The Way We Were (Special Edition) | Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford

The Way We Were (Special Edition) | Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford | A Great Romance

DVDs:

The Way We Were (S...

	The Way We Were (Special Edition) Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford Sony Pictures, 1999 average customer review:based on 90 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

"See ya, Katie"

I want to strangle Hubbell when he says this final line at the end! But my rage is just an indication of how much I adore this movie!

I think people who giving a low rating to the film because of the incorrect portrayal of the communist movement, and whatever, are missing the mark of this movie entirely. The Way We Were is a love story, first and foremost. Communism is just a circumstance that complicates the love story. It is NOT in my opinion, the central theme of the movie.

That being said, TWWW is a classic story of "love isn't enough." I think Katie and Hubbell love each other deeply, but they are such different people. She wants him to be everything that she believes he is. (Whether he is or isn't those things is debatable.) But he is content living a safe, yuppy life. He needs a girl who can just roll with that lifestyle, hence, he ends up with the nameless girl at the end of the film. She represents the safe type of girl that is pretty enough to keep Hubbell interested and safe enough to allow him to live his yuppy life.

It's clear in the scene at the end that the love between them is still strong. You can feel the heat of that final embrace through the screen! I could go on and on about why this movie is one of the greatest, but I can't. See this film.

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A Great Romance

Katie Morosky (Barbra Streisand) and Hubbell Gardner are students at Cornell. And there their similarities end. Hubbell was a golden boy to which everything came easy and he always took the easy road. Katie had to work at everything and therefore, she took the hard road looking for every cause to fight for. Katie and Hubbell had one class together creative writing. Katie wanted to be a journalist and she prized this class but is devastated when it's Hubbell's story that the professor praises. What is worse is the story is good.

Both graduate and go their separate ways. Katie becomes a writer for a radio show and Hubbell enlists in the Navy. One night Katie is at a nightclub with her boss and who is there (asleep on a barstool), Hubbell. Katie takes him home and thus begins their relationship. But as they had different backgrounds neither is quite sure what that relationship is. Despite their differences they get married. Hubbell's book is optioned by a studio and they are off to Hollywood.

Everything is going fine. They know what lines not to cross and stay away from them. That is until communism hearing become a little too real. Katie comes to the rally of the Hollywood victims of the hearing but Hubbell wants to stay clear. This starts the end of their marriage. They know that they love each other but cannot be with each other and end it amicably.

Years later they meet. Both have remarried but their reunion tells you that each is the other's true love.

This is considered to be one of the great romances of all time. I definitely agree with this! Streisand is the perfect choice for Katie (the character in the book was inspired by her) and Redford is the perfect choice for Hubbell. They exuded a chemistry that neither has equaled in future films.

This film is well made from every aspect. The cinematography adds feeling to the scenes. The art direction and costumes evoke the eras involved. And Marvin Hamlisch's Oscar winning score is perfection.

If you ever had someone that you loved but lost, this is the perfect film. Plus according to every TV show. This is the movie you must watch after a breakup!

DVD EXTRAS: Making of Documentary - Looking Back: A one hour documentary on the making of the film with Streisand, writer Arthur Laurents, director Sydney Pollack

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"Your girl is lovely Hubbel"

This is the ultimate chick flick...and how can you not love Robert Redford! What separates it from the myriad of other "chick-flicks" is the stong politically entangled plot. I'm not a huge Barbara Streisand fan...but I love love love this movie!

Oh, how I once loved this move -and oh, do I HATE it now!

I remember sinking down into a theatre seat and being totally riveted by this movie the first time I saw it, nearly 20 years ago. From the first, haunting notes of the song, The Way we were, to the incredibly handsome face of Hubbell (Robert Redford), I was entranced.

When I saw the sparks fly between Hubbell (Redford) and Katie (Streisand)from their first days at college to their later reunion, years later, I hoped that maybe these two very different souls could make it, in spite of their very different values, background and... most importantly, Katie's umwavering and uncompromising political commitment.

I was that much of a romantic. I was that young. An older, wiser person might have seen this as the impossible situation it was.

And yet... who hasn't felt an attraction to the person that logic says is all "wrong" for you but for whom you still yearn, against all reason? Who hasn't felt instant physical attraction, so intense that you nearly convince yourself that it is "love", must be love? Who hasn't been swept up by passion, hope and yearning that it will all work out somehow, even as the danger signs become clearer and clearer?

This movie is for those people. When I was much younger, I used to be one of those people.

Now, years later, as I watched it again, I wondered how I could have been so sucked up by this movie. While I still admired Katie's committment to her political beliefs, I also saw how strident she was, how judgmental and intolerant....so much so that I had to wonder why Hubbell stuck around, subjecting himself to her angry tirades, which seemed more like a prolonged temper tantrum of a young child trying to batter his adversary down by sheer anger and willpower. She sulked,she stormed out of parties, she launched verbal attacks on Hubbell's friends - and yet he stuck around? Nope, this time around I didn't buy it, although her YEARNING for him was palpable and touching.

But in the end, he remains true to his background as the perpetual, charming Golden Boy, always in demand but never truly challenging himself to be the "best", at least not in Katie's view. He is willing to "settle" - but she is not. He is content to have a decent job, a happy life and plenty of luxuries and playthings (sailboats, expensive wine) to pass the time.

And THAT is the crux of the problem. The differences that drew them so intensely to each other, even fueled their passions of being with an strange, unique and ultimately unknowable person...didn't hold over the long term.

The wonder is that anyone found this movie even remotely convincing, let alone romantic....but then, there are some actors who pull you into even the worst of movies as their charisma simply takes over. Redford and Streisand are two such actors and it is a credit to their skill that they drew audiences into theatres to watch this film.

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So Agree With Loved It Then...........

I watched most of this movie yesterday. I have a question. I know we live in child-obessed times but did strike it anybody strange that when Hubbell is in Katie's hospital room after the birth of THEIR child he was so cavalier about it. All he said was "she's so small." And the topper is that he acts like he is leaving her life forever. No hint at all that he might pop in to visit his child once in awhile!!!!!!!!
Then,years later(I guess he did blow off his half jewish child)when Katie sees him and that iceberg on the street in NYC they never mention the child!!!!!!!!
Of course when I first saw this I was not a parent so none of this occurred to me. Now that I have been one for almost 20 years it just hit a perplxed cord with me!!!!!!

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