Additional information for A Star Is Born (1976), which has a domestic theatrical release set for December 17, 1976. The film is being distributed by Warner Bros Pictures and has not yet been rated. A Star Is Born (1976) has a total running time of 139 minutes.
13
Argentina
M
Australia
14
Chile
K-16
Finland
11
Sweden
15
UK
R
USA
R16
New Zealand
15
South Korea
12
West Germany
139min
No taglines exist for this title.
A has-been rock star falls in love with a young, up-and-coming songstress.
The opening scene takes place at a rock concert. The audience is getting restless, and even a child has got lost. Somebody throws some fireworks at the people and a fight breaks open. Finally, the star arrives on stage, but he is drunk. He sings one song and gets to half of the second one when he forgets the lyrics of it completely. John Norman Howard (Kris Kristofferson) insults the audience, and then walks off the stage leaving behind only mayhem.His entorage gets frantic at him. They try to convince him to sleep for a while, as the concert of the following day is really important. One of his bandmembers offers him some adrenaline smuggled out of a hospital from somebody she knows. Her entourage, including Bobbie Ritchie (Gary Busey) are worried because John's attitude is horrible.They rest in a bar in the middle of nowhere. There, Esther Hoffman (Barbra Streissand) is singing her own songs. John has taken with him a bottle of whiskey, but the bar has not the licence to sell alcoholic beverages, so wine, coffee or tea are the only things which could be drunk inside. The waitress insists that he should not drink, but John insists on keeping the bottle with him. Finally, Esther steps in the conversation and allows him to drink it as long as he doesn't make a scene while she is singing. John Horward gets mesmerized by Esther.A radio DJ called Bebe Jesus (M.G. Kelly) hovers in a helicopter over the swimming pool at a hotel and invites John to his studio. John shoots the helicopter, so Bebe Jesus promises not to play any of John's songs in the future, and never to say his name again. Days later, when John goes with a box of beer bottles to make peace with Bebe Jesus, the radio disk jockey puts him to shame in front of his live audience over his alcoholism.John is angry because Esther has not tried to get in touch with him. He runs after her. John takes Esther with him to the all-important concert. He starts singing and suddenly gets the idea of making her sing onstage. Esther runs backstage and John follows her. A male fan kisses John - who doesn't make a show out of it, but says that he likes not the fan, but his motorbike. The crazed fan gives him his motorbike. John leaves with him. The audience is getting mad at him, a riot is begun and John and all his entourage leave, leaving Esther all on her own among the ruins.John takes Esther to his mansion. He is a lone bear who likes spraying graffiti on the walls. He writes her name on the wall. There, they make love, have a bath together, and he listens to her ad-living in his piano. She wants to correct some of the extremely high notes, but he thinks of two lines which could go with the music.Little by little, he starts to admire and encourage her. He even lends his music band and studio time for her to record her own materials with her voice. One of the music producers complains that John hasn't recorded any new songs for a long time. The producer tells him that the musicians are good, but they don't fit Esther's music, style or voice. John disagrees but Esther steps in and changes some of the music to make it her own.John's manager Brian (Paul Mazursky) has signed him for a charity concert in favor of the American Indians. John doesn't want to do it but he is finally convinced as he needs to satisfy his public just this once, a concert which is supposed to go smothly for once. When the day of the concert arrives, there is a huge crowd as usual. On the concert, John stops singing and the music, and tells the audience about a discovery of his.Esther is forced to sing two of her songs. Although the audience hates her looks at the beginning, they wildly cheer at her afterwards.Suddenly, John's manager wants to sign her. The music radio journalist wants to talk to him. John takes away in his flashy car.John tells her that she's succeeded, but she tells him that she wants to get married to him. John tells her that she doesn't really need him. They get married in a rashed civil union. John takes Esther to a plot of land he has, but there is no home on it.They start working on the site to build their mansion. She wants to have a tour co-starring with him, but he thinks that she should do the tour on her own. She feels insecure and asks him to go with him. He gets angry, because he doesn't want to go with her. She threatens him with staying at home and being only a wife. He leaves the home and creates more mayhem on his motorbikes. He jumps from some plankboards and lands on the floor... without the motorbike. She runs to take care of him, but nothing the matter happened to him. She tells him that she won't be able to have children with him because he only does crazy things. She mentions that she doesn't like men with bears, so he tries to cut his. Esther avoids him.Brian arrives with a photographer (Sally Kirkland). Brian thinks that John would be a bad influence for Esther, so he should stay at home while she goes on a tour. Brian tells John and John tells Esther while a photographer takes pictures of her.John finally accompanies her, but his idea of creating a new music band with his studio musicians called Freeway, but the idea seems to fall apart. Esther career takes off and stays up high.One evening John