Since 1937, there have been four different film versions of A Star Is Born.
Even though they veer off over the years in slightly different directions, the four films still have a basic plot in common. Check out the full original film here, and synopsis of each of the other films.
A Star Is Born (1937). This was the version that started it all off. In it, we see farm girl Esther Victoria Blodgett (played by Janet Gaynor) journey to Hollywood in the hopes of becoming a movie star.
She meets Norman Maine (Fredric March), an established actor with an alcohol problem, while working as a waitress and he takes an interest in her at once. Maine gets Esther a screen test, and gets her a part in Norman’s new film, which launches her into the spotlight.
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A Star Is Born (1954)
Here, we see Judy Garland as Esther and James Mason as Norman Maine, in a movie which resulted in one of the most famous real-life Oscar snubs of all time.
This film intruded the strong musical element to the story, with Judy’s famously incomparable voice being used to show Esther as a person destined for success in show business, just waiting for the right chance.
That chance comes in the form of (you guessed it) Norman, a matinee star who meets Esther when he’s blind drunk and stumbles on to a stage where an orchestra is performing. Esther manages to pass it off like it’s part of an act, and when he realizes she saved him from a big potential embarrassment, he asks her to dinner and sees her perform. Watch the Trailer
A Star Is Born (1976)
This is probably the least critically successful version of the story.
Starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson as the two lovers, the 1976 version of A Star Is Born has been criticised for miscasting Streisand and for there being a lack of chemistry between the two leads. It was even accused of being ‘boring’ by Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times.
The film makes the swap from films to music, as John Norman Howard (Kristofferson), a rock star on a sharp downward trajectory, hears Esther singing in a bar, and fireworks ensue. Howard later invites Esther to sing on stage with him, her career takes off, his crashes and burns, they get hitched, but he remains self-destructive. Watch the Trailer
A Star Is Born (2018)
Here, director Bradley Cooper took some of the best bits from the previous three films and squished them all together.
This version sees Cooper as Jackson Maine, an on-the-cusp-of-washed-up woke-bae country rock singer, who discovers Lady Gaga’s Ally singing in a drag bar. They fall head over heels for each other almost instantly, and he gives her the shot she needs to become a star.
Jackson turns out to be a very sympathetic character here, for all his faults. Unlike Norman mark II in 1954, who gets into a fight over taunts that he’s living off of his wife’s success, Jackson’s self-destructive nature is largely not due to the wounding of his ego, but more deep-seated issues in his past. Watch the Trailer
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