Born This Way: Frank Pierson's "A Star is Born" (1976)

Every few decades, one remake emerges that defines the zeitgeist in some meaningful way. While there's only four versions of A Star is Born out there currently, they all have left a stamp on Hollywood and the music industries with scathing tales of fame, indulgence, and the power of creativity. Over the course of this week, Born This Way will be looking at the films, released between 1937 and 2018, and analyzing what makes each one special along with what they do right, what could be improved, and just a general celebration of all things glitz and glamour. You might want to take another look at this column, because it's something as timeless as film itself. Dive in and enjoy Hollywood's favorite franchise, which has earned 17 Oscar nominations, 2 wins, and an Honorary Award. There's few films like these, so catch them before they fade away.

Background

Release Date: December 17, 1976

Directed By: Frank Pierson

Written By: John Gregory Dunne & Joan Didion & Frank Pierson (Screenplay), William A. Wellman (Based on), Jonathan Axelrod & Jay Presson Allen & Alvin Sargent (Uncredited)

Starring: Barbra Streisand, Kris Kristofferson, Gary Busey

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 32% (see reviews here)

Oscar Wins: 1
-Best Original Song ("Evergreen (Love Theme From A Star is Born"))

Oscar Nominations: 6

-Best Cinematography
-Best Sound
-Best Adaptation Score

*Special Notes:

-First of the series to not receive an acting Oscar nomination.
-Lowest rated of the series based on Rotten Tomatoes reviews.
-Highest grossing of the series (to date*).
-Only film of the series to win in Best Original Song (to date).

*A Star is Born (2018) is a recent release and is subject to make more than the 1976 version's $80 million total box office gross. However, at time of publication, the film has grossed $65 internationally after one weekend meaning that it's likely to surpass the film fairly quick.

Introduction

Much like the 1954's response to the 1937 version, the real question of this franchise is where you could possibly go that's different and exciting? While the 1954 version proved that the story could shift genres and still hold vitality, director Frank Pierson and crew decided that the best way to update the story wasn't to tell the same old story in Hollywood, but the many rock arenas where musicians performed anthems to a generation that was way different from 23 years prior. They were more socially active, and the idea of women being independent household figures who made their own wages was a concept that made the older films look antiquated. There's a lot of brilliance in making a film amidst the New Hollywood movement of the 70's, at a time when cinema and culture changed so radically that the youth culture almost defined cinema. Even Pierson would write the bank heist masterpiece Dog Day Afternoon before taking this gig as his directorial debut. 

The issue with the shifting times is that there was also a better awareness of celebrities and the access to them was at times distressing. Everyone knew Barbra Streisand in 1976. She was a star by every idea of the word. However, she also came up in the time of the late 60's, when old Hollywood ways were still adored. She even performed opposite the previous A Star is Born lead Judy Garland on The Judy Garland Show. Her resume prior to 1970 was predominantly big stage musicals, which were far from popular by 1976 unless they were dark and subversive, i.e. Cabaret. Much like how the previous film was meant as a way for Garland to have a career comeback, Streisand was using the remake not only to update the film's gender politics, but also attempting to seem cool and chic to an audience that didn't believe she could. Add in the hairy rock star Kris Kristofferson, and you already had a pair that was far different from the accepted norms of the previous two.

One of the conflicts of the film is that its production history was a public mess. It didn't help that even Pierson wrote a scathing account of events prior to the film's release, claiming that something was missing. It didn't help that Streisand and producer Jon Peters received a notorious reputation during the filming for being controlling, and the film was deemed a mess. With all of that said, it's still the highest grossing film of the first three (in part due to inflation) and the soundtrack did spawn a series of hits for Streisand and Kristofferson. Even the fact that Bradley Cooper turned to Streisand and Kristofferson for help on the 2018 version at least suggests some reverence for the film that isn't often expressed. Still, it's the black sheep of the adaptations in spite of being one of the most radically unique and odd. Even the 2018 version falls back into something a tad more conventional compared to Pierson's final film, which may be for better but does it a disservice as standing out as something wholly unique of its predecessor.

"A Star...

