Katie decides that their relationship is doomed by politics and just plain fate. Hubbell doesn't see what's to be gained by getting involved. Katie has dropped her political activities, but when the Cold War witch hunts begin she feels the need to take a stand. They eventually marry and move to Hollywood, where Hubbell's influential friends find him studio screenwriting work. Katie encourages Hubbell to live up to his potential. She finds Hubbell in a white Naval uniform drinking in a bar, and takes him to bed. Years later during the war Katie is an energetic contributor to the war effort and FDR's social programs. Eastern college girl Katie (Streisand) is a Red-sympathizing college activist who becomes infaturated with a white-bread Adonis, aspiring writer Hubbell (Redford). The creative infighting between Pollack, Redford and Streisand turned the making of The Way We Were into a high-powered Hollywood battleground.Īrthur Laurents' screen story was almost abandoned in re-writes, yet mostly reinstated before filming began. Streisand wanted Sydney Pollack, and through him enlisted as her co-star the ideal male heartthrob of the moment, Robert Redford. After six years in movies and wielding impressive clout, Streisand made most of the major personnel decisions on the picture, not just the choice of cameraman, Harry Stradling Jr. Woody Allen's The Front (coming next February from Twilight Time) may have been the next blacklist-themed major release, and that was several years later. The original screenplay by Arthur Laurents has autobiographical aspects, and embraces a "daring" theme dear to the New Liberals of the '70s Hollywood establishment: the hot-button topic of the Hollywood Blacklist. This was Barbra's penultimate commitment to producer Ray Stark, so it was difficult to find a script that was both commercial enough for him and challenging enough for her. It wants to be many things but best succeeds as a high-end vehicle for its leading lady, the talented powerhouse who conquered most every career challenge available in show business. The Way We Were remains one of Barbra Streisand's most popular pictures. Title Song Marvin Hamlisch, Marilyn and Alan Bergman Starring Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, Lois Chiles, Patrick O'Neal, Bradford Dillman, Viveca Lindfors, Murray Hamilton, Sally Kirkland, Connie Forslund, James Woods, Susan Blakeley. Street Date Novem/ available through Screen Archives Entertainment / 29.95 That's sort of thankless, but Redford handles it well.1973 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 118 min. The primary purpose of the character is to provide someone into whose life Streisand can enter and then leave. The Redford character perhaps in reaction to the inevitable Streisand performance, is passive and without edges. The way she looks at him (calculating the angles-but tenderly, somehow) is pure Streisand. She's fine in a scene where Hubbell turns up at her apartment drunk, makes love in less than desultory fashion and conks out. She's the brightest, quickest female actress in movies today, inhabiting her characters with a fierce energy and yet able to be touchingly vulnerable. It's easy to forgive the movie a lot because of Streisand. Instead, inexplicably, the movie suddenly and implausibly has them fall out of love-and they split up without resolving anything, particularly the plot. So we're all set up for the big obligatory scene where Katie stands up for principle and Hubbell chickens out at a HUAC hearing. They arrive roughly during the McCarthy period, and of course Katie is outraged in defense of the Hollywood 10 and Hubbell doesn't care. And Hubbell sells his book to Hollywood and follows it West to sell out. So of course they fall in love and get married (Katie alternating between praising Hubbell's mind and his body Hubbell listening attentively). Hubbell, on the other hand, suggests that she find an additional mode of address to supplement her basic one, the impassioned political harangue.Īnyway, they have nothing in common. She can't stand Hubbell's WASP friends with their jokes about Eleanor Roosevelt and their endless weekend cocktail parties. ") and drifts out if the girl has too independent a mind. (We never get to hear much of his fiction, although one story begins, "Like his country, things had come too easily to him," and Katie has no trouble disagreeing with THAT.)įor all of his charms and talents, however, he's basically weak: He drifts into love affairs on the strength of drunken excuses ("Sorry I fell asleep here last night. Robert Redford plays Hubbell Gardiner, who fascinates Katie because he is not only incredibly handsome and the top athlete on campus, but also writes great fiction for their short story class. Streisand plays Katie Morosky, and when we meet her in the late 1930s, she's the secretary of the campus Young Communist League.
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