When it was announced in late 2016 that there was going to be another A Star Is Born (ASIB) remake there was a collective sigh amongst the population. The lingering question was simply, how many times can you tell the same story before it becomes outdated and boring? With the previous versions of ASIB starring the likes of Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand, anyone who was slated to embody the modern day female protagonist in the film had huge shoes to fill.
The third reincarnation of the film, starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson should have been the last version. The narrative was old and somewhat boring because you knew what was coming. But when Bradley Cooper signed on to direct the 2018 version, he promised to breathe new life into the film.
For those who haven't had the pleasure of watching any version of ASIB here is a brief rundown. The male protagonist is a famous star who is haunted by the demons of show business and a hard life. A chance meeting with the female lead sets the two down a path of love and destruction as neither can work out what the other requires to be happy. There is jealousy and lust and betrayal and the films feel like an insight into any famous couple. Ultimately at the conclusion of the films, the male character takes his own life, leaving his wife to work out how her life goes on.
Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga have undoubtedly created the best version of A Star Is Born.
Source: The National
All these themes are there in Cooper's version of the film, except, they manage to feel fresh and even though you can feel Cooper's character Jackson Maine slipping away, his choice to take his own life still manages to reverberate through your entire psyche.
However, it is the fate of Jackson that has caused the most stir amongst critics. Many believe that Jackson ending his life feeds into the belief that in order for a star to be born, a star has to die. But to characterise the film down to one point in time would be to seriously misunderstand the power of ASIB and why it should be the name read out as the winner for Best Picture at the Oscars come Monday afternoon (Australian time).
The Academy need to stop awarding films simply because they take on subjects that play into the current political and social climate. Sometimes it feels as if the voting Academy award movies based on the appeal to so called intellectuals simply because they want them to remain interested in the high brow affair that is the Oscars. However, the voting Academy need to remember that the audience devour films that feel true, peer into the human condition and leave a lasting impression. Breaking with the tradition of awarding the Best Picture Oscar to movies that tackle the tough and unique subjects and instead awarding the Oscar based on the film's merits will no doubt increase audience satisfaction with the program.
Returning back to the film, nothing about ASIB is done half-heartedly. Lady Gaga, in preparation for embodying Ally, underwent acting training and workshops in order to harness her inner emotions and use them as an acting tool. Bradley Cooper learned how to play the guitar and piano to such a high level that he was not only convincing, but professional. But more than that, he went on a quest to find Jackson Maine's true sound. The hardened rocker didn't sound like Bradley Cooper, he sounded indelible. In the quest for perfection, Cooper went to work on dropping his voice an entire octave to achieve this sound. He trained and studied for months trying to find Jackson's sound. There were periods where he was either in excruciating pain or hunched over because that was the only way he could achieve the desired sound, but he persevered.
Jackson Maine with his famous hat on. Jackson wears his hat except when singing- the only place where he feels truly vulnerable enough to be seen.
Source: Vulture
Without that sheer volume of pre-production work, the very narrative of ASIB wouldn't be believable. We needed to believe that Gaga had the acting goods, because her ability to be so in love with Cooper's Jackson was paramount. We also needed to hear Bradley's voice drop that octave because Jackson's deep husk implied so much pain and wisdom, which consequently illuminated so much about his character.
More than anything though, the element that makes this movie golden is the chemistry between Ally and Jackson. For the story to work we needed to know and see how much they loved each other. In creating a complex guy like Jackson, Cooper also needed to show the audience traits that made him loveable, hence making it believable that the innocent Ally could come to love him.
When Jackson can't stop drinking and Ally's fame reaches new heights, there is never any thought in the viewer that she should leave him. That is simply because we want them to be in love and together.
Cooper strived to make a movie that was closer to the truth of how people fall in love and begin to heal until it eventually becomes clear that love cannot heal you completely. And that is exactly what he did. On an even bigger level, Cooper didn't shy away from portraying how depression can plague even the strongest of males.
The looks they exchanged, the tangible chemistry between them, it was impossible not to adore Ally and Jackson's love.
Source: State Cinema
Despite Jackson's demons and the very public way that he embarrasses Ally on her biggest night, the viewer still wants them to work it out. When Jackson wets himself on the Grammys stage the overwhelming feeling amongst the viewer is sickness. Sickness in the stomach that this has happened and sickness in the heart because a love like theirs shouldn't be this hard.
In every reincarnation of ASIB the male character has been jealous of the female's ascent to stardom. But to play that out again would be to diminish the modern day man. In 2018's film Jackson isn't jealous of Ally, instead he is imploring her to become a star, but to also keep her moral compass and artistic integrity.
This movie is the very portrait of self-destruction, it is a love story between two superstars and their co-dependance but it is also a portrait of the entertainment industry and how people who have no idea about art interfere in its production.
That is why to boil it down to one star dying for another to be born is unjust. Jackson didn't have to die in order for Ally to become a star. He decided to end his life in the hope that she would be free to realise her potential. Ally was already a star when Jackson was alive, in his death he wanted to remind her to remain true to herself.
Some call Gaga's look into the camera at the end of the movie cheesy- instead view it through the lens that she was finally comfortable enough to face the world head on with minimal make up and no hair dye, but just as she was.
Source: Gaga Daily
Jackson died in order to set Ally free. An unintended effect of his suicide on his wife is her realising that you can either be famous and unhappy or famous and happy. Ally chooses to be famous and happy, which means going back to her natural hair colour and make-up free complexion and making the music that matters to her.
This notion is played out beautifully in an act of symmetry- at the beginning of the film Jackson finishes writing Shallow for Ally and after his death, Ally finishes writing I'll Never Love Again for Jackson. Jackson has written the love song for Ally and hides it inside her song book for when, as Jackson puts it, she returns back to being herself. By finishing the film with the completed song it drives home the notion that she can be Ally Maine (herself) and also a star.
Cooper's driving force behind the movie was the pursuit of creating a film that deals with the desperate reality of being alive and that's exactly what he did. To watch A Star Is Born is to give yourself over to the story of love and loss and hardship. The viewer invests in the story and the characters and when it's finally over, the gravity of the ending sits with you for days.
When the film cuts to the scene of Jackson singing what was to become I'll Never Love Again to Ally, the moment transcended the screen and reached into the viewer's heart and tore it apart. Despite his faults, he loved her so much.
Source: New York Times
The likelihood that Bradley will lose Best Actor to a man who popped in a pair of fake teeth and impersonated a real person seems unjust considering the piece of Bradley's soul that is stamped over every inch of Jackson Maine's scenes.
The nostalgia surrounding Glenn Close winning her first Oscar over Lady Gaga leaves me torn. Gaga will have more chances, perhaps Close will not. Yet, at the end of the day the Oscar win should be judged solely on the performance, omitting outside factors. Gaga as Ally was at once vulnerable and a pillar of strength. The audience wouldn't have chastised her had she chosen to leave Jackson, but she picked the hard road all because of love and not once could Gaga be accused of missing even the slightest of marks during the course of the emotionally and physically demanding film.
The movie is a portrait of the human condition, a love story and a cautionary tale all in one. The fact that it might lose the Best Picture award because it doesn't fit the Academy's narrative of awarding topical or issue based movies or because Bradley Cooper will "have many more opportunities" and even because of tall poppy syndrome, is simply farcical.
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