The original A STAR IS BORN hit screens in 1937. At the heart of the Hollywood-on-Hollywood tale is a love story. When I was a kid watching network TV shows about classic films, I learned that A STAR IS BORN had produced two famous scenes -- one has a humiliating disruption at the Academy Awards and the other is a heartbreaking scene of sacrifice at the Pacific Ocean. A STAR IS BORN also gave films a famous final line of dialogue. Those three elements were repeated in the faithful and masterful 1954 remake which added songs for the spectacular screen comeback of Judy Garland in the star role opposite James Mason under the direction of George Cukor. It was a rare case of a remake being just as good if not better than the classic original. Then came the 1976 non-classic and mostly hollow remake starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. The hollowness was due to new industry forces, not the talented stars. Movie-making had changed. New characters with big egos and little movie-making experience were now Hollywood producers. Streisand looked like a singing feminist C.P.A. who got booked to play Coachella. Her song, "Evergreen," was nice and so were the candles in the bathtub scene. In that remake, the action was moved from Hollywood soundstages to the modern-day rock scene with outdoor concerts. This new version, starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, puts us in the modern-day rock scene like the previous incarnation did. But it's not hollow. It has substance. There are two love stories at work in this version -- the one between the alcoholic country rock singer and the sweet rising star he's discovered is the first love story. The other is the love Bradley Cooper had for this project and his fellow cast members. His remake is of its time. I don't feel it's a modern-day classic, but his directorial debut is quite strong. So is his performance as Jackson Maine, the self-destructive rock artist. As a director who also stars in the film, Cooper shares the spotlight. The performance Lady Gaga gives under his direction is most impressive. In individual scenes and together, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper have scenes of emotional honesty that put tears in my eyes. Just as Streisand did with her remake, Lady Gaga could get an Oscar nomination for Best Song.
Today's version has a screenplay by Eric Roth, the man who wrote the FORREST GUMP screenplay and, to a degree, rewrote it as THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON. All the previous screenplays are acknowledged in the credits -- the 1937, the 1954 and the 1976 screenwriters get credits. The first thing that touched me the most in this version and made me gasp with delight in the movie theater is how many touches in this movie are little valentines to the Judy Garland remake. I'll point them out.
In the opening, we see Lady Gaga as Ally. The first two versions had a show biz hopeful named Esther Blodgett who will be discovered by Norman Maine, a famous but troublesome Hollywood actor (troublesome because of his drinking). The Hollywood studio that signs Esther to a standard contract will change her name to Vicki Lester. Vicki Lester will shoot to Hollywood stardom. Barbra Streisand was Esther Hoffman. Lady Gaga is Ally. We see her toiling in the food service business with an absolute jerk of a boss. She leaves work, walks down an alley singing to herself as the title A STAR IS BORN slow appears on the screen in large red letters -- large red letters just like in the Judy Garland version. Ally is singing the verse to "Over the Rainbow."
After a concert, drunk Jackson Maine is being driven in his limo. He's up for another drink. In the Hollywood area, he's recognized and wanders into the Bleu Bleu Room. It's a gay bar having a drag performer night. The Bleu Bleu Room is the name of the nightclub where Norman Maine (James Mason) finds Esther Blodgett (Judy Garland), the girl singer with a band who saves him from disgracing himself onstage in an all-star Hollywood benefit. In the Bleu Bleu club, he discovers that she has no idea of how truly talented she really is. In the after-hours joint, singing for herself and the boys in the band, Norman Maine sees that her show biz dream isn't big enough. She's a great singer who should be making movies instead of touring with a band.
What I loved about Bradley Cooper as Jackson Maine entering the Bleu Bleu Room was no wide-eyed astonished "Whoa! I'm in a gay bar!?!" macho hetero male reaction. He's relaxed. He feels safe. He has a drink and enjoys the show. The non-drag queen onstage is the food service lady with the jerk boss. The drag queens love her because she's got real talent. Ally sings "La Vie en Rose," wows the crowd and has a moment when she sees Jackson Maine. He has a moment too and goes backstage to meet her. She's attracted to him but, like Esther in the earlier versions, notices that the charming man drinks too much. When Judy Garland sings "The Man That Got Away," she's before a backdrop that's a rose blush while she's in a navy blue dress with Peter Pan collars. This is the imaginative color motif Cukor brought to his remake. Red signified fame, blue stood for the anonymous performer or ordinary person and brown was for the star as "civilian" offstage, as in married life. The rose blush behind Esther as she sings signifies that fame is on its way. Ally is onstage before a red curtain as she sings "La Vie en Rose."
