A Star is Born is a well acted music-drama by Kris Kristofferson and Barbara Streisand who both share wonderful chemistry.
A Star is Born (1976)
REVIEW NAVIGATION
The Movie | Special Features | Video Quality | Audio Quality | Overall
Genre(s): Drama, Music
Warner Bros. | R – 140 min. – $27.98 | February 5, 2013
MOVIE INFO:
Directed by: Frank Pierson
Writer(s): William A. Wellman and Robert Carson (1937 story), John Gregory Dunne & Joan Didion and Frank Pierson (screenplay)
Cast: Barbara Streisand, Kris Kristofferson, Gary Busey
Theatrical Release Date: December 17, 1976
DISC INFO:
Features: Commentary, Wardrobe Tests, Deleted Scenes/Alternate Takes, Trailers
Number of Discs: 1
Audio: English (DTS-HD MA 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 1.0), Spanish (Dolby Digital 1.0)
Video: 1080p/Widescreen 1.78
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Disc Size: NA
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Region(s): A, B, C
THE MOVIE
Synopsis: A Star Is Born is a 1976 rock music film telling the story of a young woman (BARBERA STREISAND) who enters show business, and meets and falls in love with an established male star (KRIS KRISTOFFERSON) to find her career ascending while his goes into decline.
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.0/5
This digibook release of A Star is Born comes with a 40-page booklet with “rare behind-the-scenes photos” and essays about the movie.
Nothing new or extraordinary here, we do get a commentary with star Barbara Streisand who a fair job filling the time providing anecdotal info on how she came onto the project, about her role and behind-the-scenes stories. Also included are Wardrobe Tests (3:12; SD) with commentary by Streisand, some 12 deleted scenes (16:44; SD) and a few trailers for all three versions.
VIDEO – 4.0/5
Warner Brothers releases A Star is Born onto Blu-ray presented with a 1.78 widescreen aspect ratio and 1080p high-definition. For the most part, and taking the film’s age into somewhat consideration, it doesn’t look bad. The detail levels aren’t exactly the best in some scenes, distant shots specifically, but they’re on the acceptable side while the darker elements have a nice starkness without showing too much artifacting or other ailments. By no means is this a great transfer but one that is certainly a step up from the DVD format.
AUDIO – 4.5/5
The benefit this Blu-ray gets is an upgrade in the audio department. The disc has receives a finely-tuned 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track which shows off not only the musical moments/scenes/songs, but the quieter, dialogue-driven scenes as well. Each channel has a nice, even spread with the soundtrack complimenting the perfectly solid video transfer.
OVERALL – 3.75/5
Overall, A Star is Born is a well acted music-drama by Kris Kristofferson and Barbara Streisand who both share wonderful chemistry. The Blu-ray book released by Warner Brothers doesn’t have a plethora of features, not even a behind-the-scenes featurette, but the commentary by Streisand is compelling and the audio/video transfers are both above average. If you can snag this for under $20, then it might be worth picking up.
Published: 02/17/2013