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Released by: Warner Brothers
Released on: February 5, 2013.
Director: Frank Pierson
Cast: Kris Kristofferson, Barbara Streisand, Gary Busey, Paul Mazursky
Year: 1976
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The Movie:
The first version of A Star Is Born was made in 1937 and it starred Janet Gaynor and Frederic March. Then in 1954 it was made with Judy Garland and James Mason. By the time 1976 rolled around, movie fans were familiar with the story and so it was updated to reflect the current climate by director Frank Pierson who an increasingly popular Barbara Streisand alongside a then very well established Kris Kristofferson in the two leading roles.
The film introduces us to John Norman Howard (Kristofferson), an aging rock star whose career has really started to slide downhill in recent times. He's bitter and cynical and it's obvious to everyone around him that the show business lifestyle has seriously harmed him in more ways than one, much to the dismay of his manager, Brian (Paul Mazursky). His life changes one day when he meets a young woman named Esther Hoffman (Barbara Streisand). She makes a meager living singing in clubs and John takes an instant liking to her. They hit it off and he takes her under his wing, and as they start to fall in love, her career starts to take off while his sinks ever further and he falls inside a bottle.
What a mixed bag this movie is. First off, it's very well acted. There's a shot towards the end of the movie where the camera focuses just on Streisand and, whether you're a fan or not (personally I can't stand her) you have to admire the talent and dedication she shows to the role. She sings here like her life depends on it and the camera loves her. Kristofferson, likewise, is very good on his part. Given his background and his penchant for hard living, he's well cast and anyone who has seen any of his seventies films already knows that the guy can act. The fact that he can handle the musical side of the movie as well is also a big plus. Throw in a young Gary Busey, before he went completely nuts and became the bizarre self parody that he is today, and you've got a pretty solid group to work in front of the camera.
How then is it that Streisand is, in some ways, completely miscast? When we first see her character singing in the dingy nightclub flanked on either side by two beautiful black women (Venetta Fields and Clydie King; they call themselves the Oreos - subtle, right?) we don't see Esther Hoffman, we see Barbara Streisand. She's a little too well ingrained in the public mind to be able to make the change the way that we need her to in order to buy her in the part. On top of that, when she invites Howard back to her place after they meet that night in the club, this struggling night club singer lives not in a low rent studio apartment but a rather huge, spacious, well decorated abode that it would seem impossible for her to afford. Right away, very early on in the picture, the believability factor of the film is starting to crack, and it goes from there.
As their relationship barrels through the film like a rocket, they're in love. Immediately and completely and without the need to get to know one another. It happens as fast as possible, or more likely, faster than possible, but it happens and it sets up what we know is going to happen for the rest of the movie - conflict. Conflict between the up and comer and the man on the way down, the woman who is getting it all together and about to take on the world and the older man who can't help but hide his career troubles in cocaine and whiskey. The connection we need to make this conflict reality, however, never surfaces, maybe because there was an all too real conflict on the set between Streisand and director Frank Pierson (who would famously write a tell all article about his experiences with her published just before the film hit theaters - this didn't stop it from doing huge box office, however).
So why watch the movie? Well, the concert scenes are really good. Kristofferson is a natural on stage and he seems to be more or less playing himself here. He suits the part well and you can't help but like the guy even as he's killing himself with booze and drugs and obviously dealing with some serious hardships in absolutely the wrong manner. And Stresiand is Streisand. If you like her music you'll like what she brings to the part. On a visual level the movie is well made. The concert scenes feel epic and huge and the more intimate moments that are shared between the leads have some nice warmth to them, the kind of warmth that should have meant something but never really can. The editing is excellent and the camerawork never less than top notch, which makes it all the more of a wasted opportunity when you come back to the fact that as an audience, we really just can't 'get it.'
Video/Audio/Extras:
A Star Is Born looks very good on Blu-ray from Warner Brothers in AVC encoded 1080p high definition framed at 1.78.1 widescreen. This is a pretty nice transfer with a nice amount of natural looking film grain present. Detail is generally very, very strong and this would seem to be an accurate and very film like representation of the source material while color reproduction feels very right here. There are no issues with heavy noise reduction or edge enhancement and compression artifacts are nowhere to be seen. Though there are some scenes that lean towards softness, mostly the live concert scenes shot under different lighting, that can be added up to the way that the movie was shot. Black levels are rock solid, and all in all, the movie really looks excellent in high definition.
The English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track is also pretty good. The concert scenes have some nice depth to them, crowd noise filling the rear channels nicely with the music up front. Dialogue is about as clear as you'd hope it could be, and though there are a few spots where the line delivery is maybe a little mumbled that's more to do with the cast than the disc. The levels are well balanced and there are no issues with hiss or distortion to note. Dolby Digital Mono tracks are offered in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech and Polish while subtitles are provided in English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German SDH, Italian SDH, Czech, Korean and Polish.
Streisand is all over the extras on this disc while Kristofferson is nowhere to be found. Supplements kick off with Streisand's commentary over the feature which starts off pretty strongly and then starts to fade. To her credit, this was recorded a few decades after the movie was made, so you can't fault her for not remembering every last detail about every last scene but the first half or so has got a lot of information about her involvement in the film, her thoughts on the movie, and her relationships with the various cast and crew members involved in making the movie - though she doesn't have much to say about director Frank Pierson.
Aside from that, we get three minutes of wardrobe test footage with optional commentary from Streisand and sixteen minutes of deleted and alternate footage also available with optional commentary from Streisand.
Rounding out the extras are three different trailers for the feature, menus and chapter selection. This disc is packaged inside a Digibook that includes some liner notes and essays on the film and its history. All of the extras on the disc are in standard definition.
The Final Word:
Interesting and well made, if fairly flawed, A Star Is Born works more as a weird curiosity item and a definite product of the mid-seventies than anything else. With that said, Kristofferson fans, or (gulp) Streisand buffs will want to give it a shot just to see their work here, while Warner Brothers are to be commended for giving the film an excellent Blu-ray release.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
