Celebrity Rants

As discussed in class this past week, a “single image can serve a multitude of purposes, appear in a range of settings, and mean different things to different people” (Sturken and Cartwright, p.9).  The reproduction and/or translation of an image thus completely change its meaning. 

In the past week there has been a lot of press regarding Kanye West’s behavior at the VMAs and Serena William’s outburst on the court.  Both events have since been under constant critism and circulation.  After watching the Kanye West diss and many parodies of the event, I remembered Christian Bale’s infamous rant on the set of Terminator Salvation.  The actor’s tirade was caught on tape and overnight, became the center of duplication all over the Internet.  In an interview with Telegraph newspaper, the director of the film, McG defended Bale, explaining that the audio was “taken out of context”.   In class we discussed the importance of context and how a change or alteration of the text or image can “dramatically change the signification of the image” (Sturken and Cartwright, p. 203).  In the article, On the Rights of the Molotov Man, Joy Garnet and Susan Meiselas discuss the influence with which context has on the understanding of a specific image.  Garnet the artist and Meiselas the photographer both have different understandings of the image of the Molotov Man.  Garnet deliberately takes images out of context to form her own understanding.  While Meiselas believes that the image must be recognized in its specific time and space. 

 In some of the versions of the Christian Bale rant, you are only able to hear Bale yelling and no one else.  In other interpretations, there is clear back and forth discussion between Bale and the man he is speaking with.  However we, the viewers, are not given the full context of the rant, why Bale is so angry?, what the environment was like on set?, etc.  Thus we have the freedom to interpret the event and its replications in our own ways.  

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/5399638/Christian-Bale-rant-Terminator-director-McG-says-Im-to-blame.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0auwpvAU2YA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTihsJQHt48