Unsparingly presenting [the male lead] as arrogant with male privilege, the script [of the 1954 version] prepares the way for the tragic intensity of the love story. In contrast, [the 2018 version] upgrades [the male lead] to lovable stumbling klutz, merely drawing a few hard glances from fellow musicians. He thus defeats the entire redemptive pattern of the three earlier films....So there's something there of general interest — how to do male humiliation the right way? Maybe that's separable from the focus on that particular movie plot. A woman rises as a man falls — How that is shown tells us something about our time?
A harrowing highlight of the series is the ritual humiliation of the leading man. The [1937 version] and [the 1954 version] are gut-wrenching in showing the cold contempt of other men for a wounded alpha male as he tumbles down to become a mere adjunct to a more successful woman.....
[I]n [the new] film, the tipsy [male lead]... ends in infantile passivity: [he] pisses his pants in full view of the audience. This ugly scene, which reduces a triumphant career woman to a gal pal awkwardly hiding a urine spill with a flap of her gown, is a misogynous disgrace.
ADDED: Paglia objects to the importance of the male character in relation to the female character and seems to think the movie is misogynist because it makes him more important than her. But why isn't that a fresh idea? I'm not going to watch all these movies to try to find the answer, but it seems to me that Paglia adores the various females, especially Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand and seems to think it's wrong for Lady Gaga to be given smaller role — a supporting role to the man. But I don't see that as misogynist, and Lady Gaga isn't an experienced movie star. It may have been appropriate not to give her many big scenes, and why shouldn't the big movie star Bradley Cooper have more for himself? He's an established star and the director.
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Ah I missed the urine scene. OTOH having been dragged to the showing by my wife who likes Lady Gaga, I was perhaps not the most attentive viewer. And since a late arriving and rather large young woman had managed to sill about half of her 32 ounce soft drink on me (she was stumbling along the row behind me in the dark, handling the soft drink and a two quart box of popcorn) I was not inclined to enjoy the movie. The shower of sticky soft drink did not come with an apology.
who cares about A Star is Born? If we're going to talk film's about film stars we need to go to All About Eve. If it weren't for All About Eve, they never could have made The Budding of Brie
a late arriving and rather large young woman had managed to sill about half of her 32 ounce soft drink on me
This NEVER would have happened at The Budding of Brie!
My SO went to see the latest “Star is” expecting to completely hate it, but fell in love with the film. This makes me want to check it out. But me being the type of person that I am, I kind of want to see all bersions to compare and contrast as in this review.
*versions
"Misogynistic piece of crap"
...maybe that's why people liked it so much:)
Just once I'd like to see someone do a deep-dive analysis on when/how/why the "doofus dude/dad" entered the American zeitgeist. You could kind of see it forming right after WWII with Desi Arnez and Ralph Kramden through Archie Bunker all the way to full-blown fool in Homer Simpson, Peter Griffin and Paul Blart. I can't recall seeing this in modern media prior to WWII. You had your goofy guys/comedians but not a consistent "doofus/dumb" trope the way they keep pushing the "failed-fat-beta-dad" the way they do today.
Is it true? Did victory 'defeat us'? What the hell happened?
If we're going to talk film's about film stars we need to go to All About Eve
Or The Bad and The Beautiful, or Sunset Blvd,
Even in the movies people don't join the French Foreign legion, or some exotic foreign army, or become gentleman rankers, or just go west, anymore. Sad. Those were honorable ways out of public disgrace.
I suppose if they are going to remake the movie again it had to be a little different.
The way to remake it more contemporary would be to flip the roles. Have the woman be the aging star on the decline who helps a young man rise. Then have the young guy leave her for a younger woman
The "dad" thing is part of the cultural-Marxist imperative.
It was at its core deliberate, then fashionable, and then the cultural default.
In real life, women lose in any urine contest.
I have to admit, Lady Gaga is starting to grow on me. Her Superbowl performance a few years ago was one of the best. And they say she should have won an Oscar for "Star".
