A Star is Born Review

If you've been following my Facebook posts recently, you'll know that I've been having a very enjoyable experience diving into the legacy that is "A Star is Born." I heard about this remake quite early in the year, if not towards the end of last year, mostly because of it being Bradley Cooper's directorial debut. As far as acting goes, Bradley Cooper is one of the best in the business at the moment and I was very interested in seeing what magic he could conjure up from behind the camera. Admittedly I knew very little about the history of "A Star is Born" outside the fact that it had been made and remade a thousand times. Because of that, I knew that I wouldn't have been able to sit down and write a review of the movie until I had seen every version. And if I was going to commit myself to that, I knew I had to start with the first movie and move forward with my marathon in the order that the world received them, which is the way all movie marathons should go in my opinion. If someone hasn't seen Star Wars, don't start with "The Phantom Menace." Start with "A New Hope." Catch my vibe? If you were wondering why this specific review is late, that's why. I procrastinated the beginning of my "A Star is Born" marathon. But now it's complete and thus we dive in.

I joke around with there being a thousands version of this. In reality there's only four. And for the sake of this review, I'm going to completely ignore one of them and just talk about the three that matter. Because, I'm sorry, the Barbara Streisand version in 1976 is flat out awful. A complete embarrassment to the the two that came before it and this current one that followed. And I don't really care to elaborate on why because there's so much to talk about with the other three, so lets just agree to forget about it and move on. As pertaining to the other three, this was quite the incredible journey for me these past two weeks or so as each of these three movies impacted me emotional in very different, but similar ways. Knowing absolutely nothing of the plot when I pressed play on the 1937 movie, outside it revolves around the relationship between a male celebrity on the downfall and an unknown female about to rise to fame, my heart was taken through quite the wringer with the vast amounts of twists and turns that the movie had in store for me that I simply did not see coming. When the credits rolled, I was an emotional wreck as I was left sitting there pondering the deep themes that were explored in the film. I had to give myself some time after that.

I think the biggest reason why the experience was so emotional for me was the performance of Janet Gaynor as Esther Blodgett. She's able to capture a perfect innocence as this character who wants nothing more than to live out her dream of being a famous Hollywood actress, but yet her current situation to start off the movie has her coming from such a humble background where being a star in Hollywood is super realistic and none of her family believes that she can accomplish this. They try to talk her into something more realistic. Except for her grandma, of course. Grandma convinces her to follow her dreams and gives her a bit of cash to get her started. Thus in this sense, Janet Gaynor represents all of us as normal, common folk. We're able to put ourselves directly in her shoes as she sets out to attempt to live an impossible dream. When she's able to catch her lucky break and become a star, we as an audience remember who she was before her stardom, thus we see her as one of us who has successfully achieved her goal and it's so inspiring. But yet that's just the frosting on the cake. There's so many deep levels to this story, many of which are seen with Frederic March as Norman Maine, who is literally on the exact opposite side of the fence.

With this transition, we're going to jump right into the 1954 version because an alternate title to this movie could very well be "A Star Has Fallen. Norman Maine, in both movies, is a famous actor who has started to lose his touch, mostly due to alcoholism that is destroying his career. This shows the honest side of Hollywood. All we often see as the viewer are all the rainbows and butterflies regarding Hollywood, which is why we all think it would be such an amazing career path. "A Star is Born" does a great job in showcasing the dark side of Hollywood as this new couple struggle to co-exist as Esther now has gained superstardom, but Norman is struggling to maintain his sanity. The reason why I wanted to transition to the 1954 version here is that starring in this iteration is one Judy Garland, a beautiful angel who graced the world with her presence. We all love her as Dorothy in "Wizard of Oz." The more I watch her whole filmography, the more I realize how the immense talent and potential she had. But much like her co-star's character of Norman Maine, Judy Garland's personal life was full of demons that haunted her for entire life, to the point where she died of a drug overdose at the age of 49. Her life's story is a true tragedy, a sad example of what the movie presents.

Those are the duel themes that are discussed in all three proper iterations of this movie, which is why the story is so powerful as the movies try to present of balance of living out dreams while being careful with what your dreams are. You might want to be a famous actor. You might think that your boring, humble life is pathetic and meaningless if you don't become rich and famous. But perhaps in the long run, that normal lifestyle will be more healthy in the long run. Perhaps you can make a bigger difference in this world as a doctor, a teacher, or even a parent than you ever could as a celebrity. As far as nitpicks go, the 1937 movie was limited in scope due to the lack of technology available at the time, leading us to a lot more telling than showing. With the 1954 version, I think the director overcompensated a bit by putting together a three hour version of the movie that showed a bit too much as it could've been condensed. Which is why Warner Bros. panicked and cut 30 minutes out of the movie before releasing it to the public. That 30 minutes was eventually restored in the 1980's, but not before key moments of the film were permanently lost and had to be replaced with still images instead of a movie picture, making things a bit jarring.

