To Die For?

You're not anybody in America unless you're on TV. On TV is where we learn about who we really are. Because what's the point of doing anything worthwhile if nobody's watching? And if people are watching, it makes you a better person. – Suzanne Stone Maretto

This quote is one of my favorite, from the 1995 film To Die For starring Nicole Kidman as Suzanne Stone Maretto. The film tells the story of a woman who’s whole life is defined by the mass media and the quest for fame.
Suzanne marries Larry Maretto in hopes that he will be able to support her while she strives to achieve her dream of becoming a famous reporter. She is so focused on her career that she only agrees to go on a honeymoon so that she can attend a conference for reporters. She meets some people who imply that she can trade sexual favors for a job.
When she returns home, she begins working at a local news station and tells her viewers she is in the “weather center” which is obviously a figment of her imagination, as the small station obviously can not afford a state of the art weather center. It is my belief that she only says this because she wants to appear more successful and professional.
Her husband Larry wants her to stop focusing on her career but she cant. She literally lives and breathes her career in her desire to become famous. When she cooks for her in-laws she chooses a celebrity recipe that she got out of a magazine.
At first it seems like Suzanne’s obsession with fame is cute and that she is just a very simple person who dreams of being famous. However, as the movie continues, her obsession grows. She preys on a group of high school students and begins to make a documentary called “teens speak out”
She befriends Lydia, Russel and Jimmy, three of the poorer students in the class. She starts hanging out with them a lot and even sleeps with Jimmy. Her husband is unhappy that she is spending so much of her time and energy on work and desperately wants her to slow down and start a family. Suzanne does not want to get pregnant because it would ruin her career. She coerces the teenagers to kill her husband Larry.
She does achieve a level of fame through Larry’s death and she plays the part of grieving widow perfectly. She does all of the on camera interviews in this persona, but then when the camera stops rolling she goes back to being the cold, cruel woman she obviously is, only interested in getting her 15 minutes of fame.
The Irony, in the end is that Lydia is the one who will become famous for telling her part of the story. Lydia says at the end that Suzanne would be so pissed if she ever found out. Suzanne always thought Lydia was ordinary at best, and downright trailer trash at worst. It probably would have killed her to know Lydia became famous (Im sure she is hypothetically rolling in her grave.)
One day Suzanne gets a call to meet someone about her tapes. This person is a part of the Mafia and was hired by the Maretto’s to kill her. He burries her under a layer of ice as a metaphor for how cold and calculating she is.
I think that this film comments on how ingrained the mass media is in our society and uses Suzanne Stone’s character as a symbol for American culture. While she may be a exaggeration, I think there is some truth to the point that this film makes. In one scene she says “Its nice to live in a country where life, liberty…and the rest of it still stand for something.” She obviously has no idea what “the rest of it” is but she can tell you what kind of car is the best, what fashions to wear, what foods to buy etc. These are the things that are important to her, and roll off her tongue with ease. Whereas. History, politics and literature don’t even register with her.
I also like the title To Die For, it is almost as if it is an implication that you have to die to become famous. Larry died and gave Suzanne a little bit of fame, then when Suzanne died she got even more famous and also made Lydia famous…