visits his musicians. The musicians are practicing. One of them (Stephen Bruton) tells John that the group is now called Speedway, that they are going solo and that they're having quite a success. After all, they had to do something while John was frolicking with Esther in the middle of their isolated plot of land. John says that he has different plans: to go on a tour on his own, with only two musicians he found on a townbar.John is sad and begins to sing to the sound of his guitar. He is interrupted by the phone. He picks it up: the voice is asking for Esther, wants to talk to her and asks him whether he is his secretary. John doesn't pick the phone anymore. John tells Esther - when she arrives after another successful gig - that many people are looking for her. She asks him what happened to his idea of going on tour with his old band, but John doesn't want to talk about it, and goes to drink some more.The Grammy prizes: John is not there with Esther. Esther wants to leave, but Brian and Freddie Lowenstine (Joanne Linville) stops her. Esther wins the award for Best Female Singer. When she is saying her acceptance speech, John arrives completely drunk and makes a scene. Esther thanks two people for her success - one of them is John. John feels outraged, so he says that Esther doesn't owe anything anybody.Esther and John leave. They practically run away. The journalists runs after them. They fall down to the floor, and John punches one of the journalists who asks him if he has resorted to violence with his wife. All this makes it to the headlines.Esther's success goes on. She goes on tour, this time on her own. Brian is her manager as well. Once, while she is being hurried on by the light technitians and there are problems with the synch of singing and the descent of some stairs, she tries to talk to Brian. John is writing songs again, many of them, but in a different way. Brian finallly accepts to give John a last chance. After all, and although he doesn't want to admit it, he appreciates him. Brian feels that he can't save John no matter what he does. Brian calls on John and listens to the songs, and doesn't like them. John notices that. Brian tells him that these songs are different to what he used to do, but that he would like to have them recorded anyway. However, John's intuition tells him what's going on and he says that he is going to record those songs with other musicians and producers.John leaves to his mansion, all on his own. However, he finds a "squatter". Quentin (Marta Heflin) is swimming half-naked on his swimming-pool. John is rude to Quentin. He wants her to go away. She writes for Rolling Stone and other magazines. She says she would do anything to get an exclusive interview. When Esther arrives a few moments later finds both of them in bed. They talk of the interview nonchalantly, and Quentin questions Esther, who stays motion- and speechless. John tells Quentin to get the hell out, and she does so in anger, saying that he was a crappy lover. Esther leaves the bedroom and smashes some vases and all the bottles of alcohol of John. She slaps him but John doesn't defend himself. She doesn't want to destroy her life like he has destroyed his.In spite of his anger, Esther can't leave him when he tells her that Quentin didn't really matter at all. They go to their small home in the middle of nowhere.One day, John takes his flashy sports car, puts on some of Esther's songs and drives like crazy.A helicopter in the middle of nowhere. The red sports car has had an accident. John is dead. Esther runs to him but it's useless. Esther asks for a blanket. She cries in silence. She wonders but she would do without him. He is taken away in an ambulance.Back at that huge mansion John had bought, Esther is alone, staring at the wall. She runs downstairs when she hears John's voice. John is asking somebody to pick up the phone. She must have felt stupid when she realises that it was the recorded voice of John coming from a radio that the stupid movers cannot turn off.Esther starts singing softly, acapella.
Frank Pierson
Director(s)
William A. Wellman
Robert Carson
John Gregory Dunne
Joan Didion
Frank Pierson
Jonathan Axelrod
Jay Presson Allen
Alvin Sargent
Writer(s)
Jon Peters
producer
Barbra Streisand
executive producer
Producer(s)
Roger Kellaway
Composer(s)
Esther Hoffman
Barbra Streisand
John Norman Howard
Kris Kristofferson
Bobbie Ritchie
Gary Busey
Gary Danziger
Oliver Clark
One of the Oreos
Venetta Fields
One of the Oreos
Clydie King
Quentin
Marta Heflin
Bebe Jesus
M.G. Kelly
Photographer
Sally Kirkland
Freddie
Joanne Linville
Mo
Uncle Rudy
Brian
Paul Mazursky
Speedway
Stephen Bruton
Speedway (as Sam Creason)
Sammy Lee Creason
Speedway
Cleve Dupin
Speedway
Donnie Fritts
Speedway
Dean Hagen
Speedway
Booker T. Jones
Speedway
Jerry McGee
Speedway
Art Munson
Speedway
Charles Owens
Speedway
Terry Paul
Speedway
Jack Redmond
Speedway
Bobby Shew
Speedway (as Michael Utley)
Mike Utley
Themselves
Montrose
Himself
Bill Graham
Herself
Rita Coolidge
Himself
Tony Orlando
Recording Engineer - 'Meow-Chow' Catfood Commercial (uncredited)
Aesop Aquarian
Extra (uncredited)
Brent Carpenter
Marty (uncredited)
Robert Englund
Kevin (uncredited)
Sandy Helberg
Table Guest at Grammy Awards (uncredited)
Roslyn Kind
Justice of the Peace (uncredited)
Maidie Norman
Record Producer (uncredited)
Neil Norman
A Star Is Born (1976)
No theatrical release dates have been decided.
Director(s)
Robert Carson
John Gregory Dunne
Joan Didion
Frank Pierson
Jonathan Axelrod
Jay Presson Allen
Alvin Sargent
Writer(s)
producer
Barbra Streisand
executive producer
Producer(s)
Composer(s)
Other Films from Warner Bros Pictures
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