A Star Is Born (1976)

The third of the four filmed versions of this story. Kris Kristofferson is the drinking, drug-taking rock star whose career is on the wane. Barbra Streisand is the bright young talent he helps rise up the ladder to fame and who will quickly eclipse his own success. 

The music is lively and the concert scenes seem convincingly “real”. The couple have chemistry and charisma. It was a wise move to cast two genuine singers to play these two performers, as they seem so natural on stage. 

I like the fact that John Norman Howard’s untimely demise in a high/speed car crash can be interpreted as a reckless accident or a suicide, depending on how you choose to read the character and the emotional/chemical state he’s in. Unlike the 2018 Bradley Cooper/Lady Gaga film (in which there’s no doubt that he’s a tragic addict who kills himself), this more nuanced version has the confidence to allow some ambiguity – rather than spelling everything out for you – and I admire that quality. In the same way, the managers in this film (whose roles are handled well by Gary “Buddy Holly” Busey and Paul Mazursky) aren’t simplistically ruthless or exploitative. They seem much more like real people with real conflicts. 

Joan Didion had a hand in writing it, which may account for the refreshingly intelligent approach.

Crazy Heart (2009)

A moving drama about a country singer "Bad" Blake (Jeff Bridges) whose career is on the way down and who is struggling with addiction. But when Bad meets a divorced young journalist named Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), things start to change. 

It’s a touching romance that never gives in to mere sentimentality. The two leads are remarkable, with a very real chemistry. The music is excellent, too. Bridges seems every bit the grizzled country singer. You can truly believe him, whether he’s at his public best on stage or at his private nadir, passing out drunk in his hotel room. 

There are parallels with A Star Is Born, and particularly the Streisand/Kristofferson version from 1976, but Crazy Heart seems like a more credible attempt to present a fading performer in a desperate situation.

A Star Is Born (1954)

Problematic yet enjoyable melodrama starring Judy Garland and James Mason. He’s Norman Maine, a successful actor with a drink problem. She’s Esther Blodgett, an up-and-coming singer. He makes her famous and they get married, but both of those life changes quickly become complicated. 

There are several odd things about it. Certain scenes have been lost and are represented on the DVD simply by on-set stills backed by the original audio. It’s very difficult to absorb these parts as part of the narrative. 

Also, Judy Garland’s fame as a singer means that the film-makers took every opportunity to cram in more of her singing. The extended “film within a film” interlude doesn’t really work, but it could have done if they’d simply cut back to Norman and Esther’s reactions as they watched the show from the theatre. 

Too little happens in the first hour: her talent and his drinking are established in the very first scene, then there’s a lot of filler before that story is picked up again. It’s oddly unbelievable as a romance, and there's very little chemistry between the pair.

On the plus side, the two leads are superb. Mason has just the right mixture of charismatic appeal and troubled “dark side”. You can see and feel his pain as his character declines. And it’s extremely colourful and vivid, with a particular emphasis on red and pink shades. But I was surprised to find that overall it was far less compelling than the Gaga/Cooper remake.

A Star Is Born (2018)

Highly watchable drama that remakes and subtly updates the 1937, 1954 and 1976 versions of the story. 

Struggling singer Ally (Lady Gaga) falls in love with a famous musician (Bradley Cooper, who also directs). He’s on the way down, career-wise, and is struggling with tinnitus and drink/drug issues. She’s on the way up, helped by him but quickly becoming a superstar in her own right. 

It’s touching because Gaga and Cooper seem to convey real love for each other. I found it highly believable, even if he’s given greater psychological depth than she is. They both offer a touching vulnerability and plenty of charm, and so the scenes in which they appear together are always compelling.

There’s a lot of music in the film – perhaps too much for it to work as a “serious” drama – but the performance segments are all thoroughly enjoyable in themselves.

Dragon Wars (2007)

Also known as D-War, this is an instantly forgettable South Korean fantasy film with mostly American actors. The “plot” is almost entirely nonsensical. Wikipedia attempts to explain how Ethan Kendrick (Jason Behr) is tasked by the mysterious Jack (Robert Forster) to “protect the Yuh Yi Joo, an individual who had been born able to change an Imoogi chosen by heaven into a Celestial Dragon, from a corrupt Imoogi identified as ‘Buraki’, who was prevented from obtaining it in the past by Ethan and Jack's previous incarnations. To this end, Jack gives Ethan a medallion formerly belonging to Ethan's previous incarnation Haram, and reveals that the reincarnated Yuh Yi Joo is Sarah Daniels (Amanda Brooks), whom Ethan will find in Los Angeles.” And so on. 

Huge snake creatures appear and terrorise the city, as do high-tech warriors, flying dragons and magical balls of light. None of it is really explained, but it keeps moving so quickly that your questions are quickly replaced by new questions. It would probably seem like a masterpiece if you were a nine-year-old boy. Occasionally the monsters recall the silly creatures shown in the Battle of Naboo in Star Wars Episode I, which is distracting, but the CGI effects are fairly sophisticated and worth seeing if you enjoy that sort of thing. 

The script goes beyond cliché into a surreal world of its own. The plot certainly doesn’t bother with logic. Anything can happen – and it does. The acting is merely functional. There’s no suspense whatsoever. Eventually you give up asking “What?!” and just enjoy the mildly engaging monsters-vs.-copters showdown in the knowledge that it will all be over soon enough.