All of that finally leads us to the current version of the movie, which is able to figuratively complete the story of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." While the 1937 version shows too little and the 1954 version shows too much, the 2018 version gets things just right. Thus on a technical scale, this 2018 is the best of the bunch. Be careful how you read that sentence, though. I'm not saying this is a better movie. I'm saying its the most balanced movie with the least amount of technical flaws. Thus I have to give major props to Bradley Cooper, first and foremost as a writer and director. I think he looked at all THREE movies that came before this one, especially the 1976 version that I'm ignoring, and cracked the code as to how to come up with the perfectly balanced version of this movie that best reflects society in 2018 when it comes to celebrity vs. common folk. His specific angle follows in the footsteps of the 1976 in that he's using the music industry, not Hollywood, as is focus to teach the same themes that were taught previously. But that's not all Bradley Cooper does here. In addition to writing and directing, he also stepped into the lead actor role as Jackson Maine (instead of Norman Maine), bringing musical expert Lady Gaga to star alongside him.

I really loved the careful attention to both characters in this movie. The movie doesn't lean to one or the other as our main character. Rather it's about both of them and their journey, rather than the journey of one individual who is helped along the way by someone else. Both actors do a fantastic job of carrying this movie together. First of all, props to Bradley Cooper again for his acting as he gives perhaps the most emotional and deep performance from a male actor that I've seen this year thus far. He's the broken one of the two as he's haunted by his demons of drugs and alcohol that are destroying his career and Bradley Cooper is excellent in his portrayal as the broken rock star. Speaking of which, he also does great in pulling off the appearance and persona of a rock star. He has the groove. He has the look. He has the personality. And, most impressively, he has the voice. Thus we have another major props to give to Bradley Cooper. Not only did he write, direct and act, but he also sang. And singing is not Bradley Cooper's main profession. I don't know how much experience and training he had prior to the movie, but he's able to successfully keep up with Lady Gaga, whose career is singing. Of course she outperforms him. But their duets are impressive.

Lady Gaga, on the other hand, had a completely different task in front of her. She's great at singing and at least equally as good with her live performances in front of a crowd. When we got to that part of the movie, it was easy to believe that she was a musical star because that's kinda what she does in real life. Her task, though, was to act, which is not her normal cup of tea. And not only that, she had to act as a normal, everyday individual who had no training as a professional musician. The only thing her character had going for her at the beginning of the film was her singing and songwriting talent, but she had no idea how to use that. I was actually really grateful that Bradley Cooper's script had special emphasis on her journey to becoming a star rather than immediately getting to that point because it gave Lady Gaga an opportunity to step out of her comfort zone. In an extremely impressive turn of events, she shines big time, showing that she might have a career as an actress if she wants it. In real life, "normal" isn't the word that is typically used to describe Lady Gaga. But normal is what she's able to present in this movie. I think she successfully is able to shred her Lady Gaga persona and become Stefani Germanotta.

As far as how the rest of the movie goes, there's not much I can say that I didn't already say when discussing the themes of the 1937 and 1954 versions. The themes here are the exact same, with the specific emphasis being on the modern musical industry. There's a lot of fascinating things the movie has to say about the latter that do properly reflect 2018, but the overall message is the same as each movie discusses the idea of celebrity status and the darkness that can be found therein that often doesn't come across on the surface level. We see the stars in TV, in the movies, in concert or hear them on the radio. But we often forget to consider their personal lives and that's where the iceberg analogy comes to mind. There's a lot more buried deep beneath the surface that we common folk never see. In that light, you could dock the movie some points for not being unique enough. If you've seen the previous versions of the movie, you know exactly what will happen in this 2018 remake. There will be no surprises. But I personally lean towards them not needing to be super different. It does exactly what it needs to do, and because it's executed so perfectly, it becomes one of those rare remakes that justifies its existence by hitting all the proper notes that it needed to.

In wrapping all of this up, I feel obligated to finish this review by selecting a favorite. That's where this gets hard. I think the 1937 is the most pure version. Since it's also the one I saw first, it's also the one that took me on the most crazy journey. However, I think the 1954 version is where the emotion is the strongest given the external factors with the tragedy that is Judy Garland's life. The 1954 version also gets a double-whammy in that the music is the best. The 1937 version isn't a musical. It was the 1954 version that introduced that. And as good as Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper are in a musical scale, neither of them light a candle to Judy Garland's vocal performances. The songs are also the most well-written in the 1954 version. However, as I said before, the 2018 is the most well-made movie on a technical scale. The emotion in the movie is high, but it doesn't quite hit the highs of the 1954 or 1937 version. And I'm not going to discuss the endings, but I give the slight edge the 1937 ending. And best individual male and female performances goes to Bradley Cooper and Judy Garland respectively. How to reconcile all that to pick a favorite? I don't know. You be the judge. As far as a grade, I'm obligated to give one to this current version and for that I'll go with a 9/10.