is a celebrity. His role as an actor makes his private life important to his fans. However, the wild incidents and public attention to his private life fuel his box office figures. In a similar fashion, his prominence as a celebrity garners attention for his political views. It also gives him, and other celebrities, the levels of public recognition necessary to achieve high office. None of these factors make his public pronouncements intelligent or responsible but it does make them important. Sean Penn is important because he is a celebrity and he is a celebrity because he is important. Thirty years ago Richard Dyer (1979) noted that film stars are simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary, easily consumed yet remote from us. Audiences listen to Sean Penn, but Sean Penn does not listen to his audiences, except in the aggregate, namely his popularity and box office numbers. This one-way communication is epitomized by the text on the homepage of his J/P Haitian Relief Organization. It is a personal letter from Penn soliciting donations. It even goes so far as to use the salutation, Dear Friend. (J/P Haitian Relief Organization) Donors are being asked to contribute to Sean Penns Haitian relief efforts not just Haitian relief efforts per se and they are being asked to do so by the celebrity himself, not mere Haitians. This is particularly true of Penns private life: His fans know all the details of his relationships, divorces and brushes with the law but he will never know of theirs nor does he care. And, on the transmitting end of that relationship Penn is ordinary – he fights with his wife – and extraordinary – his wife at the time was Madonna (herself a celebrity). As an individual whose private life is public, as a professional in the world of media, and as an actor with aspirations to political influence Sean Penn personifies celebrity. Appendix I: Filmography Filmography: Actor 2011 This Must Be the Place (post-production) Cheyenne   2011 The Tree of Life (completed) Jack   2010/I Fair Game Joe Wilson   2008/I Milk Harvey Milk   2007 Persepolis Mr. Satrapi - Marjanes father (voice: English version)   2006 All the Kings Men Willie Stark   2005 The Interpreter Tobin Keller   2004 The Assassination of Richard Nixon Samuel J. Bicke   2003 21 Grams Paul Rivers   2003 Mystic River Jimmy Markum   2003 Its All About Love Marciello   2001 I Am Sam Sam Dawson   2001 Friends (TV series) Eric – The One with the Stain (2001) … Eric – The One with the Halloween Party (2001) … Eric   2000 The Weight of Water Thomas Janes   2000 Before Night Falls Cuco Sanchez   2000 Up at the Villa Rowley Flint   1999 Sweet and Lowdown Emmet Ray   1998 The Thin Red Line 1st Sgt. Edward Welsh   1998 Hurlyburly Eddie   1997 Hugo Pool Strange Hitchhiker   1997 The Game Conrad Van Orton   1997 U Turn Bobby Cooper   1997 Shes So Lovely Eddie Quinn   1997 Loved Man on the Hill (Michael)   1995 Dead Man Walking Matthew Poncelet   1993 Carlitos Way David Kleinfeld   1992 Cruise Control (short) Jeffrey   1990 State of Grace Terry Noonan   1990 Cool Blue (video) Phil the Plumber (uncredited)   1989 Were No Angels Jim   1989 Casualties of War Meserve   1988 Judgment in Berlin Guenther X   1988 Colors Officer Danny McGavin   1986 Shanghai Surprise Glendon Wasey   1986 At Close Range Brad Whitewood Jr.   1985 The Falcon and the Snowman Daulton Lee   1984 Racing with the Moon Henry Hopper Nash   1984 Crackers Don Dillard   1983 Bad Boys Mick OBrien   1983 Summerspell Buddy   1982 Fast Times at Ridgemont High Jeff Spicoli   1981 Taps Cadet Captain Alex Dwyer   1981 The Killing of Randy Webster (TV movie) Don Fremont   1981 Hellingers Law (TV movie) Bit Part   1979 Barnaby Jones (TV series) Sam – School of Terror (1979) … Sam   1974 Little House on the Prairie (TV series) Kid – The Voice of Tinker Jones (1974) … Kid (uncredited) References Drake, P. and M. Higgins. 2006. "Im a Celebrity, Get me into Politics: The Political Celebrity and the Celebrity Politician." In S. Holmes and S. Redmond (eds) Framing Celebrity: New Directions in Celebrity Culture, pp.87-100. London: Routledge. Drake, Philip, and Andy Miah. "The cultural politics of celebrity." Cultural Politics 6.1 (2010): 49+. Dyer, R. 1998 [1979]. Stars. London: BFI. J/P Haitian Relief Organization. http://jphro.org/. Marche, Stephen. “The Glittering Skull: Celebrity Culture as World Religion” Queens Quarterly 117/1 (Spring 2010). Milner, Murray, Jr. "Is celebrity a new kind of status system?" Society 47.5 (2010): 379+ Internet Movie Database. “Dead Man Walking”. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112818/plotsummary. Internet Movie Database. “Jeff Spicoli”. http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0012340/. Internet Movie Database. “Sean Penn”. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000576/#Actor. Turner, G. 2004. Understanding Celebrity, London: Sage. Read More