The Rose (1979)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It's 1969. Mary Rose Foster (Bette Midler) is a tired superstar. She is lonely, drunk, a recovering drug addict, and desperate to get off the stage. His greedy manager Rudge Campbell talks her out of it. She gets dismissed by country legend Billy Ray (Harry Dean Stanton) and she runs off with limo driver Huston Dyer (Frederic Forrest). He's AWOL from the Army.This is a tour de force performance from Bette Midler. She uses all of her singing and stage presence to be a rock star on film. It helps that she does really perform on stage. There are some solid hits. It's her film acting debut and she shines. It's a great launching pad for her. The plot does ramble on and on. It would help to place a destination or a ticking clock on the story. I never really love Dyer although I thought they were building good chemistry until that incident. I assumed that relationship would be central all the way to the end. The flow is a little ragged. The overriding takeaway is Bette Midler's terrific performance.

'The Rose' is two hours of enjoyable entertainment. Described as a 'Joplin-like' drama, I initially wanted a Janis Joplin biopic. Too young to be a record buyer - or listener even, when Joplin was scorching the music scene with her incredible vocals that notion was intriguing and I wasn't going to the cinema when this film came out.Watching it late on TCM, the clichés and standard script clanked wearily and I was expecting a long haul. Seasoned and well respected Brit actor Alan Bates seemed an odd choice as the music manager and promoter and I initially thought that he had undersold himself. Luckily, his fairly subtle performance does not try and steal anything away from the raucous and bubbly Bette Midler, who was Oscar nominated for her efforts. That she performed the vocals, too, (the soundtrack seems to be available on CD, as well) is even more impressive - I was sure of - and looking at the end credits - to find out which singing sensation had performed the actual vocals.Harry Dean Stanton, always good value seemed to have a very small part, which was disappointing, whilst the two young men in Rose's chaotic life, Fredric Forrest and David Keith (the latter who I have recognised in other films) again do a credible job.The planes, limos and stadiums full of adoring fans are annoyingly predictable, but I guess you cannot get away from those. I have to add that the sound quality was very good on the music performance side (also Oscar nominated) and it's very tempting to crank up the volume when Bette belts those numbers out.There are some other good scenes; the one in the drag queen bar especially endearing and thankfully, hissy-fits and melodramatic outbursts kept just to the right side of OK.So, if you like your 'tough-at-the-top', pretty gritty fame flick and you enjoyed the music scene from the early '70s and especially if you are a Bette Middler fan, then The Rose has a lot going for it. The baggage full of clichés become a reluctantly necessary attachment - get over those and you might well enjoy it, as I ended up doing.

First-rate rock'n'roll road film.When I saw it in the theaters the year it was released I was a. totally impressed by it as a film and b. totally sympathetic with Rose.I have to say though that 10 years later as a manager and agent for musicians (not rock'n'roll and certainly not on the scale presented in the film) I had a whole new appreciation for people who possessed one undeniable talent yet made life hell for those who worked to help them make a living at it! Having managed one very popular high-end Irish booze-hungry performer who showed up when he felt like it ("I know when the sound check should be") and also felt free to book conflicting dates on his own when he felt the money would be better -- AFTER a contract had been signed! -- I felt huge sympathy for Rudge Campbell. Yes he might have been a little too money hungry but by god he was right when he "fired" her... once the contract is signed it's too late to change your mind.Bottom line though is that this is a fine film and a very accurate record of how an unstable performer can run herself into the ground.

While the film is a very good one with Bette Midler giving a marvelous Oscar nominated performance, Ms. Midler is at worst when she belts out the songs. All you basically hear is loud music and Ms. Midler scream-singing.Nevertheless, Bette delivers a walloping performance as a boozy, emotionally distraught rock star caught up with drugs besides alcohol. She is emotionally unbalanced especially with the men who seem to come into and exit her lives in record time.Midler receives excellent support from Fred Forest, as an AWOL guy who befriends her, becomes her lover only to suffer repeated abuse as well as Alan Bates, in fine form as her manager unable to cope with her emotionally unbalanced behavior.Where is everyone going? This is the constant message stated by Bette (Rose) throughout the film.This is the usual story of a person's inability to handle success. Yet, Bette Midler proves herself a really competent actress.