When Norman Maine tells the dumbfounded Esther that she's a great singer, the camera shot has her framed so that red neon city lights in the background flicker above her head. She will be a star. The 3-color motif of Cukor's remake inspired the cinematography of Cooper's remake.
Andrew Dice Clay plays Ally's father. He is in this version what Tommy Noonan was, to a degree, in Garland's version. Ally isn't on the road in a bus with the boys in the band. She's got her single dad and their home is constantly filled with his male co-workers. They're all car service drivers constantly talking about famed vocalists such as Frank Sinatra. Like Tommy Noonan as Esther's confidante/music arranger and pianist, Ally's father believes in her talent but thinks Jackson Maine is just making a pass.
Sam Elliott as Bobby has some very emotionally raw scenes as Jackson Maine's longtime road manager who's also a family member. He is what Charles Bickford as the Hollywood studio head was in Garland's 1954 version. The head of the studio comes to hold Esther's talent and devotion very dear in his heart and he's grateful that Norman Maine discovered her. The studio head has known Norman for 20 years -- and he watched him drink for 20 years. That applies to Elliott's character in this A STAR IS BORN. There's a scene where the Sam Elliott and Bradley Cooper characters are in a car in a driveway. Jackson Maine, who has hit bottom and has sought help with his addictions, tearfully reveals some truths about himself to Bobby as he gets out of the car. He could get an Oscar nomination for that scene alone.
Rafi Gavron plays Rez, the record company executive who handles Ally and suggests that she change her hair to blonde, which she does not do. Think of how the Hollywood studio slapped a blonde wig onto Esther (Garland) and gave her a latex nose device plus overly glamorous make-up. All of this Norman Maine removed and returned Esther to her true self for her screen test in Cukor's A STAR IS BORN. Rez is the equivalent to the cynical studio publicist played by Jack Carson the 1954 remake and even by Lionel Stander in the 1937 original. (I've blocked much of the Streisand version out of my mind.) If you saw the 1954 version, remember when Norman Maine, fresh out of rehab, is publicly humiliated by publicist Matt Libby and Maine says, "Good work, Libby. Always wait till they're down then kick them"? That's how Rez is in this version.
Despite all the F-bombs and the brief nudity, there is still heart and poignancy in this 2018 remake. I'm not a prude, but there's one big missed opportunity for memorable, tender dialogue. One of my favorite scenes in the original and first remake is the terrace scene with Norman and Esther after the sneak preview of her film debut. It's beautifully done by Fredric March and Janet Gaynor in the original. It's also beautifully done by James Mason and Judy Garland in the first remake. The alcoholic fading star has fallen in love with his discovery. He's helped make her dream bigger. Now he must move on because he doesn't want to ruin her life they way he's ruined his. But she's fallen in love with him too. The revelation comes in the terrace love scene. In Cooper's remake, the terrace scene has "fuckin'" as an adverb or adjective too many times. A line like "You're a fuckin' star now" can't compare to the graceful dialogue in the first two versions. James Mason's Norman Maine tenderly takes his discovery onto the terrace after her sensational preview screening. They're at the studio party afterwards. He holds her hand, points to the gorgeous nighttime Hollywood panorama and proceeds to both congratulate and caution her: "It's all yours, Esther. And I don't mean just the Cadillacs and the swimming pools. It's all yours. In more ways than one. Don't let it change you. Don't let it take over your life. You're very dear." See what I mean? Screenwriter Eric Roth should've made his scene more like the one Moss Hart wrote for the 1954 remake. Less F-bombs.
In the original, Esther wants to be a film actress. She becomes one. In the two remakes, Esther is a singer who gets discovered. In this version, Jackson Maine is thrilled by Ally's talent as a songwriter in addition to her singing. Here, after she secures some major attention when Jackson brings the unknown talent onto the stage with him for a number, she gets a record deal, cuts an album and gets a musical guest spot on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. But she's allowed herself to be altered by corporate executives. Onstage with Jackson, there was a Bonnie Raitt, if you will, earthiness to her singing and her songwriting. Now she's a redhead (red = fame) and dressed like Britney Spears with unnecessary back-up dancers. She's another pop diva in a sexy outfit singing about a sexy guy. She's a hit, but Jackson wants her to return to the way she was … the way he saw her in the drag queen dressing room without her make-up.
