Bette Midler on The Rose

The Rose, directed by Mark Rydell, is available now in Criterion Blu-ray and DVD editions.

[@wandertwins]

The Academy still owes her an Oscar for this incredible performance.

[@SuperPrincess526]

wandertwins i know...right...she was robbed!!!

[@Starkardur]

She was never going to win over Sally Field who swept all the awards that year.

[@GeekGamers01]

Still bothers me after all these years!

[@nettenette78]

I watched this movie as a child and it moved me to tears. I can't wait to watch it now as an adult.

[@CaptainSpalding72]

@@Starkardur she should have. Norma Rae is not a good picture

[@janecridland1469]

I still am baffled that Bette did not win the Oscar. What a performance!

[@larrybarber7574]

Bette should have won the oscar for THE ROSE!!!!!

[@hank3339]

Amen to that!

[@jasonlauderdale7198]

Larry Barber damn right!!!!

[@CaptainSpalding72]

Yes

[@diggarcia5190]

This was an Oscar worthy performance, and an amazing movie. She encapsulated the emotional/mental depths of any entertainer suddenly in the limelight when they are not secure to begin with. But as a loosely based chronicle of Janis, awesome and sad. An individual looking for love and acceptance.

[@AestheticOfTheImage]

0:16 - I LOVE the way she says, "I really tried to bring THAT - to the table" - so strong and intelligent.

[@davescat2118]

I went to see The Rose every night that played in town. Some nights I sat through twice because the ushers didn’t care. The last few weeks I was the only one in the theater. I wore out the vinyl soundtrack about three times, a couple eight tracks and cassettes. The CD does not do the band instruments justice. I still play the vinyl & cassettes, which has superior qualities to any other. medium.

[@edreid7872]

Love the Rose...and watching Bette perform those songs makes me feel exhausted every time I watch it...I truly believe she bled after filming..

[@maskedmarvyl4774]

Big big hug for Better Midler. I can't watch the Rose without thinking of Janis Joplin, and it Always makes me sad.....

[@MontagZoso]

Oh Bette....you were robbed so bad. That Oscar was yours!! ❤️

[@JoeKaye959]

Who robbed her?

[@kristopher1799]

@@JoeKaye959: Sally Field in Norma Rae.

[@JoeKaye959]

@@kristopher1799 and how did she do it ? She paid off all the members of the Academy to vote for her ?

[@MontagZoso]

@@kristopher1799 No, I think it was Sissy Spacek that won that year.

[@Starkardur]

Sally Field was the first actress to sweep the award season. She won all the percursors, heck she even won at Cannes. @@JoeKaye959

[@trevorthompson7604]

One of the greatest films of all time

[@annrodriguez2891]

Best performance of her career ❤

[@thevoid99]

the divine miss m. a true diva and a true superstar. happy this is out on criterion.

[@pangeo1259]

This woman has divine talent.Long live my girl.

[@stanharry3722]

In this movie I remember Sylvester James played a black Diana Ross impersonation in this movie which was funny..Rip Sylvester

[@StephenB58]

wandertwins : You DAMN RIGHT!!! Nobody could play this role like Bette Midler. NOBODY! She damn should have been awarded best actress for this role. How screwed up is the academy? Remember, back in the 1990's, Marlon Brando had a bit part in some movie. He didn't win, thank God. Anyway, the part lasted only about thirty seconds. That's right. You heard me correctly. His scene lasted only about thirty seconds...30. He spoke one line and was nominated for an academy award for best supporting actor. He didn't win. Bette Midler earned the Academy Award for best actress for her role in "The Rose". She just was never awarded it.

[@randywhite3947]

What movie was that?

[@CaptainSpalding72]

The same thing happened to Ellen Burstyn for an Emmy win of a tv movie. 87 seconds or some ridiculous short amount of time. She won. It caused such a stir, the rules were changed to make sure the performance is significantly longer . Brando was always nominated for junk in his later years. Beatrice Strsight from NETWORK won a best Supporting actress Oscar as a victim of cheating husband to William Holden. Her performance lasted roughly 5 minutes total. She gives this brilliant monologue that is about half that. But shes not seen again. Absurd.

[@davidstevenson5265]

@@randywhite3947 Apocolypse Now

[@juneclark3584]

My dad loved that song, the rose

[@michaellesage6473]

I ♥ Bette Midler The Divine Miss M.

[@eliza7511]

bette, you shoulda won the friggin' oscar for this. BRILLIANT work. thank you.

[@nevillecooper7541]

Bette was outstanding in this role.

[@johannesbols57]

Her vocals were all live, no overdubs, no lip sync.

