The whole message of this movie is that you will kill to protect the thing you love most. Noah Baumbach and Jennifer Jason Leigh? It makes me wonder if that cocaine - laced achohol drink mickey my maternal Uncle Billy Hagood slipped Mommy had something to do with my existence. Back to movie. Eric Roberts kills Dorothy Straten because he can't have the thing he loves most, his life in the form of Dorothy Straten, carry on in the world of the rich people elite, Hollywood, Playboy Magazine, sports, and any form of record label music, without him. Eric Roberts, as an actor in this movie, is obivously anti-semitic,(like me, outside of writing this, this is not an act, I honestly am), and has low self-esteem, again, as an actor in this movie, as seen with the scene in this movie with the African-American woman. Eric Roberts poisons himself with a lethal overdose of love, dying in this mortal world of ours as an actor in this movie. Will Eric Roberts as an actor in this movie, after death as an actor in this movie, go to Yaweh's Heavenly Kingdom or Lucifer's Hell? Only Yaweh knows. It is not for us mortals to judge any mortal, whether in a movie, a play, a book, music, or in our true selves as mortals in this world we call Earth. Only Yaweh.

The slimy underbelly of the entertainment industry and the destruction that so often comes along with fame was a theme that lurked behind every movie Bob Fosse made, and it's at its most obvious and aggressively nasty in "Star 80." Eric Roberts plays Paul Snider, a sleazy hood who discovered Playboy centerfold Dorothy Stratten and then murdered her and himself in an obsessive rage. It's a heartbreaking, violent and disturbing story on many levels; however, the saddest thing about it is that Stratten wouldn't be worth making a movie about if she hadn't been murdered in the first place. What does that tell you about the lure of celebrity?Roberts gives a fierce performance as Snider -- he was a very good and almost completely overlooked actor. Mariel Hemingway plays Stratten, and she's rather vapid, which is all the role really requires. Fosse was not able to keep his cynicism and bile at bay, and so while the movie is accomplished, it's also downright unpleasant to sit through. It's as nihilistic as "All That Jazz" but without the flashy production numbers to add some variety.Grade: B

This story of Dorothy Stratten's end was a symbol of the end of the 70's ideal of the innocence of snorting coke and partying incessantly. I couldn't help but be reminded how Brian Jones's end and the subsequent tragic concert at Altamont heralded the end of the Peace and Love Generation of the 60's. (Wouldn't you know both were sweet, talented and ethereal Pisces People, known by all to this day!) People embraced both ideals, but inevitably, were quashed by people on a different drug or of a different psychosis. Hugh Hefner was portrayed as a survivor, someone who could reap the benefits of his lifestyle because he was in control (just like Mick Jagger?) There was a line drawn between Hefner, dream-weaver/businessman, and Paul Snyder, psychotic/hustler, and Heffner saw it instantly. This impressed me though I don't like the man. His henchman was on the same page as his King, intercepting Snyder's calls to the Mansion. This movie could have been merely sensational but the script, direction, look and editing, not to mention the acting, were top-drawer and made their point well.

STAR 80 is a scary movie alright but the truth about the killing of Paul Snider and Dorothy Stratton is even scarier. Paul Snider grew up in Vancouver, B.C. in an apartment complex called Dolphin Court located in Kerrisdale, a higher class neighbourhood. He was pretty much a normal kid, played with all the other children in the complex, Frannie, Janice, Carol, the Nusant, kids, some kids who later became highly distinguished in their fields and some who were never heard of. like me. I remember we would sit around Richard's parents TV watching Maggie Muggins and Tom Terrific and Mighty Manfred the wonder dog. What was strange to me was that Paul would climb to the top of the slide at the playground in the center of the apartment complex and look down at me and yell " Penny! Penny!" I wasn't afraid of him I just remember he seemed to be crying out for help. My mother told me that Penny had been his little sister and was killed in an accident. His mother had told my mother that it had not been long since she had died and Paul was missing her.I suppose I looked like her.Not until years later did I learn from my mother that Paul had stabbed me in the back of my neck with a pair of sheers he had found in the basement. No details were ever given for how it happened or why.That was around 1956, Ever since my mother told me that I have wondered what could have happened. When I heard on the radio decades later, that Paul Snider had killed himself and Dorothy Stratto and then saw the movie I know something was all wrong.I now know what. I just have to put a few middle missing pieces together before I can see the whole truth. I am getting close.