Star Is Born, A (DVD)

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What I didn't care for, in addition to Streisand's overplaying the Streisand act, were the film's excessive length (140 minutes); some pretty corny lines ("I can take all the tenderness you've got"); the tearjerker ending; the pedestrian direction of Frank Pierson, whose work before and since has largely been for television; and the sense that we've all seen these characters and their actions before and can foretell every move they're going to make a good hour in advance.

Oh, and there is one more thing I alluded to it earlier that I enjoyed about watching the film at home: The volume control.

Video:
I'm going to make a wild guess here and suggest that the DVD transfer probably looks about good as the original print. But understand that the filmmakers intended the photography to look as gritty and realistic as possible, with a good deal of outdoor location shooting. A fairly high bit rate and anamorphic widescreen enhancement produce an image that fills out a 1.78:1 television screen, thus retaining most of the film's 1.85:1 theatrical-release ratio. The opening concert footage is rough, dark, and grainy, but things improve from there. Colors are solid, with good depth, texture, and definition, and black levels are strong. But a slightly coarse look prevails through most of the film.

Audio:
The audio, conveyed via Dolby Digital 5.1 processing, is very wide across the front channels, with good clarity, decent dynamics, and a reasonably taut mid bass. The deepest bass comes and goes, however, and rear-channel surround is sparse. My only serious quibble is that dialogue can sometimes sound a trifle pinched and dry.

Extras:
Ms. Streisand's legion of fans will be pleased to know that she provides an audio commentary that is highly personal. As the film's executive producer, it appears from the way she talks that she practically directed it, too. According to her comments, she apparently had a good deal control over what happened in the script, when it happened, where it happened, and how it happened, and she spends a lot of her time in the commentary talking about her color choices in the film. If that's not enough of the star, she also provides commentary on about sixteen minutes of additional scenes, eleven scenes in all, and commentary on about three minutes of wardrobe tests.

The extras wrap up with thirty-nine scene selections but no chapter insert; a gallery of theatrical trailers for all three "A Star Is Born" movies; English and French spoken languages; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles.

Parting Shots:
As I've said, the thing the film gets right is the music, although it has tended to date as much as the 1970s' clothing and hair styles, and, besides, it's not enough to carry the whole picture. Ms. Streisand has a great voice and a great stage presence, and she has made a number of good films in her career. For me, "A Star Is Born" is not one of them.

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