A Star is Born (1976)

Starring: Barbra Streisand, Kris Kristofferson, Gary Busey, Oliver Clark, Venetta Fields
Directed by: Frank Pierson
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Musical, Romance
1976

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: An aging rock star (Kris Kristofferson) discovers a young talent (Barbra Streisand) who he believes has what it takes to be a star.

Review:

Tim: I have to admit, I was really looking forward to 1976's A Star is Born. I liked the 1937 original, and the 1954 remake improved on that one. This version looked like it put a nice twist on the story- I loved the move from actors to musicians, plus it was nominated for 4 Academy Awards, winning one. It felt like these remakes were on an upward trajectory. But, then I watched the movie. I suppose this film is admittedly decent. And yet, it's also the least effective of the three films. This was not what I expected. It's disappointing to say the least.

Out of the three versions of this film, I felt the least amount of emotional connection with these characters. That makes no sense, because this movie is 2 hours and 19 minutes long. That might not be as long as the 1954 version, but that film had a ton of musical numbers that inflated the run time. This movie is overly long and in all that time, it can't give us compelling enough characters. I felt a sense of disconnection from them. The movie didn't give me a reason to care about them or invest in their story. That makes a long movie feel even longer. I know this is achievable, because both earlier versions did a better job than this one did.

I have to admit, I'm scratching my head about Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. Both have talent, yet somehow I never bought them together. I don't think they had any sense of real chemistry. Their performances felt forced. I didn't believe their relationship was authentic for a second. It's strange, because when I think about Streisand or Kristofferson individually, I thought they both gave decent performances. However, when I think about them playing off each other, it didn't do it for me. If I couldn't give them equal blame, I might ding Streisand a bit more. Kristofferson felt authentic as a world weary rock star. I wasn't buying the innocent, wide-eyed novice from Streisand. She seemed too experienced, too comfortable in her performance. She feels authentic when she sings, but her acting didn't quite do it for me. As a whole, though, these two didn't do nearly well enough, especially in relation to each other. I did read that Streisand clashed with the director- it did feel like behind-the-scenes drama contributed to the final product here. I was excited to see Gary Busey here, but he really is an afterthought. It was discouraging that he didn't have more to do. The rest of the cast felt fairly generic.

I really didn't care for the music in this film, which is an issue when music is central to the entire film. The songs happen, but they weren't especially memorable or catchy. That feels strange to say because the movie's one Academy Award came for Best Original Song for "Evergreen". I'm literally listening to it again as I type this, and I think it's a fine song. I'm not sure there is anything especially wonderful about it. The movie doesn't fully leverage this song- it doesn't weave it into the soul of the film. I'm honestly a bit surprised it won the Academy Award, although I know it received a lot of acclaim when the movie was released and later, too. As a whole, the music as a whole felt bland to me.

The big conclusion was spiritually similar to the previous movies, but it took on a new form here. I actually appreciated the changes to this scene. It was well-shot and dramatic. Unfortunately, as soon as Streisand shows up, things grind to a halt. The movie feels like it goes on forever after this high point and it's not all impactful. Streisand sings a lengthy song after and her vocals are great, but I have to admit I was ready for the film to be over.

Now, I really didn't hate this version of A Star is Born. It was a perfectly decent movie. The issue comes when you're the second remake of a film and you botch it. Out of the three versions of this story, this is the worst one. An Academy Award win is great, but this movie absolutely should have been better.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: A Star is Born (1937), A Star is Born (1954)