Beautiful Ruins

In addition to telling the story of multiple people united by their shared states of desire, Beautiful Ruins exposes the dark underbelly of the film industry. The Hollywood of Beautiful Ruins is not a glittering cinematic wonderland where everyone has a shot to be the next big star; it is an ugly place where people cannibalize each other in order to get ahead and then hide their ruthlessness and debauchery under a veneer of glamour. Walter writes Beautiful Ruins as a glimpse at the terrifying impact the cinema industry and celebrity culture have on actors and moviegoers.

Hollywood’s potential for evil can best be seen in Michael Deane’s heinous actions. He sees Richard Burton’s and Elizabeth Taylor’s relationship as an opportunity to save Cleopatra and prove himself as a publicist. He sends the paparazzi to invade the stars’ privacy and put “Liz and Dick in every newspaper in the world” (246). Richard Burton chafes from “flashbulbs everywhere…priests with cameras in their cassocks […] gossip columns jumping every time we have a bloody cocktail” (175) and falls into alcoholism and having sexual intercourse with Dee. Michael Deane does not care for Richard Burton’s wellbeing so long as the movie gets publicity. Richard Burton’s negative coping skills only become an issue for Michael Deane when Dee becomes pregnant. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s relationship sells; Richard Burton and Dee’s relationship is a scandal that threatens sales. Michael Deane lies to Dee and moves her and Richard Burton to different locations as though they are pawns on a chessboard instead of people. Worse yet, Michael Deane bribes Dee to get an abortion or lose her career. Fifty years later, he tries to buy Pat’s life rights and, metaphorically, his soul so that he can make millions off of the secret of Pat’s biological paternity and his debauch past. In the end feels as though he “invented celebrity” (253), but he “completely fucked with [Dee’s and Pat’s] lives” (321). Michael Deane’s choice in using Donner! as his tenth bad pitch is ironic since Michael Deane’s exploitation of other human beings is a form of metaphorical cannibalism.

Superficiality is one of Hollywood’s most prominent sins. The film industry and celebrity culture put a detrimental amount of stock in appearances and looking good. Casting crews and production personnel judge people’s worth by how they look. Those who have a certain look and are a certain age will prosper in the business while others fade away. Dee feels the urge to lie about her age in order to be cast, and Michael Deane spends millions on cosmetic surgeries for both his wife and himself to stay young and beautiful enough to be relevant in Hollywood. The push for perfect physical appearances disregards personality and authenticity and corrupts the soul.

The film industry and celebrity culture of the 1960s hurt actors by generating expectations for them that they must follow or else they lose their career and/or prominence. In Chapter 15, Michael Deane explains this phenomenon: “It’s easy to see now. In this world of fall and redemption and fall again. Of comeback after comeback. Of carefully released home sex tapes. But no one had thought this way before. Not about movie stars! These were Greek gods. Perfect beings. When one of them fell it was forever. Fatty Arbuckle. Dead. Ava Gardener? Done” (246). From this quote, the reader can glean that the Old Hollywood in Beautiful Ruins is initially a place where movie stars are expected to be “perfect beings” whereas modern movie stars are expected to make “comeback after comeback.” Expectations change, but they hold power over actors. An actor, or any celebrity, is expected to follow some sort of archetype in order to do well in the business and please not just the industry and the paparazzi but the fans as well.

The film industry and celebrity culture hurt moviegoers just as much as they hurt celebrities. Through their films, the cinema industry influences the audience’s perceptions of reality, making moviegoers expect their lives to be like the movies. In this way, the industry holds power over the audience like a divine authority. In addition, celebrity culture corrupts moviegoers by making them more prone to gossip and superficial judgements. This is made evident when Pasquale hears women reading a celebrity magazine on a train say things such as “Bridget Bardot? She is beautiful now but she will be fat” (113) and “[Elizabeth Taylor] can’t be common with those eyes” (114). Celebrity magazines warp readers’ value systems and cause readers to privilege appearances over all else. Celebrity culture also feed moviegoers’ dark desire to see scandal or death, as seen by the clamor around Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor’s affair and Reticents fans’ disappointment in seeing Pat alive after years of active addiction. Walter suggests that the cinema industry and the celebrity culture that grows around it are somewhat responsible for the worst of modern America’s values.

Beautiful Ruins captures Hollywood in the skeevy act of ruining the lives of the stars on the set and the millions who clamor to watch them on the silver screen.