"The Way We Were"

TCM 7:00PM CST

Omg, this movie makes me cry.
I hope this doesn't lead to a full blown thread. The butch gays always turn up to insult the Barbra fans and it turns nasty.
What kind of pie?
Why Sidney Pollack cut the scene where it's revealed that her college buddy Frankie dropped a dime on Katie always will bewilder me.
Della
"Hubbell, your girl is lovely."
Who's the female lead in this film?
Seeing it again after many, many years, what strikes me is that Hubbell Gardiner didn't slap the living shit out of Katie following the East Side cocktail party disaster and never see her again. She was beyond insufferable. If Hubbell was a communist he would have left her.
Sydney had to secretly dub Barbra in the apartment scene where she calls Hubbell a fascist. If you study her lips closely it's apparent she yells "You're a faggot."
I think the reason that Katie's line to Hubbell about his girl being lovely resonates with people b/c many like to feel they'd be that magnanimous if we ran into an old lover who was with some pretty little thing in a frilly blouse.
In addition to what you write, r9, that Hubbell predictably ends up with a blonde gentile, he also has to tell Katie that he now writes for television.
Della
THE WAY WE WERE trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hef39RzemJE
One of the greatest movies ever.
But to lose Katy, now that would really be something.
Bradford Dillman
There's a little bit of Katie in all of us.
Scattered%20pictures...
No one will ever beat Redford in the charm, beauty, breezy-cool intelligence department in the scene where he wants to share a beer with her.
Redford is at his most beautiful here. I nagged my Mom to take me to the theatre to see this. I was just a kid and I didn't "get" TWWW, but seeing Redford on big screen in a dark theatre in that tuxedo took my breath away.
Della
I hated this movie until the last 25-ish minutes. Then I finally understood where they were going with it and kind of retrospectively enjoyed it.
The most romantic film of the 70's...(sigh)
Watching. Robert is so beautiful in this movie. But Hubbell's a bit shallow. I mean he abandon's his child. A-hole. But he's still gorgeous.
Barbra was so beautiful when she and Redford moved to to their new house in California and she was up on the ladder putting books in the bookcase. She playfully tossed a book at him and he returned the favor by throwing one at her and hit her on the ass. She turned toward him and laughed, with her hair up and that smile on her face...she was just so beautiful. Happy times with Katy and Hubbell. You could just cry.
My favorite Barbra movie ever.
Anyone remember the Mad magazine parody?
It's wicked cool that Marsha Mae Jones is in this.
The 46th Academy Awards, April 2, 1974: Nominees fro Best Actress: Glenda Jackson - A Touch of Class Marsha Mason - Cinderella Liberty Ellen Burstyn - The Exorcist Joanne Woodward - Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams Barbra Streisand - The Way We Were Great nominees. Barbra was robbed. Glenda won.
If Hubbell were shallow, he would never had dated her in the first place.
"He was like the country he lived in. Everything came too easily to him.". I thought this line best described Redford. He is a straight white male, considered good looking, in a straight white country. I hated the political messages of the film. It seemed so sanitized. The canvas of the painting being ripped by the bug, scary government. This movie doesn't hold up. Even the line "...your girl is lovely," Is horrid. Kate is trying to be generous and she is not and she refers to another woman as someone else's possession. Gross. A dum film made by selfish "ESTies" in the 70s.
[quote]Anyone remember the Mad magazine parody? Sadly, I do. Redford's pretty but very wooden. If he'd loosened up it would be a much better picture. [quote]The most romantic film of the 70's I feel another thread coming on... I wonder how many people would remember this film and so fondly without the song.
He's shallow. And she's smoking while pregnant. Bad girl.
Did they bang in real life?
[quote]Did they bang in real life? Let that remain a mystery.
the%20smiles%20we%20left%20behind...
[quote]Barbra was robbed. Absolutely.
[quote]Barbra was robbed & by such trash, it was unbelievable.
Memries, Like the corners of my mind Misty water-colored memories Of the way we were Scattered pictures, Of the smiles we left behind Smiles we gave to one another For the way we were Can it be that it was all so simple then? Or has time re-written every line? If we had the chance to do it all again Tell me, would we? could we? Memries, may be beautiful and yet What's too painful to remember We simply choose to forget So it's the laughter We will remember Whenever we remember... The way we were... The way we were...
She already had an Oscar she didn't deserve, so while she may have been robbed, she didn't deserve another one. I could make a case for Ellen Burstyn winning. Part of the problem, in retrospect, is that BS made the same movie 12 times over. And BS looked good for BS. She wasn't and never was beautiful. It's also a great romantic story that I loved. BS and RR were both at their best, though RR looked pretty silly as a college student. Beautifully filmed and I would have given it points for attention to detail had RR not been an asshole and allowed his hair to be cut. I think it holds up well.
Robert Redford was so dreamy.
[quote]Like the corners of my mind LIGHT! lIGHT!
Bar
I don't even like Barbra much, see my posts on Hello Dolly or the most dynamic singers, BUT She is lovely in this film and very real in her emotional desires sometimes in conflict with political convictions. Redford is the perfect prop and this is the last of the great "womens" pictures. Some very incoherent story telling but it doesn't matter. Her best performance, at the height of her attractiveness, and yeah, she was robbed of the Oscar. The best use of her singing in film too, just the closing credit song. Memorable. Not bad, Streisand.
underfifty
[quote]And she's smoking while pregnant. Bad girl. My mother always used to smirk when my sister would bring up mothers who had the gall to smoke since Mom smoked through all her pregnancies.
