sarahallen1005 Terrible. Really awful. I'm wondering why and how Barbra Streisand and a hairdresser/wanna be producer even had a relationship to create such crap, but it's out there. Just another reason Hollywood hates Jon Peters.

kapelusznik18 **SOME SPOILERS** Very likely the schmaltziest of the three or is it four versions of the movie "A Star is Born" has super rock star John Norman Howard, Kris Kristofferson, self destruct right before our eyes as his old lady or wife Esther, Barbara Streisand, rises to to top of the pop music world without as much as breaking into a sweat or note. John who already was on the way down when he met Esther as a member of a bi-racial womens singing trio "The Oreos" and discovered as well as later married her while he was still sober. Before the poor and suffering from the DT's John knew it Esther became the biggest hit in the world of music with him becoming a helpless drunk and speed freak.Despite her amazing success Esther still stuck by her man John and did her best to get him back on his feet and wagon but his pride just got in the way. The final straw was when John found semi nude "Rolling Stone" reporter Queint,Marta Heflin, taking a dip in his swimming pool who asked him for an exclusive interview. It's when a shocked Esther found John and Quint buff a** naked in bed and under the covers she blew a fuse and practically kicked him out of the house. What really ticked off the outraged Esther is just how the drugged out looking Quint acted as if there was nothing wrong in being in bed with John as she was interviewing him. John who by now had lost all his self respect and dignity continued to make a complete fool of himself in public at the expense of his wife Esther by falling down drunk at an award "The Grammies" show that his wife Ester was invited as a guest speaker. Drunk disorderly and and out of control a semi conscious and smashed out of his skull John in the end let it all go and went along with it. Taking a drive in the desert with his hopped up red sport car that in it going over 100 MPH overturned and killed him.Unlike in the other versions of the movie where the husband ends it all by walking nude into the Pacific Ocean and drowning himself in here he took the land or scenic route to do himself in so to keep from getting himself wet and not having his body washed away out at sea. In fact John's death unlike the previous movies was more like and accident instead of a suicide which made it less, for what it's worth, tragic.A devastated Esther who had since made up with her drunk and philandering husband John came back out of hiding to belt out a song at a memorial for her late husband who's singing brought the roof down as well as caused her to suffer what seemed like a major emotional as well as psychical breakdown. As Esther struggling to regain her composer seemed to lose it on the stage as well as at times forget the lyrics of the song she was singing! With her turning all the colors of the rainbow as the movie ended in an eerie freeze frame before she was given any sort of medical attention. Despite the movie's many faults it turned out to be one of the top money makers of 1976 doing some 80 million dollars in ticket sales.Which showed just how powerful Barbara Streisand's star power was even when she was given a turkey of a role as well as movie to perform in.

mark.waltz Having seen the Janet Gaynor/Fredric March dramatic 1937 classic many times and the Judy Garland/James Mason musical 1954 masterpiece also quite a few, I went into my viewing of this (my second time, and first in many years) a bit cynical. I proved my cynicism to be part wrong but mostly right. But what I realized why this version has no real impact is that the title implies something that really doesn't work. The two stars have fantastic chemistry, Streisand allows herself to go low down (even into the mud), and the movie does take you into the wild world of rock. The problem is that I never believed Kris Kristofferson to be a rock star even though it was obvious that he was emulating a few performers of the time. This is sort of the "Mahogany" of the rock world, like "The Eyes of Laura Mars" was of the photography world. Then, there is the problem with Streisand. She is way too big to be believable as a nobody when Kristofferson first meets her in some Los Angeles dive and takes her under his wing. Even though Garland's talent was big, she was able to transcend the fact that her version of Esther Blodgett had not yet been lucky. Lacking Garland's vulnerability, Streisand's Esther Hoffman seems like someone who by her mid 30's should have been doing live concerts in Central Park like "Mahogany's" Miss Ross.So the beginning of the film does really stretch the line of credibility, but once Streisand's rise begins, she begins to become a bit more believable. What I see here in Streisand as compared to her earlier performances and more recent film work is a desire to command focus. This was also apparent in the previous year's "Funny Lady" where a lot of the heart was missing from her Oscar Winning performance in "Funny Girl". The intensity of Streisand's drive really works in the dramatic scenes, and there are some adorable romantic moments between Kristofferson and Streisand that inject comedy into the romance. I just can't believe either character lighting dozens of candles to place around the huge bathtub in their desert home before their love scene, nor did I feel any emotion at the end where Kristofferson takes drastic steps to ensure his wife's future.A better title for the film could simply have been "Evergreen", the title of the Oscar Winning song that describes the romance between the two. This version becomes more like "A Star is Delayed". In a sense, too, I have to also call this version a mistake, not only because of much of the mediocrity and the multiple feelings the film makes an attempt to express, but there is something cutthroat about the world of rock music where this obvious build-up to soap opera just doesn't make you really want to care about the characters. That world would be much better explored a few years later when Bette Midler got ahold of it and played a performer much like Janis Joplin in "The Rose". Its total lack of sentiment actually made you care more about her; In this "A Star is Born", it feels too forced, and left me cold.

Isaac5855 Barbra Streisand brought her own vision to A STAR IS BORN, the third version of this classic Hollywood story about the romance between an up and coming star and her alcoholic husband whose career is fading into oblivion. Streisand put her own stamp on this movie, making the story more acceptable to her and more accessible to 1970s film audiences. She changed the setting of the story from films to the world of music, making her Esther Hoffman a struggling singer who is discovered by an alcoholic, self-destructive rocker named John Norman Howard (Kris Kristofferson)who grooms her for stardom while his own career falls apart. We all know this story and have seen either of the previous versions and some were unsettled by the fact that in this version, John Norman doesn't commit suicide, he is killed in a car accident instead, taking away a lot of the power of the story. The point of the original story is that the actor sacrifices his own life so that his wife won't give up the career she's worked so hard for. One of the most amusing parts of the original and 1954 versions is the whole episode about Esther changing her name so it looks better on a marquee. Here, our feminist heroine, Esther Hoffman, refuses to change her name and for me, this small but vital plot points diluted a lot of the power of this story. This production is overblown and uneven. It should be understood that Streisand was just on the edge of insanity while making this film. She was involved at the time with future film producer Jon Peters, who was running her career and her life. Peters butted heads with leading man Kristofferson as well as credited director Frank Pierson, who pretty much directed this film in name only...Streisand and Peters had the last word on everything regarding this film, much to its detriment, due mainly to Streisand's complete trust in Peters, who really knew nothing about film-making at this time. But no matter what else she does, this movie comes alive whenever Streisand sings. Highlights for me were "Queen Bee", "Woman in the Moon", "With One More Look at You" and, of course, the Oscar-winning "Evergreen." With all the hats she was wearing while making this film, needless to say, Streisand was not very focused on her performance here, which can be described, kindly, as uneven. Kristofferson, in a role originally offered to Elvis Presley, is strong and surprisingly sexy as John Norman Howard and Gary Busey also scores as John Norman's manager. For hard-core Streisand fans only.