{"id":16389,"date":"2022-07-13T17:39:21","date_gmt":"2022-07-13T21:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=16389"},"modified":"2026-09-16T10:48:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T14:48:17","slug":"a-star-is-born-1976","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=16389","title":{"rendered":"A Star Is Born-1976"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Star Is Born-1976<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Frank Pierson<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Barbra Streisand, Kris Kristofferson<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #1,276<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed July 13, 2022<\/p>\n

Grade: B<\/strong><\/p>\n

Four incarnations of A Star Is Born: 1937, 1954, 1976, and 2018.<\/p>\n

Strangely enough, the most recent film starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga is worlds above the others, though I haven’t seen the 1937 version yet.<\/p>\n

The fourth time is rarely the charm in film remakes.<\/p>\n

This review, however, focuses largely on the 1976 film starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.<\/p>\n

A hit movie at the time, yet despised by some, the film is perfectly fine, though it bears multiple rewatchings and is inferior to the 2018 film.<\/p>\n

There is no question about that.<\/p>\n

Amazingly, it was nominated for four Academy Awards and deservedly won for Best Song. The other nominations are generous.<\/p>\n

Watching A Star Is Born circa 2022, the 1976 version suffers from a dated tone, mostly because of the jaw-droppingly hideous perm hairdo Streisand wears.<\/p>\n

Did somebody think it was flattering in 1976?<\/p>\n

The chemistry between Streisand and Kristofferson starts tepid but intensifies as the film plods along.<\/p>\n

The ending is underwhelming, and I expected more emotional pizzazz than I got, leaving me with a almost ‘so what’ reaction to a devastating turn of events.<\/p>\n

Until that is, Barbra sings her heart out in one unbroken, gut-wrenching shot of seven or eight minutes.<\/p>\n

For those unfamiliar, the story surrounds John Norman Howard (Kristofferson), a troubled rock star on the decline, frequently indulging in excessive drug use and drinking and trying to write hit records.<\/p>\n

He drunkenly wanders into a club one night and watches aspiring singer Esther Hoffman (Streisand) perform, and is instantly smitten. The two begin dating, and soon John lets Esther take the spotlight during his concerts.<\/p>\n

However, even as Esther finds fame and success with her singing, John continues his downward spiral.<\/p>\n

Let’s face it. The main draw is who is playing the lead roles in a film like A Star Is Born. To make a love story work, it needs sizzling chemistry so the audience is invested in the romance.<\/p>\n

Streisand commands the center stage, and her singing is the selling point.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, Ms. Streisand suffers another bout of miscasting as she did in 1969’s Hello, Dolly. She’s too talented and established to be believable as an aspiring singer.<\/p>\n

Her singing saves the film.<\/p>\n

The gorgeous song “Evergreen” is quite a powerful moment and a great strength. Without it, the film would have felt lacking and mediocre.<\/p>\n

The tune raises the overall experience a notch.<\/p>\n

The chemistry is merely the warm-up act. It’s ho-hum until a smoldering bathtub scene occurs where John and Esther soap each other down and fall madly between the sheets for a night of passion.<\/p>\n

It’s Streisand’s sexiest scene, and the romance takes off.<\/p>\n

Back to Streisand’s vocals, the scene is preceded by a gorgeous songwriting sequence at the piano, as John and Esther craft a new song. As they collaborate, a connection and bond form between the characters.<\/p>\n

Those are the romantic highlights.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, the scene in which John becomes infatuated with Esther lacks appeal, since he is drinking and arguing with another patron and barely has time to notice her.<\/p>\n

This thankfully changed in the 2018 version, when John is mesmerized\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>by the rising talent.<\/p>\n

Additionally, when John invites Esther to his concert and she watches from backstage, nothing happens. In the 2018 version, he drags her out to perform with him, and it’s a moment.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Some films are best reviewed on their own merits, but what great fun to compare renditions of the same film, because why not?<\/p>\n

The supporting characters have little to do except for an impressive turn by Gary Busey as John’s drug-pushing manager.<\/p>\n

There is little reason to watch A Star Is Born (1976) more than once, or at most twice, to confirm that the film falls a bit flat.<\/p>\n

It’s not terrible, but hardly memorable unless the desire is to giggle over an incredibly bad 1970s hairstyle by one of the greatest divas.<\/p>\n

Then, move on to the outstanding Cooper\/Gaga 2018 version.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations: 1 win-<\/strong>Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Original Song-“Evergreen” (won)<\/strong>, Best Sound<\/p>\n

Golden Globe Nominations: 5 wins-<\/strong>Best Picture-Comedy or Musical (won),\u00a0<\/strong>Best Actor-Comedy or Musical-Kris Kristofferson (won),<\/strong> Best Actress-Comedy or Musical-Barbra Streisand (won),\u00a0<\/strong>Best Original Score (won),<\/strong> Best Original Song-“Evergreen” (won)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Star Is Born-1976 Director Frank Pierson Starring Barbra Streisand, Kris Kristofferson Scott’s Review #1,276 Reviewed July 13, 2022 Grade: B Four incarnations of A Star Is Born: 1937, 1954, 1976, and 2018. Strangely enough, the most recent film starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga is worlds above the others, though I haven’t seen the … Continue reading A Star Is Born-1976<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[114,12087,192,47,188,222],"tags":[820,9975,1957,1024,5392,9977,9976,9730,1304,1743,9979,9978],"class_list":["post-16389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1976-films","category-best-picture-musical-or-comedy-golden-globe-winners","category-dramas","category-musicals","category-musicdramas","category-romantic-dramas","tag-barbra-streisand","tag-frank-pierson","tag-gary-busey","tag-kris-kristofferson","tag-maidie-norman","tag-oliver-clark","tag-paul-mazursky","tag-rita-coolidge","tag-robert-englund","tag-sally-kirkland","tag-susan-richardson","tag-tony-orlando"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16389"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24505,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16389\/revisions\/24505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}