How All Four Versions of A Star Is Born Compare, and Why the Film Keeps Coming Back

A successful man discovers and uplifts a young ingenue, only to be eclipsed by her success and fall prey to his own demons: that is the central, immutable story of all four iterations of A Star Is Born, though details shift, adapting to each distinct era.

Why keep reprising the same narrative? "Hollywood people buy into this mythology that there’s only so much space in the universe of stars, and for one to ascend, one has to fall," Karina Longworth, author of the forthcoming Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood, told Vanity Fair.

"It’s Hollywood’s favorite structured myth about itself. Hollywood makes these movies, like A Star Is Born, that are supposedly self-critical, as though they’re being made by somebody outside of Hollywood. As though the point of view of the movie is with the audience, being like, ‘Look at this horrible place, and what it does to humanity.’ But really that movie is obviously also a product of Hollywood. As it’s critiquing itself, it’s also shoring up the audience’s fascination with how it works."

But with this year's remake up for a stunning eight Academy Awards-including Best Picture, and Lady Gaga for Best Actress-there's a value in examining each version, and how the story has evolved from 1937 to today. Below, all four A Star Is Born movies, and how they stack up.