The Rose (1979)

Directed by Mark Rydell. Starring Bette Midler, Frederic Forrest, Alan Bates, Barry Primus, David Keith. [R]

In her first major film acting role, Midler stars as a self-destructive rock singer known by the nickname “The Rose”; Bates plays her contentious and money-minded business manager/promoter, and Forrest is a limo driver with whom she starts a whirlwind romance. The protagonist was inspired by Janis Joplin, but that’s really about as deep as it gets in a story that could have written itself as a fictional grab-bag of other rock n’ roll biopics—the fame and addiction monsters are hard to handle, we know, and we’re left watching Midler fight those all-too-familiar losing battles without context or fresh angles. Midler gives it her all, onstage and off, and the obvious breakdowns and unsuitably fragile tremors are off-set by her coarse brassiness and the energetic concert sequences. She’s the reason to tune in, as she’s capable of making all but the most mundane or most preposterous moments compulsively watchable, even affecting. The title track, written by Amanda McBroom, went on to become one of Midler’s biggest (and most recognizable) hits, but the Golden Globe winner for Best Original Song wasn’t even a semi-finalist during Oscar voting. Michael Cimino made uncredited contributions to Bo Goldman and Bill Kerby’s screenplay.

60/100