A Star Is Born
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Movie Reviews of A Star Is Born
Movie Review: One of greatest movies ever...! Mason, Garland deserved Oscars (tm)!
Summary: 5 Stars
Read reviews above for many great comments! Seems the better the movie, the better the reviews!
My two cents here!
Look at the list of fine actors who rejected the
"Norman Maine---great actor on the decline" ...role! Montgomery Clift and Cary Grant just being two of them. Why were these many good and great actors so afraid of playing a real role?
Here, Cary Grant did us a great service in turning this role down after he apparently initially accepted it. He was a good actor---sometimes great.
But James Mason was almost always great, even in lesser roles.
And Mason was ahead of his time in not "protecting" his image, by only taking "good guy" or "winner" roles. He played edgy characters many, many times.
Judy Garland's performance would have swallowed up any merely good male lead.
But Mason's performances has many nuances to it. He is totally believable as the experienced actor coaching the novice.
Only a great actor could NOT be overshadowed by Garland's great voice and personal vulnerability.
Marlon Brando, in a new style of acting, was different enough to edge Mason out of the Oscar award. But in retrospect, I think Mason was better than Brando, and both leads in A Star is Born deserved Oscars.
Movie Review: Art Imitates Life
Summary: 5 Stars
As has been said, this film is truly a masterpiece. It's director George Cukor's first film in color, and full of brilliant acting, singing, set design and cinematography. The "Born in a Trunk" sequence is spectacular.Judy Garland was "dismissed" from Annie Get Your Gun just a few years before she made this movie (she would face a similar fate in The Valley of the Dolls shortly before her death; ironically, Patty Duke's character, the brilliant, boozing Neely O"Hara, is said to be based on Garland). But she recovered and made this, perhaps her best, film. It was a phenomenal, almost unbelivable comeback, one of many for her. When you watch the scene where her character loses it as she, on the set of a film she's making, discusses her husband's battle with booze and his failed career, you can't help but wonder how she managed to get the words out, because she could be talking about her own life. But as grief-stricken as she is, the show goes on, which she demonstrates as she wipes away the tears and performs "Get Your Long Face Lost." It's almost chilling, certainly moving, absolutely one of Garland's finest moments on the screen.
Movie Review: A Star is Re-Born!
Summary: 5 Stars
Returning to the screen four years after leaving Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Judy Garland is just superb in A Star is Born. Always giveing an honest performance, Judy gives it her all in this classic! This movie has it all, comedy, drama, and most of all, music! Co-staring with James Mason, Garland was nominated for an Oscar for her performace! Although she lost is to Grace Kelly (Judy was beat by only one vote I'll have you know! "The Biggest Robbery Since Brinks!")she deserved that Oscar! This film is simply great! The widescreen aspect, offered by this DVD, is an extra treat. Also included are outtakes from the film: including three versions of "The Man That Got Away", the broadcast of the premire of the film, tape of the after party at the Coconut Grove, and the film's trailer!
This film is well worth every penny, since it was reconstructed in 1982, after being butchered before it's release in 1954! Buy the video if you have to, but the picture and sound, oh the sound, make me recomend the DVD although it costs a little more it's well worth it!
Lastly, buy this if you just love a great film, or of course, if you love Judy Garland!
Movie Review: Unfair Comment
Summary: 5 Stars
I finally received my DVD of "A Star Is Born" yesterday. I actually promised to watch this DVD with my friend this weekend. However, I could not resist but to watch it right a way. I don't think I need to say much about how great this movie is. Whoever watched this movie know. The top-notch singing, dancing and acting.
One of the viewer commented that Judy was not suitable to play as a "young" woman in this movie, she looked plum, and she did not deserve an Oscar blah blah blah.... I think that is totally unfair. First of all, the role (Esther) of Judy Garland is not a young woman. Esther was a woman who has experienced a lot and became a singer until she finally met James Mason. As for looking plum, Judy herself knew that. That's why she made fun of herself several times in the movie. In one of the scene where she performed alone for her husband, she said "Here come the big fat close up." And the movie told us that, Esther (Or should I say Judy) became famous because of her talent, not her look. Judy deserved an Oscar or not is no long important for those who love Judy so much. To us, Judy is and always is the winner.
Movie Review: Despite WB's Attempt to Slice It Up, A Star is Re-Born
Summary: 5 Stars
Ironically, I recently attended a taping of a popular new TV show at Studio 4 on the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank where a plaque commemorates the fact that the 1954 classic, A STAR IS BORN, was filmed there nearly 50 years ago. We are all indebted to film historians who have reconstructed lost portions of this brilliant masterpiece and inserted recently discovered scenes deleted from the film. Apparently, Jack Warner insisted on cutting a half hour from the picture so that the film could run more often and do better box office. Director George Cukor went on record saying, "It was edited brutally, stupidly and arbitrarily, and many of Garland's finest moments were taken out." When I was a student, I met George Cukor, and he continued to lament about the disjointed, truncated version of the film. Now we can celebrate this DVD's release which presents the Garland/Mason A STAR IS BORN now much closer to its original first cut, complete with hilarious original scenes like James Mason's marriage proposal during playback of "Here's What I'm Here For," as Judy croons, "You drink to muuuuch!"