San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
RANKING ‘A STAR IS BORN’
Considers the last three film versions
As we head into awards season, the Bradley Cooper-directed remake of “A Star is Born” is getting plenty of nominations, including five Golden Globe nods (the awards will be presented Jan. 5 in Beverly Hills). And with the start of the awards shows, it’s officially that special time of year when your gay friends prepare for what is the equivalent of our NBA finals, the World Series and Super Bowl, all in one.
In the fourth film by this name, Lady Gaga steps into the shoes of previous “A Star is Born” leading ladies Barbra Streisand (1976) and Judy Garland (1954), both gay icons of the first order, and leans into her own pop star gay iconography hard. (Janet Gaynor starred in the original film in 1937.) With so much gay diva energy swirling around the project, we have to ask, is the new take on “A Star is Born” the gayest film version of the Hollywood tragedy yet? Let’s examine the evidence.
James Mason and Judy Garland in “A Star is Born,” the 1954 film directed by George Cukor. Starring: Judy Garland and James Mason
What’s gay about it: Judy, Judy, Judy! Garland was a gay icon of such magnitude there’s not only an apocryphal story about her death being the spark for the gay liberation Stonewall Riots in 1969, but also, once upon a time, certain tribes of gay men would call themselves “friends of Dorothy” after her character in “The Wizard of Oz.” The film was a comeback for Garland, who had been fired a few years before from her longtime studio MGM for problems stemming from drug and alcohol addictions. The story of the making of “A Star is Born” (directed by the gay George Cukor) became as much a part of the myth of the film as Garland’s personal life became to her legend. Garland’s introduction of Harold Arlen’s torch song “The Man That Got Away” was a standard on jukeboxes at gay bars for years.
What’s not gay about it: The film was made in the 1950s, so there are no out gay characters. Actually, there isn’t even an alluded-to-as-possibly-queer character in the film to point to.
Gay Diva Ranking©: Solid 8.5. Even though it stars the mother of all gay divas (and the mother of Liza Minnelli!), the queer content is purely surface. That said, the sensitive direction of the dramatic scenes by gay director Cukor undoubtedly turns the film from another big Hollywood musical into the heartbreaking love story that inspired two more remakes. Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson are the romantic lovers in 1976’s rock ‘n’ roll take on the now-classic Hollywood story.
Starring:
Starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson
What’s gay about it: La Streisand’s take on the tale (“directed” in name by Frank Pierson under producer Streisand’s supervision) is what the kids today would call “woke.” Esther’s song “Woman in the Moon” is a feminist anthem a la Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman,” and she is the one to propose marriage. The central love ballad, Streisandcomposed “Evergreen,” (an Oscar winner) has become one of her best-known hits of the era and is a lip synch favorite for Barbra drag impersonators. The film also veers uncontrollably into camp territory at times with its over-the-top 1970s riche post-hippie set designs and costumes ranging from garcon three-piece-suiting to ethnic ponchos pulled from Streisand’s own closet. John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion’s script is so full of melodrama and dramatic confrontations that lead into the couple having sex it sounds in places like dialogue pulled from a drag parody. Streisand is the unparalleled star of the film and has enough candle-lit closeups and long concert shots to make a whole series of devotional coffee-table books to Santa Barbra.
What’s not gay about it: Again, no out gay characters and less gay leadership behind the scenes. With all the high-speed car tracking shots, it feels a little bit like “Smokey and the Bandit” with a less country music score.
Gay Diva Ranking©: 5. A fun romp but not the masterful gay ugly duckling parallel-parable of Streisand’s “Funny Girl” or the subversive queer masterpiece that Streisand would go on to direct in “Yentl.”