John Norman Howard (Kris Kristofferson)

For the first time in the franchise's history, the protagonist (formerly Norman Maine) has a radical upgrade. He is a bearded musician who exudes sex and has a reckless streak a mile long. He even partakes in illegal drugs with a more casual nature than  previous versions. He is a rock star through and through, and to see him perform live gives him a sense of purpose and the audience a world of wonder. He sells out stadiums and gets the crowd to sing along to the many numbers he's created. Of the four iterations of this character, he is the only to not commit suicide - at least directly. He dies in a reckless car accident that results from reckless drinking following his downfall. Still, he's more of a collaborative partner to Esther Hoffman Howard than previous versions, helping her to craft songs that include the Oscar-winning number "Evergreen (Theme Song From A Star is Born)." This is a modern take that makes the most sense, if just because drunk rock stars is more accessible to a post-Vietnam War crowd than pretentious actors getting into fights at bars.

... is Born"

Esther Hoffman Howard (Barbra Streisand)

While the idea of a rock star male lead makes the most sense, the choice to shift Esther into a more independent woman was even smarter. While the 1954 film did wonders at establishing Vickie Lester as a committed performer, the 1976 take has one that defies a lot of the gender norms of the time, making her at times almost boyish and commanding in the relationship, reflecting the social changes of the time. She still performs music in clubs, meeting John one night after he gets into a fight at one of her shows. She is indulgent and extravagant, and everything that a 70's pop star would need to be. She's also not afraid at pushing boundaries sexually, finding ways to feminize the idea of masculinity with coy touches that are at times romantic and cute. She has the entire package in part because Barbra Streisand always did, and she makes it count until the very end during a performance dedicated to the energy of her late husband.

What This One Did Right

As mentioned prior, part of the charm of A Star is Born is how versatile the story is at its roots. So long as a career ascends and descends throughout the film, it could fit almost anywhere. However, the era of making direct adaptations of the film were dated. Classic Hollywood would be almost entirely dead by the late 70's, and the idea of focusing on washed-up actors wasn't a surefire premise anymore. The choice to make it fit the post-Vietnam War era of American culture was the greatest thing the film did. Also updating the character names, just slightly, was a nice touch. By making this edgier and with more erotic subtext, the film felt modern even when its self-indulgence was arguably isolating. By making it about musicians, it also allowed the film to compile its own original soundtrack and give Streisand a chance to do what she does best: perform.

The choice to also cast Kristofferson was equally inspired, most notably because part of the fun of these films is how the actors are vaguely interchangeable with the characters. It could be said of Judy Garland in the 1954 version, and it could be said here for Kristofferson: himself a rock star who likely had partied hard at points in his career and was even reported to have gotten actually drunk to improve his character's drug addiction scenes. He brought an authenticity to the film, and the fact that he was a fairly charismatic lead and romantic interest helped to solidify the idea of A Star is Born being reinvented as something more hip and cool for a generation that was less buttoned-up than their parents. As a whole, the idea of creating the story in this way allowed the franchise to take a new direction that worked, even if it came at the expense of being mostly a remake of the original in name alone, only ever tying into the film at a bare bones level.

A Few Issues

In some ways, the people involved were to blame for the film's issue from day one. As mentioned earlier, the Pierson op-ed piece detailed the many disputes that he had with Streisand and Peters throughout the making of the film. Peters wanted it to be big and bawdy, at one point wanting stuntman Evel Knievel to jump over a live crowd of extras. The issue was that grandeur clashed with the sensible updates that original writers Joan Didion and Gregory Dunne brought to the story. Streisand had her own idea of what the film would be, and Pierson often disagreed. Even Kristofferson at a point was getting tired of the film's many problems. There was a lot of in-fighting, and it's a miracle that the final film looked half as good as it did. However, whatever issues were done behind the scenes showed on the screen - including Streisand's inability to open up emotionally with her co-star during key scenes. This would explain why she wore lavish outfits in the desert, Sex and the City 2-style, and at another point sang in vivid close-up for eight solid minutes. There was no desire to make the film faithful. Didion and Dunne hadn't even seen the original films before writing their story (making it already a bit shoehorned in), and the studio didn't care if the film was great. While all of the remakes are technically ego driven, this one is the rare time that it could be seen as a terrible detriment to the entire project.