[@sweets3745]

I could listen to another 5 hours of this.. Wow. So cool so creative. Such a great movie! I hope they never remake it.

[@CrazyworldFab]

The Divine Miss M !!! greatest movie !

[@t.r.9542]

Still one of my favorite movies.

[@artie]

This brought Bette into my life and excited my senses for great music and performance such as I’ve never seen.

[@cp2010]

It's been a lot of years since I first saw this movie. It's impact on me still is the "fire from below," the girl I loved so much back then. Watched the movie with me, and many years later, she said, " The Rose is how I remember you". The movle Oscar should have gone to Bette. She put her heart and soul into that movie. God bless ya ❤xxxx

[@debbiethomson1799]

my hero xx

[@carrieroderick5574]

Nobody could have played that part better than Bette Mildler

[@richalderson6069]

Clearly, Bette gave everything to this movie, what an amazing achievement.

[@hlm7483]

thank yoy, bette!!!! ♥️👍👌✌️😎

[@christinabogiatzi5779]

Bette was an Oscar actress in this movie. Nothing less than that!!!

[@jonyivre4541]

The Rose was (too early) Bette Midler's pinnacle.

[@panchisvela5749]

Mujer a toda madre es una chingona Mexico la ama, es la mejor

[@randolphlex714]

Shes not just a great singer she just has the stuff i ran into Kevin kostner he has it too.coolness

[@paulajones114]

Bete you SHOULD HAVE WON EVERY AWARD FOR THE ROSE MOVIE. NO ONE COULD HAVE DONE IT BETTER!!!!!!!!!!

[@footballmom2014]

When a man loves and stay with me especially stay with me she absolutely killed. Unbelievable!

[@88feji]

Its sad that she is forbidden to mention the name of Janis Joplin in any interviews simply because the movie originally intended to be a biopic of Janis was not sanctioned by Janis's family .. so they had to change the script and avoid any references to Janis's name in interviews .. Its the reason why until today we still do not have any movie based on Janis Joplin .. because the star's family never gave anyone the permission to do so, for some strange reason ... its like they never wanted to celebrate the life of such a cherished soul who graced the music scene with so much earnestness and genuine emotions ....

[@imaginationunreal]

I've never heard this. She has stated in interviews (using Janis Joplin's reference) that the movie is not about Joplin. Watch the interview she did with Phil Donahue from 1979 or 1980. In it, she goes into detail about the how the script developed over time to a form she was comfortable with, because she specifically did not want to do a biopic of Joplin.

[@ericandy88]

I am guessing the Joplin family wants to depict her story their way on their own time. Not to whitewash anything, I am sure, but just to make sure even honest details are not sensationalized. I suppose a script they like has just never happened, so the wait goes on. Plus, if they had, say, used Janis' music, they probably would have set themselves up for legal action there, too. It is part of the reason why a real biopic of Jimi Hendrix has not happened (All Is By My Side got around that by depicting a time before he was a star, admittedly a period in his career most moviegoers do not really care about & using cover songs). If you cannot use the music of the person you are making a movie about, it is probably best not to do it at all. Walking that fine line between biopic & roman a clef like The Rose did is difficult & not for everyone.

[@travisjames3517]

88feji Because they are POS and they know that they will look like POS if a movie is made of her life.

[@albertgarza5633]

It’s true. The film could only say it’s inspired by Janis. Her family shoots down films if the script isn’t right. Her parents probably would never, but her siblings are in charge of estate now. They commissioned the documentary, “Little Girl Blue”. So there’s still hope, if the right screenplay comes along.

[@randywhite3947]

Not everyone wants a movie made about their life.

[@fingerprint5511]

Love Bette, always a keeper

[@kreloswingate638]

I saw this movie in theater which is the only way to enjoy this movie. I loooooove this movie so much I bought the soundtrack and played it to death. I still listen to this soundtrack to this day. My favorite song is Sold My Soul To Rock’n Roll. This movie made me a Bette Midler fan to this day. I saw this movie after Gene Shalit on the Today Show gave the film great reviews.

[@LilRocker2005]

The first time I saw The Rose was on VHS. My mom was a huge Bette Midler fan and this was one of her favorites next to "Beaches" and "Stella". She had the tape which I borrowed from her when I was like 11 I think and I fell in love with it! That's when my mom told me that she actually got to show "The Rose" at a drive in theater where she worked as a projectionist before she had me. She also had the soundtrack on cassette tape and played it to death! My favorites were "Whose Side Are You On", "Stay With Me" and the track that plays when Rose is arriving at the hometown show near the end of the movie. I think the track was called "Camellia"

[@marionturner7573]

The Greatest of all time the Rose

[@survivor648]

She was stellar in this and no award?? Makes me question the reason for that.

