One of the emotional climaxes of the new “A Star Is Born” remake arrives when Bradley Cooper, playing alcoholic country-rocker Jackson Maine, drunkenly humiliates his wife, a mortified Lady Gaga, at the Grammy Awards. But just before he makes a mockery of himself at the podium, Maine stumbles through a tribute segment to the late Roy Orbison. Hammered to the point of being barely conscious, he nevertheless makes it through some rowdy guitar licks on a rousing cover of Orbison’s famous “Oh, Pretty Woman,” while the real-life Brandi Carlile takes the vocal lead.
It’s an exciting, memorable scene. And it happens to come right as Orbison is already having a moment.
It’s been 31 years since T Bone Burnett assembled Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and others for the super-group tribute show “A Black and White Night” — a concert special Cooper’s scene knowingly references. Months after the special aired in 1988, at a mere 52, Orbison was dead. Three decades later, “A Star Is Born” proves how relevant Orbison’s music continues to be. READ MORE
