A young colleague was telling me about their efforts to watch the 1976 remake of “Star is Born” with Kris Kristofferson and Barbra Streisand in preparation for the fourth movie of this title with Bradley Cooper and Lady GaGa. They were struggling with it. It felt disjointed and didn’t make much sense to them.

I had to admit that I avoided watching it for 42 years. After talking about some possible reasons why it might not make much sense, I decided to watch it. To see if it was as bad as I thought I recalled hearing that it was. Some movies I find to be completely unwatchable. “Barbarella” is one of those. I first tried watching it a two or three decades ago and gave up in less than 10 minutes. I tried again recently and could only make it 26 minutes before deciding it wasn’t even worth having on in the background.

“A Star is Born” is not quite that bad. Not quite. The thing is it is so locked in the 1970s that I am not sure it is the least bit accessible to someone in their early 20s.

The whole mansion scene feels like the 1978 Joe Walsh song “Life’s Been Good to Me.”
I have a mansion but forget the price
Ain’t never been there, they tell me it’s nice
I live in hotels, tear out the walls
I have accountants, pay for it all

from Wikipedia:

“Life’s Been Good” is a song by Joe Walsh, which first appeared on the soundtrack to the film FM. The original eight-minute version was released on Walsh’s album But Seriously, Folks…, and an edited 4 1/2 minute single version peaked at #12 on the US Billboard Hot 100,[1] remaining his biggest solo hit.

In the song, Walsh satirically reflects on the antics and excess of the era’s rock stars, with nods to Keith Moon and others: “I live in hotels/Tear out the walls”, and “My Maserati does one-eighty-five/I lost my licence, now I don’t drive”. The Maserati that Walsh himself owned at the time was a 1964 5000 GT model, and while fast, could only manage 170mph with tall gearing.[2]

The 1979 Rolling Stone Record Guide called it “riotous”, and “(maybe) the most important statement on rock stardom anyone has made in the late Seventies”.

The spray painting of her name was interesting because he not only did it in cursive, but backwards, from right to left, without seeming to think about what he’s doing.

Pushing her practice session to the point that she did well enough when she got a little bit of “righteous anger” is an overused vehicle that even in 1976 I would have felt it was stale.

Also, the improbability of an audience that came to see Kristofferson’s character perform overwhelmingly like her pre-disco-white-woman-sings-watered-down-soul-with-permed-afro is so unbelievable. This is even referenced within the movie when the two are about to go on tour and their manager convinces him that they don’t share the same audiences and he should stay back.

I also just don’t buy Kristofferson’s character’s skills with earth-moving machinery and building and adobe home in the desert. Basically, there are two many requirements for the suspension of disbelief. That and the “old guy tries to save himself with a young woman’s love” theme probably doesn’t need to ever be revisited.

And two-thirds of the way through it, I think I’m done. If I’m going to watch a bad movie, I want to be really bad and for it know it is bad. Like “Zombeavers” or “Galaxina” (which made Dorothy R. Stratton a star, however briefly and is far better than “Barbarella.).