A Star Is Born

A Star Is Born is a love story filled with tragedy and struggle amidst the demise of one career and the birth of a new one. A young actress by the name of Esther Blodgett moves from North Dakota to Hollywood in search of fame in the movie industry. Once she makes the move, she realizes that the odds are of her becoming a star are slim to none. She struggles to find work at all, let alone acting jobs. Finally, she gets a waitress job at a Hollywood party that is jam packed with directors and actors. While at the party she catches the eye of Norman Maine, a major movie star that is falling out of favor in the industry due to his drinking problems. None the less Norman is able to get Esther a screen test for his good friend Oliver Niles and as a result gets a small role in a movie. She is also given a stage name of Vickie Lester. Later the studio is having an issue finding a female lead for The Enchanted Hour, Norman’s new film and he eventually convinces them to cast Esther. This ultimately catapults her to stardom and further pushes Norman out of the bright lights.

            As the movie continues Norman proposes to Esther and she agrees, but only if he vows to give up drinking which foreshadows things to come. Norman is unable to give up drinking and ruins Esther’s speech when she wins the industry’s top award for best actress and accidentally slaps her during his drunken episode. After that he goes on another drinking binge and ends up being arrested for drunk driving. Although he is sentenced to jail time, Esther pleads with the judge for him to be released into her custody and he relentingly agrees. During a conversation with Oliver, Esther lays out her plan to give up her career and care for her husband. This is overheard by Norman and overcome with guilt he drowns himself. As a result of this tragedy Esther decides to quit and go home but her grandmother shows Esther a letter Norman sent her when they got married. It described how proud Norman was of Esther and his deep love for her. Because of her grandma’s support and reassurance of Norman’s love, she would continue on in show business. The most intriguing part is Norman knew that he would continue down this destructive path. This would ultimately drag down not only himself but everyone around him, including Esther. So, in his eyes the only way to make sure she could continue with her life, was to take his own. The story basically meets in the middle of two careers on completely opposite trajectories.