A Star Is Born (1976)

A Star Is Born is a 1976 American musical romantic drama film about a young singer (Barbra Streisand) who meets and falls in love with an established rock and roll star (Kris Kristofferson), only to find her career ascending while his goes into decline.

The film is a remake of the 1937 original drama starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, which had also been adapted in 1954 as a musical starring Judy Garland and James Mason. The story was again adapted in 2018 starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.

John Norman Howard, a famous and self-destructive singer/songwriter rock star, arrives late for a concert. He is drunk, sings a couple of songs, and walks off stage. John's entourage, including his manager Brian, takes him to a bar where Esther Hoffman is singing. One of John's fans find him there and starts a fight. Esther grabs John and helps him escape out a back door.

They go to Esther's, but she invites him to come back for breakfast. Over breakfast, she agrees to go to a concert with him. After arriving by helicopter, John rides a motorbike around the stage, snags a cable and crashes off the front of the stage. John is taken away by ambulance and his entourage leave in the helicopter forgetting Esther.

Afterwards, John is resting at home by his pool. A radio DJ, Bebe Jesus, hovers over the pool in a helicopter and invites John to his studio. John gets angry and shoots at the helicopter. Bebe Jesus then threatens to never play John's songs. Later, John goes to the radio station with a case of whiskey to make peace with Bebe Jesus. The disc jockey does not accept John's apology and calls John an alcoholic over the air. Esther happens to be at the radio station at the same time, taping a commercial, John takes Esther to his mansion and writes her name on the wall with a can of spray paint. There, they make love, have a bath together, and he listens to her playing his piano. She thinks no one would be able to sing to the tune she has written, but he makes up some lyrics and starts singing.

At his next concert, John gets Esther on stage to sing. Although the audience boos when she starts to sing, she wins them over. Later, she tells John she wants them to get married. John replies that he's no good for her, but she persists, and they marry. John takes Esther to a plot of land he has out west where they build a simple house. She wants a tour co-starring with him, but he thinks she should do the tour on her own. Esther's career takes off, eclipsing his.

John returns to the studio thinking of restarting his career. His band tells him they have gone on without him. At home alone, John begins to write a new song. As he records it, he is interrupted by the phone. Someone asks for Esther and wants to know whether he is her secretary.

At the Grammy Awards, Esther wins for best female performance. While she is giving her acceptance speech, John arrives drunk and makes a scene. Later, Esther tries to talk Brian into giving John a last chance. John is writing songs again but in a different way. Brian calls on John and likes the new songs, but suggests John release some of his old hits along with the new songs. However, John wants to go with the new work only, so he turns down the offer.

Back at his LA mansion, John finds Quentin, a magazine writer, swimming half-naked in his swimming pool. She says she would do anything to get an exclusive interview with Esther. When Esther arrives soon after, she finds them in bed together. Quentin tries to interview Esther, but John tells Quentin to get out. Esther and John end up going back to their small home out west where they have been happiest.

One day, John goes alone to the airport to pick someone up and bring them back. He takes his flashy sports car, puts on some of Esther's songs and purposefully drives recklessly and much too fast, ignoring the traffic signs on the road.

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 what she would do without him. He is taken away in an ambulance.

Afterwards, back at the LA mansion, Esther hears John's voice calling out for someone to answer the phone. But she discovers it's just a tape of the old songwriting session during which the phone had interrupted his singing.

At Esther's next concert, the audience raises candles as tribute to her lost husband. She sings one of John's songs but begins it as a ballad and ends it as a rock song.