And this week's Friday night movie has been... A Star is Born!
I'm going to try an experiment: Given that Hollywood has made four versions of A Star is Born, I will for the month of March, watch and assess all four of them. Indeed, it would be interesting to see how each
of them compare with one another. And which hold up given the passage of time.
And what better place to start than with the the very first, from 1937.
So this movie tells the story of a young actress who is determined to make it as a star in Hollywood. She eventually catches the attention of a veteran actor who then actively supports her career and is the only person who believes in her. And so while her career flourishes, his career flounders...
Perhaps the most striking thing about this movie is that it is clearly a product of it's time. It shows how Hollywood operated in the 1920s/30s (the supposed Golden Age of Hollywood) and the progression of our protagonist. And that in sense, it is odd, even with the passage of nearly nine decades, how this movie is a documentary, a cautionary tale and a propaganda piece at the same time.
And yet it's that honesty that makes this movie so compelling.
So yes, this movie may be a product of it's time but it has held up well against the march of time.
And it would be interesting to see how it's offspring measure up...
