A Star is Born

This remake of A Star is Born, the best of the three in my opinion, is a one-woman show of incredible skill. Judy Garland’s central performance provides a great example for the argument that acting is an art form. Not only does she get to sing and dance, she gets to make you laugh and cry. Every great performance must contain an element of truth, and A Star is Born has passages ripped from Garland’s life. She is ably supported by James Mason, but this is really Judy’s show through and through. And what a show it is!

Much like the Janet Gaynor original, A Star is Born tells the doomed love story of Esther Blodgett and Norman Maine. Maine discovers Esther and gives her the big break into show business that she has desperately been struggling for. While she begins a journey towards the peaks of fame, Maine is falling into a personal and professional abyss. For a long time their love is the only thing keeping him alive, but once his demons begin to take down her career, he makes a sacrifice to set her free. She is his greatest discovery, her career is his greatest masterpiece, his one brilliant idea, and having a part in destroying it is too much for him to bear. The only real difference is that Esther, who gets remade into Vicki Lester, is a lounge singer, and becomes a musical film sensation.

And while A Star is Born is filled with moments and story beats that were cliché when the Janet Gaynor original was made, this version is able to elevate above those problems thanks to the two strong central performance, solid direction and a numerous moments that ring true. Yes, Star is mostly Judy’s one-woman show, but without James Mason’s ability to be both likeable and incredibly dark, brooding the movie might have sunk into route sentimentality and cliché-driven melodrama. Take the scene late in the film when Vicki is discussing her future with the head of the studio. She says that she is going to give up her career, shortly after winning an Oscar and being one of the biggest box office draws at the time, to take care of Norman and help him get over his crippling addiction(s). Mason’s tortured expression and self-loathing body language while overhearing this in bed ignites a spark within the scene that might not have been there otherwise. That darkly simmering ember adds a real sense of truth to the Norman Maine character. Mason was justifiably rewarded with an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

But we must now discuss Judy Garland, and the performance which gives her a chance to cinematically act out revenge against MGM, showcase every talent she had, and, in a more just universe, would have won her the Best Actress Oscar instead of Grace Kelly’s wooden and stiff posturing in The Country Girl. To put it more simply, it’s one hell of a performance grounded in truth and delivered with commitment and fire. Like any of the other greatest performances in the history of film.

Take for example two sequences in the film. The first, “Born in a Trunk” which rivals, but doesn’t quite best, the extended ballet in The Red Shoes for best musical sequence in a film. It’s about fifteen minutes long, and has no true necessity to the story. It’s a film-within-a-film, the film that is being viewed at the premiere which leads to Vicki Lester’s new-found stardom. Her character tells of her history, from performing with her parents on vaudeville to the eventual stage super-stardom that she experiences. She not only gets to sing several different songs within the medley, and this being Garland she performs each with a distinct character, commitment and a voice that can caress a phrase very tenderly or blast it into out space, but also gets to stretch her comedy muscles. She frequently has to do both at the same time. She dances wonderfully, even when she’s trying to be silly or show how she’s grown from novice to seasoned pro. You try pulling off the hat trick of singing, dancing and acting at the same time and see just how easy it is. Garland was a talent so large that she could do each of them individually or together and make each look effortless. “Born in a Trunk” is a high-water mark, and it’s one of several musical sequences that point to her legendary status. For my money, it’s second only to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” which is really saying something. And the second is another musical sequence, but this time she gets to show off her dramatic skills as well. “Lose That Long Face” is an adorable little song-and-tap number that Vicki is filming for her latest film. A visit from the studio boss between takes has her returning to her dressing room for a private chat. She cries and opines about Norman’s destructive behavior and how she sometimes hates him for what he is putting her through. The way that she cries hysterically and nails the scene is wonderful, but what really astounds it is how quickly she goes from crying to performing flawlessly on the set within a matter of moments. My jaw dropped when I first saw it, and each time I view it, it remains inconceivable that she lost the Oscar.

There are other great moments, her studio makeover is ripped straight from Garland’s background on the set of The Wizard of Oz comes to mind immediately, but those two are the best for my money. And George Cukor stages each musical sequence wonderfully. The color palette is beautiful to behold. Truly, this is a Technicolor dreamland worthy of Hollywood’s glamor and sleazy underbelly. It never really aspires to be a tell-all like Sunset Blvd., although it does aim more than a few pop shots at the way the Hollywood machine creates and cannibalizes its own, A Star is Born is mostly a romance. It’s doomed and tragic from the start, but then again, what other way could this story end? Hollywood romances are prone to take one down while raising the profile of another, well, the doomed ones anyway.

And much could be said about the irony of Judy Garland portraying the nonalcoholic, the one who ends up surviving, somehow, at the very end. But there is much of Judy Garland in both characters. Yes, she possessed Norman’s alcoholism, self-destructive streak and tendency to disrupt filming and inability to function outside of chaos. But she also possessed Vicki’s grand talents, neurosis, sensitivity and need for constant reassurance and support. She needed someone to dream bigger dreams for her, but she had the knowledge of who to get those dreams accomplished.

And much could be said about the film’s uneasy classification. I have called it a musical throughout this review, for lack of a better word admittedly. It’s more of a dramatic film with musical moments. Each taking place at a concert, on a soundstage, within a film, recording studio, never do they adhere to the conventions of a normal film musical. I propose to just dub it a grand entertainment. A melodrama that is alive with song and dance, fiery performances and beautiful craft. It’s three hours long, but never dull.