The famous Oscar speech disruption scene has been moved to the Grammys, like in the Streisand version. Here, we get another valentine to the Garland version. Ally has red hair and she wears a gold dress, as Garland does in her final scene to proclaim the famous last line of the film, "This is... Mrs. Norman Maine."
Earlier, as Esther, now Oscar winner Vicki Lester, shoots a jazzy production number for another sunny musical, she's immersed in the dark side of the Hollywood dream. She loves Norman but his drinking and unemployment are taking an emotional toll on their marriage. The colors of her costume represent the balance she tries to keep of her three identities Esther Blodgett (blue) Vicki Lester (red) and Mrs. Norman Maine (brown).
In the last act, we see a lot of Jackson trying to kick his addictions while dealing with jealousy over Ally's rise to stardom and his hunger to see her return to her roots. Cooper gives a soulful performance. We see all of Jackson's vulnerability, pain and love in his eyes. In the first two versions, we know that Maine drinks but we aren't really told why. We do see the show biz jolts that wound his ego and make him drink. Also, we don't know about his life before stardom. In this remake, we learn all about Jackson Maine's unhappy upbringing and when he started drinking. We learn that in detail. However, A STAR IS BORN is foremost about the woman who becomes a star and gets more than she ever dreamed of, more happiness and more heartache. We watch to see if she'll survive the light and dark of her dream come true. The last act veers and becomes more Jackson's story. Moss Hart's screenplay for the Garland remake/comeback stayed focused on a theme that George Cukor embraced. Cukor gave us stories about a dreamer and showed us how the dreamer handles life after the dream comes true. Look at his A STAR IS BORN or A DOUBLE LIFE with Ronald Colman as the stage actor who finally gets to play Othello, IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU with Judy Holliday as reality TV celebrity Gladys Glover, Judy Holliday and Aldo Ray as the young newlyweds who thought saying "I do" automatically meant happily ever after and now seek a divorce in THE MARRYING KIND and Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle, determined to move from raggedy to regal in MY FAIR LADY. Bradley Cooper is new at directing and hasn't settled on themes yet. This is his first film.
In this A STAR IS BORN, we don't get the Oscars scene and we don't get the famous Pacific Ocean sacrifice scene. But, like in Cukor's version, the last scene takes place in the Shrine Auditorium. The 1954 version comes full circle. It opens with a scene onstage at The Shrine and it ends with a scene onstage at The Shrine.
Cooper's version ends with Ally, back to her original self and now a widow, singing a number after she introduces herself to the audience. She should've worn a gold gown here and the camera should have stayed on Ally for the entire number the way Cukor kept the camera on Judy Garland as she dynamically sang "The Man That Got Away." Gaga was compelling enough to hold your attention and her song, "I'll Never Love Again," is a powerful number. The original was directed by William Wellman. Cooper's remake can't eclipse Cukor's stunning 1954 remake but it sure does eclipse the 1976 remake directed by Frank Pierson.
Lady Gaga is the first woman to take the female lead role in A STAR IS BORN without already being an established film star. Janet Gaynor was the first woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress. That came for her sterling work in silent screen classics. A STAR IS BORN brought another Best Actress Oscar nomination. Judy Garland had reigned as queen of the MGM musicals through the 1940s after her star-making performance in 1939's THE WIZARD OF OZ. Her musical and dramatic skills in 1954's A STAR IS BORN brought her a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Barbra Streisand had a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in 1968's FUNNY GIRL by the time she played Esther in 1976's A STAR IS BORN. Gaga makes her big screen debut in this A STAR IS BORN. She's at the same age Janet Gaynor and Judy Garland were when they made A STAR IS BORN. Early 30s. Barbra was a couple of years older.
Overall, this film is entertaining and touching. Especially the marvelous first hour of it. Congratulations, Bradley Cooper. Your film could've been called A DIRECTOR IS BORN.
The Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand and Lady Gaga A STAR IS BORN remakes were all released by Warner Brothers. Jon Peters is credited as a producer in the 1976 and 2018 films. Click on the link to see a short trailer for Barbra Streisand version:
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