My daughter was appalled when a survey on her favorite morning drive radio show named Gaga as the best female Italian American pop singer of all time.
I would have picked Connie Francis.
Apparently you really do care or you wouldn't have posted this.
The moment I see the word "privilege" alongside "white" or "male," I stop reading. That will be true until the day I die.
Go watch Gaga and Bradley perform 'Shallow' live at Gaga's Las Vegas residency.
Fantastic. Cooper was not a trained singer, but pulls it off.
The chemistry between the stars seems authentic.
When a man loves a woman... she can do no wrong. But success is powerful Mistress for women too..
My vote is for the Judy Garland version. Judy can do no wrong.
@Jersey Fled:
I would have picked Connie Francis.
Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero. Good pick!
No love for Madonna as best Italian American singer. I prefer her to Lada Gaga who seems to derivative of Madonna. She has a better voice but that’s about it.
I thought Bradley Cooper should have won an Oscar for his performance in The Hangover.
Now, that was an important flick.
Watched the first two versions a while back. Fortunately the best part of the Garland one comes early ("The Man that Got Away"--and it's really great, worth watching in its own right) because it's pretty bad otherwise.
Nobody could make me watch Babs in anything. Gaga, maybe, but the descriptions here don't make me want to bother.
Then have the young guy leave her for a younger woman
Haha, that'll never fly. I wonder why. Most these tired plots are just flips of more likely scenarios, so as not to hurt our feelz.
@mccullough:
No love for Madonna as best Italian American singer. I prefer her to Lada Gaga who seems to derivative of Madonna. She has a better voice but that’s about it.
Pretty much every female pop star from the late 80s on has been derivative, to one degree or another, of Madonna. The first one to ape her style was Janet Jackson on the 1986 album Control. So I agree that Madonna is a massive talent and a huge influence as an entertainer. But her voice has always been very mediocre at best.
There are in fact 5 previous versions! I liked the 1937 version, but it was in fact already a remake, of What Price Hollywood. I have not seen the others and don’t want to.
Art is so much more enjoyable and moving when you don’t insist on viewing it through à la mode Left and Right political filters.
"A Star Is Born" is a series of stories rewritten, re-edited and reassembled over dozens of years. They are investigations into the structure of peeing itself and calls to action within that peeing.
This is an Althouse vindication thread! Hardin is hilariously wrong. Read his own link on public figures. Sandman doesn’t come close.
Same. Picked up the story at Drudge and realized I had no idea what she was talking about and am not interested. Bradley Cooper who?
I hope four versions is enough already. For an industry that believes itself to be a creative field, they sure do stay in the lane once they find one. I've seen a bunch of RomCom movies in my life, but I don't remember any of them, except Star is Born with Streisand and Kristoferson, which I didn't even like. Neither character was believable as a rock star of that time even though the actors playing them actually were.
Saw Gaynor version, Garland version, can't watch Streisand in anything and think Gaga can blow the notes off sheet music, but won't see it. Have an aversion to alcholic movies (Milland excepted) and especially gambling addiction films. Never found A Star to have a feministic bent - and I love Paglia. It's about the ruination of an alcoholic. I guess if viewed as zero-sum, the woman rises as the man falls.
"My daughter was appalled when a survey on her favorite morning drive radio show named Gaga as the best female Italian American pop singer of all time.
I would have picked Connie Francis. "
That's because "the best of all time" is usually whoever the writer idolized as a teenager or young adult. (See Bob Dylan and Althouse.)
I remember reading the "A Star is Porn" parody in National Lampoon many years ago.
alcOholic
It's ironic that in the 1954 version the up-and-comer was played by Judy Garland, whose career was in decline, and who was done in by booze and pills. James Mason played the broken down old drunk, but his career continued for a while longer.
Making women better by destroying one man at a time (?).
I generally like Paglia, but I don't care about "A Star is Born" either. I remember seeing the 1970's version and I mildly enjoyed it then, but I didn't think it was a great film and I wasn't interested in seeing the Lady Gaga one. I am sick to death of both remakes and endless superhero movies.
