if the role of Norma had been written, mutatis mutandis, for a man...
If the sexes were reversed...
You could still make a good movie out of it, but the "Norma" character would lose almost all her sympathetic qualities. "A Star Is Born" is a similar story: over-the-hill actor meets aspiring young actress. But he becomes weaker as the film goes on, and she gains strength. To have an older male character stalk and destroy a younger female character is just inherently distasteful, and it's partly because of the "balance of power" factor.
SB works because it plays on role reversal. In the Norma/Joe matchup, roles are reversed. Norma is old and fading, Joe is young and virile. He should have all the power in the relationship, but he doesn't - she does. If Norma were a man, he'd already be the powerful one in the relationship; where would the drama be? Norma and Joe are a much more even match: he SHOULD be able to resist her, he has enough qualities of his own, but she's an expert at this sort of game and she ends up with the advantage.
And because she's winning against the odds, we admire her, especially as we know that she can't win in the long run. We know all sorts of things she doesn't know: that Joe's in love with Betty, that the studio will never make her movie, that Max is secretly sending her fan mail to make her feel important. The odds are stacked way, way against her, yet she refuses to surrender gracefully. This is what makes her an interesting character and a sympathetic one. We can see how she came to be a star - she's not like everyone else, she's a determined, indefatigable fighter. It's like watching an over-the-hill prizefighter refusing to give up, even when his body can't take it anymore. It's inevitable, but we can't help but wish that it didn't have to happen.
Flat, drab passion meanders across the screen!
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