[@donnaford9390]

The rose

[@RobertSJHu]

Aloha Bette Midler and criterioncollection !!!! Thanks so much for posting the background to your movie documentary on "The Rose." Most interesting data given and I guess you felt quite alive doing this musical performance ~~~~~ so are you ready again to do more ??? (He-he)~~~~ just joking !!!! Yes, those yesterdays you truly worked so hard and skyrocketed !!!! Me ke aloha pumehana, Robert S.J. Hu August 29, 2020.

[@talos2373]

I loved the ending when she ods and drops dead.

[@RetroBomb78]

Saying things like will only encourage tragedy into your life, I just hope the same doesn't happen to your loved ones!

[@talos2373]

​@@RetroBomb78- I didn't write the script.

[@royohrn5848]

Live on Beauty chill you ring the Bell of ours ..roy

[@davidpar2]

It’s a perfect 50/50 of empathy for Mary Rose. On one hand, you feel sorry for her, knowing she must have hurt feeling unwanted, unloved, rejected, etc. with the emptiness of her fans’ generic adoration and ultimately a return to heroin as her only “fixes” for that. On the other, it’s impossible to do, as she was her own worst enemy, given chance after chance (with Houston) and burning bridge after bridge each time. I can’t stand Midler’s politics, but I’ve always thought she was a good entertainer, and this role is a great example of that

[@zeldasmith6154]

I hope she and Woody Allen can make another movie. She is so talented. Funny. Smart. Versatile.

[@ddivincenzo1]

Forgive any ignorance on my part, but wasn't Janis the main inspiration behind the movie? She wrote the lyrics didn't she? I may be incorrect.

[@girlfriend677]

You've just found yourself a new line of research! One that can last a lifetime. Janis was an inspiration, obviously. But Bette turned what might have been a reasonably effective biopic into a transcendental slam/celebration of all things 60's/70's, as well as the turning of the page between those two eras. Her subsequent "success", if one chooses to limit oneself to such a limited description of her influence, owes very little to Janis, and much much more to her monstrous ferocity, dangerous animal destruction-oriented view of anyone who got in her way. And, notably, nobody ever dared.

[@copperhead9437]

The script was originally written about Janis Joplin but the Joplin family wouldn't ok it after it was written so the producers decided to fictionalize it. Instead of Janis it became Mary. Instead of Port Arthur Texas, Janis's home town, it became Jacksonville Florida. The big part about Rose going back home and returning a superstar actually did happen to Janis, but it turned out being a traumatic return because those who knew her before she became famous would bring up things she did in the past in front of the press and they pretty much humiliated her in front of the world. Janis also died of a heroin over dose but she was by herself in a hotel room not onstage.

[@oklahomorose]

Janis didn't write the lyrics of any of the songs used in this film.

[@CaptainSpalding72]

No lyrics

[@denny8093]

Usally strong performances where you act and sing like this win Oscars , and Bette didn’t which was a shock to all

[@marycroll3168]

What’s the matter🌹don’t you own a 🏺💋

[@user-mw8um6mc3v]

Not too many people have been nominated for acting Oscars and won Grammy awards. Bette has done BOTH..... twice.

[@MsJo1962]

❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@trilby5546]

Fire down below not on soundtrack.

[@daisyduke4640]

She's so interesting..

[@CaptainSpalding72]

This movie versus Streisands, STAR IS BORN. This one feels authentic. The latter never has. Bette would have made A STAR IS BORN believable. Streisand didn't even sing the right music.

[@robert666977]

I resented sally fields fir years after bette lost the oscar

[@fredericokrueger3175]

Então, um baita filme tendo a Janis como inspiração! Apenas como inspiração, não é uma biografia e não há músicas da Janis no filme! O problema de biografias é quando distorcem tudo, inventam coisas para agradar o fã, como fizeram no Bohemian Rhapsody. Aí os críticos têm que sentar o sarrafo mesmo! Ou é biografia ou é obra de ficção, essa coisa de mostrar a parte da biografia que interessa ao fã e mudar o resto é desonestidade intelectual!

[@ConservativeAnthem]

Bette is here for the women! lol

[@Nicoletta13]

She sang until she bled???😮poor Bette That's awful to put her through. It's abusive .. That explains why when she sings the songs from the "Rose " it's more mellow

[@user-ko2yj7zw3f]

robbed of the oscar. disgraceful!

[@wandertwins]

The Academy still owes her an Oscar for this incredible performance.

[@garlynspain3799]

wandertwins I. Love. N

[@garlynspain3799]

Fc

[@CaptainSpalding72]

She wont ever win. She makes those shitstain comedies that arent funny.