In comparison to, say, Christina Hoff Sommers, Paglia seems to be steering clear of battles that are much more pressing than "A Star is Born." Perhaps she is simply worn out.
After a while, all the re-makes look like Japanese fireworks!!
Bradley Cooper can make pissing his pants look endearing. He has star power.
James Mason was brilliant in Mandingo.
So there's something there of general interest — how to do male humiliation the right way?
Is there a right way to do male humiliation? How about female humiliation...is there a right way to do that?
Mason did a great job in The Blue Max as Herr Doktor General-Oberst Graf von Klugermann.
@Buwaya
It did start out as that, a make fun of dad thing but then it morphed into something really quite sinister. Default for sure but there's real antagonism hidden underneath. Perhaps a lot of this is simply due to generational angst all cultures experience but I've always detected real hatred there in the Western Civ. case.
I recall an interview where Norman Mailer said something to the effect that the generation that came of age or were born right after the war (and still new their 'mostly veteran' fathers as still relatively young men) were exposed to the post-war compendium of horror the war revealed when viewed as a whole that the men fighting it had no perspective of. The children of that generation was split, either viewing their fathers with admiration for having 'slain the dragon' or horror either in the fathers' active participation (Germany, Japan, Italy, etc.) or that men were capable of such atrocities in general (i.e. they deserved no praise for solving a problem men themselves created).
In America, these 2 groups of sons went in 2 directions. The first group followed their fathers' footsteps and went to Korea, Vietnam and joined Strategic Air Command. The 2nd group went to Haight-Ashbury and Woodstock. The 2nd group was far far more successful. The 1st group came away by-and-large disillusioned with the 'dragon they didn't slay' and the 2nd group created the social connections and mindset allowing them to spit on the 1st for their misplaced trust and 'stupidity'.
My father was one in the 1st group. He was always funny but he was never a doofus and he was one of the most inventive intelligent men I will ever know. He turned out to be quite successful though he always felt hated by the group that came to be known to most of us as 'elites'.
Blogger Char Char Binks said...
Bradley Cooper can make pissing his pants look endearing. He has star power.
2/20/19, 12:39 PM
-------------------------
Better at peeing his pants than Steve Martin in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels"?
https://youtu.be/SKDX-qJaJ08
PM: Have you seen Owning Mahowney with Philip Seymour Hoffman? I had read the book first, but the movie was pretty good.
The next version of A Star Is Born will be a picture of Harvey Weinstein and a couch.
A woman rises as a man falls — How that is shown tells us something about our time?
That the man must fall so the woman can rise tells us something about our time.
That the man must fall so the woman can rise tells us something about our time.
Ever since Adam.
film's about film stars we need to go to All About Eve
That was a film about the Thee ah tah.
I consider a column to be a regular feature in a publication. I believe this should be called an article by Paglia.
"The 2nd group was far far more successful."
Not so sure about that. There were a lot of losers and wasted lives among the second group, and for me they deserve much less respect as they ruined much of what was great about this country with the help of their boomer chicks and an unexamined sense of self-righteousness and morality reminiscent of the dragon slayed by their fathers.
"And since a late arriving and rather large young woman had managed to sill about half of her 32 ounce soft drink on me "
They wonder why movie theater attendance is down.
I didn't realize there are four versions of the movie. I saw the one with Babs in the 70's. It was a date thing and all I really remember is the music - totally missed the plot, particularly the humiliation of the man.
It sure is ok to bash men these days - but the humiliation described in the earliest versions of the movie sound quite cruel. Women are the best at everything, right? Especially in the movies.
1954 version is the best because Garland and Mason are much better actors.
There were a lot of losers and wasted lives among the second group, and for me they deserve much less respect as they ruined much of what was great about this country with the help of their boomer chicks and an unexamined sense of self-righteousness and morality reminiscent of the dragon slayed by their fathers.
