Mr. Movie: More Kris Kristofferson

Kris Kristofferson continued to rack up good parts in good movies in the 1970s. Well, okay, the 1976 version of A Star Is Born is not on anybody’s all-time great list. But it’s not bad and Kristofferson got to appear opposite Barbra Streisand and he got to use that gravelly voice. Kristofferson plays John Norman Howard, who had been a big country star and let drugs and bad habits drag him down. He meets Esther Hoffman (Streisand) and they are together as her star rises and his continues to decline. 

The 1937 version with Janet Gaynor and Frederic March is also just okay. You are more likely to have seen the 2018 version with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. It is the pick of this litter.

Semi-Tough (1977) from the Dan Jenkins novel is a really funny movie about a pro football team and its stars — Shake Tiller (Kristofferson) and Billy Clyde Puckett (Burt Reynolds). Jill Clayburgh is the love interest as Barbara Jane Bookman, pretty daughter of the team’s owner. She and Shake and Billy Clyde form a pleasing threesome that seems to somehow get along just fine. Barbara Jane starts to marry Shake, but that blows up at the altar and she winds up with Billy Clyde. The dialog is sparkling.

Convoy (1978) aimed to take advantage of the Citizen’s Band Radio fad of the time, and did pretty fair job of it. Kristofferson plays Martin “Rubber Duck” Penwald, one of many interesting characters in the film. Pig Pen, Widow Woman and Spider Mike are part of the crew of truckers that travel together. They are chased and harassed by Sheriff Cottonmouth Wallace (Ernest Borgnine). Duck’s love interest, Melissa (Ali MacGraw), thinks he died in an accident as the movie closes.

Kristofferson got a chance to star in a Michael Cimino movie, Heaven’s Gate (1980). It almost finished both of their careers. I will charitably say that it is dreadful. For one thing, most of it is so dusty you can’t tell what’s going on. But that might be a blessing. Anyway, French star Isabel Huppert, Jeff Bridges, Christopher Walken and William Dafoe all take part in the debacle. Kristofferson didn’t get another decent role for 16 years, when he played Charlie Wade in the mediocre western Lone Star.

Kristofferson got a bit of redemption when he got to play Whistler in the Blade films (1998, 2002, 2004). If sci-fi horror is your thing, these fill the bill. I do not like or recommend them.

Kristofferson’s last appearance of note is in Where The Red Fern Grows (2003). By this time, he is old and grizzled enough to play Older Billy Coleman, the main character as an old man. It’s mostly as a narrator in this somewhat sappy film.

All of the films in this article are available somewhere if you look hard and don’t mind paying. All are for adults.