MovieChat Forums > The Rose (1979) Discussion > Bette Midler horrendously miscast...emba...

Bette Midler horrendously miscast...embarrassing


Bette Midler acts like someone trying hard to act like someone who's raunchy, loose, free, and on drugs. Bette Midler just cannot play a hippie -- too slick, 1970s vibe, JAPpy, people-pleaser, and also way way too old for a role like Janis. Plus not a bluesy singers. Horrible singing, in fact.

I turned off the movie at the point the character has the crowd start chanting: "Drugs sex rock n roll" -- Janis would never ever ever ever do something like that. She believed in LOVE. That was her thing. Bette Midler was a New York 1970s gay icon - totally wrong and opposite of San Francisco. She is ironic, harsh, and unpleasant in a way Janis never was.

Uck...some movies just don't translate well over time.

Embarrassing.

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She wasn't playing Janis Joplin. I thought I once read that she actually based The Rose character off of Jim Morrison personality.

She was basically acting like herself, though, because when you see old clips of her at the Continental Baths she is doing the same outrageous act.

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She wasn't playing Joplin but the movie was 100% based on her, no question. They even recreated various scenes from her life, like when she went back to her hometown to show off what a big star she'd become and no one gave a shit.

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She's plays it like it's Broadway. She has no soul.

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Bette Midler looks and acts terrible in this. Hippie chicks had a particular look to them--very thin, lithe with bone straight hair. Midler was chunky and had frizzy, curly hair. And she looked like Dee Snyder.

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