Well said. Although the idea of Norman Mailer, who stabbed one wife, and divorced Five, and who considered himself a "White Negro" - as an expert on American children and their WW 2 fathers is somewhat dubious.
I've seen two versions and will stop there. Its really a chick movie. Hollywood always had trouble finding *good* female-centric stories, so they tend to get repeated.
Just being the movie boyfriend of Striesand is humiliating. Its like, hey that's the best you could do, someone who looks and acts like Barbara Striesand?
I took my wife to see the Streisand version years ago and the new version recently. I have seen the 1954 version on TV. Didn't really care for any of the three, especially the Streisand version since I am not a big fan of hers. I won't bother to read the article. Best entertainment today is being streamed online at sites like Netflix and Amazon. I haven't seen anything at the theaters in the last year to two that I thought was worth the time and expense. Better to just sit at home, pop some corn, and binge watch what I want, when I want.
Didn't the Streisand version at least feature a glimpse of Babs' bare boobs, back when she had a good body? I used to work with a young woman who said she wished her boobs were half as good as Streisand's, and I've always been curious about them, but haven't wanted to sit through a movie to see them.
"In America, these 2 groups of sons went in 2 directions. The first group followed their fathers' footsteps and went to Korea, Vietnam and joined Strategic Air Command. The 2nd group went to Haight-Ashbury and Woodstock. The 2nd group was far far more successful. The 1st group came away by-and-large disillusioned with the 'dragon they didn't slay' and the 2nd group created the social connections and mindset allowing them to spit on the 1st for their misplaced trust and 'stupidity'."
This hypothesis is interesting to me because I noticed among my fellow Baby Boomers that the ones who gravitated to the counter culture, particularly rock music, eventually became much more successful--materially speaking--than the more aristocratic, classical music-loving Baby Boomers. I have often wondered why that should be so. My suspicion is that the plastic Hippies of the Sixties and Seventies became the plastic Yuppies of the Eighties and Nineties.
Was the movie Dagwood Bumstead an early doofus dad/husband?
"I used to work with a young woman who said she wished her boobs were half as good as Streisand's"
Her body wasn't bad. But she needed a bag over her head to be sexy.
There are only so many comic variations in TV family sitcom. Someone has to be the wacky funny one. With Lucy or Gracie Allen it was the wife. With Leave it to Beaver or Dobie Gillis it was the kids. With the Honeymooners or The Simpsons - its Daddy is a dummy.
One reason you get "Daddy is a dummy" is because Male Comedians are much easier to find then female ones. And its easier for Hollywood writers -which are still mostly men - to write comic material for the Dad, and have the wife as the straight women.
Young Hegelian: "I remember reading the "A Star is Porn" parody in National Lampoon many years ago."
If that's where your taste runs, and that's a fine place, hope you've seen "Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead"
Interesting fact: There is no complete copy of Judy Garland's, 1954, A Star is Born in existence. After the film opened, the studio recalled all the prints, cut them way down - without any input from the director, George Cukor - and then destroyed all the copies of the removed footage. The rumor was that one of the Warner brothers ordered this to get back at Judy Garland. There is a restored version, but it's not a complete restoration and relies heavily on photos to take the place of many lost scenes that they still had audio recordings of..
Another fun fact: Tommy Noonan played a musician in the 1954 version. He had been part of a comedy act with Peter Marshall when they were both availabl. His second wife was named...wait for it...Pocahontas Crowfoot.
And since a late arriving and rather large young woman had managed to sill about half of her 32 ounce soft drink on me (she was stumbling along the row behind me in the dark, handling the soft drink and a two quart box of popcorn) I was not inclined to enjoy the movie. The shower of sticky soft drink did not come with an apology.
The story of Skeptical Voter is prophetic. Ann offers: "A woman rises as a man falls — How that is shown tells us something about our time?"
To TerriW:
Read the storyline on imdb. Sounds good but in my no-fly zone. Loved PSH, tho.
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