Best Moment

For as goofy as the whole film can be, there was still a charm to the central relationship at points. It's a bit difficult to imagine the film without such memorable scenes as a montage in which the two fall deeply in love. It's romantic, and most of all far more explicit in ways that the previous entries weren't. It's the true moment where the film separated itself from what was to come while giving a new blueprint for how intimate scenes played on film. If the scene feels a bit lifeless, there's still bizarre details that will at least give you a chance to wonder what the all-controlling Streisand was thinking when she filmed a bathtub scene where half of the candles in the shot are jammed into Schlitz beer cans. Yeah, it's pretty weird. Still, it reflects the odd form of charm that this film wants to have in ways that are more authentic than whatever else the plot does at times.

Connections and Similarities

While the story at the center is the same, the choice to go radically different from the previous entries makes it difficult to fully connect to the past. If anything, there are vague details throughout that are still there, such as the struggle with image and a play on the line "I just want to get another look at you." In that way, the film is very similar. However, the choice to switch from movie stars to rock stars makes few other connections as apparent, save for the update of names (Norman Maine is now John Norman Howard, and Esther Blodgett is Esther Hoffman Howard). Its only true connection to the 1954 version was that both featured an entirely original soundtrack that was indicative of the time, highlighting styles and themes through song in a meaningful way.

However, it's the future film that owes a lot of debt to the 1976 version. Among other reasons, the 2018 version's Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga are the only pair to collaborate with the prior film's cast and crew (this also includes a controversial co-produced credit to Jon Peters). The 2018 version received a lot of advice from Streisand and Kristofferson, including the filming of pivotal concert scenes during a Kristofferson gig. The 2018 version also follows more closely to the 1976 version than the other two, choosing to focus on the music industry and creating a story that at times feels like a slightly improved version. Even the way that the 1976 and 2018 version ends - with an emotional performance by the female protagonist - is extremely similar in ways that make it more than coincidental. While Gaga can arguably be playing someone other than Streisand, it does feel like Cooper is aping Kristofferson's style as well, making the similarities a bit more hard to not call out.

Differences

As mentioned constantly throughout, this is impossible to narrow down how the film is not different from its predecessors. It isn't about Hollywood, even if it stars an actress trying to change her public image. The singing is also diagetic, which will be a theme throughout all remakes. Everything else feels so different that it would take forever to entirely chronicle what changes were made. As mentioned, the Didion and Dunne script was written before they had even seen the other films. They had no context of making A Star is Born film. Instead, they sought to make a film about competing stars, which would've made for a more interesting film. However, constantly collaborations proved to be futile to the film. As fun as it was to turn it into a rock concert full of lavish style, it both embraced the silliness of the first two while also not fully getting the grittier version it was going for. This was going to be a dark and sexy take, and the film got that right. It's hard to think of this made any earlier than when it was made, and that's just the tip of how this film is entirely different from the original and 1954 remake.

Closing Remarks

As someone fairly new to the history of the making of A Star is Born films, it's hard to fully wrap my mind around what this film's impact was. It was a box office hit, the soundtrack sold millions, and it even earned an Oscar (something that not all versions can claim). However, it was also a bit baffling and slow as a film. It also wasn't the finest hour for Streisand as an actress, relying on some of the more bizarre choices that I have seen in her filmography. As a whole, I have issues seeing this intentional cash grab as anything but the story of how a franchise was almost persuaded to never be opened again. After all, the gap between the 1976 and 2018 version is the largest gap between remakes at 42 years. It could just be that there wasn't a great story to tell - though many have tried to get it off the ground. Still, the 1976 version has enough notoriety that it would take serious effort to not remind people of it, especially given that Streisand still remains as culturally vital as she did in 1976.

What I can give the film credit for is how it updated the entire landscape of A Star is Born. While the 1954 version will always remain my favorite, the choice to make a film about rock stars instead of actors feels like a decision that may have been nothing short of radical in 1976, but did the film justice in feeling relevant to a new generation. This is a franchise that adapts with the times, and Pierson's version definitely does that. I also think that Kristofferson is arguably one of the better male leads of the four, even if Streisand rarely proves to be as charismatic as Garland or Janet Gaynor. The film is fine, but the energy and ideas in the film are wild and curious enough that even if it's the worst of the group, it has a lot of fascinating details that will always make it worth checking out, even if some of them are solely as how not to make a vanity project.