I watched the last half and was amazed at the lighting. Whoever lit this film deserved an Oscar. He/she managed to make both of them look gloriously fuckable at all times.
[quote]this is the last of the great "womens" pictures. Excuse me?
https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DecUHFT9ezIk
Erica%20Benton%2C%201978
Rest in peace, Marvin Hamlisch, who wrote the music and died this year.
K-k-katie! Be my K-k-komrade!
[quote]this is the last of the great "womens" pictures. Let's not forget "The Turning Point", whether you think it's a good movie or not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DsAQerJTUFR4
The women's skin looked flawless and dewy.
r39 Yup, last of the old style women's pictures, anachronistic in the 1970's. Unmarried Woman was completely different - contemporary at the time, but much more dated now than the Way We Were.
the%20way%20it%20is
[quote]K-k-katie! Be my K-k-komrade! Oh, K-k-Kay!
The time period looked nothing like it's era. I'm glad we have production designers nowadays that realize that decades have distinctive phases. This was really a slipshod Hollywood habit from the golden age until the 1980s.
"its" era, I believe.
the movie made an impact on this delightful young girl.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4VRqFUSIvY
Todd
Boy, that 'sketch' @ R48 is painfully unfunny.
R27: She was smoking and downing a martini. Man, I love this film.Redford has never looked more beautiful than the scene where he sits on top of the table and shares a beer with Katie.
Mia
Poor Gilda. I heard they were renaming some of Gilda's Houses in other parts of the country because people don't really know who she was. Awful.
It's not supposed to be sidesplitting, it's more a gentle humor of the kind found when observing a familiar truth.
R51 -- those who love Gilda must resolve for 2013 that the young people in our lives learn to love and appreciate Gilda as much as we do, and as much as she deserves.
[quote]She already had an Oscar she didn't deserve, so while she may have been robbed, she didn't deserve another one. R33. You are mistaken. Barbra most certainly deserved the Oscar for "Funny Girl." Glad she won even though it was a tie with Katherine Hepburn for "The Lion in Winter." But Barbra also deserved another for "The Way We Were." Streisand was mesmerizing in the movie. And the movie never would have worked without her. She was the best of the entire cast. Barbra made it the great movie that it is. If Barbra had to lose the Oscar for "The Way We Were," then she should have lost to Marsha Mason for "Cinderelle Liberty," not to Glenda Jackson for "A Touch of Class."
God, she's awful. That scene on the phone - embarrassing. He's only slightly better.
"She playfully tossed a book at him and he returned the favor by throwing one at her and hit her on the ass. She turned toward him and laughed, with her hair up and that smile on her face...she was just so beautiful." I have it on good authority that in the original take of that scene, when he threw the book at her ass, it got stuck in her crack. Given that she's a major assfucking fuend, she didn't even realize it. Oh, the hilarity that ensued when the crew just laughed and laughed at the sight of this book wedged up there.
[quote]God, she's awful. That scene on the phone - embarrassing. He's only slightly better. Go watch your Transformers, little man.
I'm not a big Barbra fan, but I love this movie. I watch it every couple of years or so and I cry like a little bitch at the ending, every time.
Streisand never looked better than in this film. The 1970s-does-the-1940s look suited her perfectly.
I saw this or th first tie recently after hearing about it for years. I don't see what all the to do is about. She's an obnoxious shrew.
I liked her ironed hair.
The way the relationship just kind of amicably dissolved is what gets me every time. That's the saddest thing, when you just grow away from each other even though the connection is still strong.
A number of years ago an elderly female passenger told me I looked like Robert Redford. I told her she needed to see her optometrist but thanked her anyway.
Lou%20the%20Stew
Robert Redford is a frequent flyer on my airline and I'm always amazed when flight attendants tell me how small he is in person and how red his hair is when it looks so blond onscreen. They also comment on his bad complexion.
Lou
I had Barbra walk by me in a flea market in Sun Valley several years ago and was surprised by how small she was also.
Lou
[quote]Streisand never looked better than in this film. The 1970s-does-the-1940s look suited her perfectly. True. But it is also true she's not beautiful.
[quote]A number of years ago an elderly female passenger told me I looked like Robert Redford. I told her she needed to see her optometrist but thanked her anyway. You must be really handsome.
Much is made here of the Katie on the phone crying scene, but I thought her acting was better in the scene where she runs off alone to weep over her writing teacher choosing to read Hubbell's story, not hers, in class. When she glances around to see if she's being observed, it breaks my heart. In fact, I think Pollack's direction is at its best in the college scenes. For instance, my favorite scene doesn't focus on Katie's love for Hubbell. Instead, to me the most romantic scene focuses on Hubbell's attraction to Katie. It's the very quick and subtle scene of Katie appearing late for class and the camera cuts to Hubbelll looking glad and closing his book in obvious relief. That's the most romantic scene in the film and I credit Pollack's direction for that.
Della
I only caught the last few minutes. I loved this movie, but think it was butchered in editing. Political scenes that helped the plot we cut to make the film more marketable. Two things that bugged me in the part I saw: 1. Barbra has just given birth and her hair and make-up are PERFECT; and 2. Hubble is supposed to be a sympathetic character, but he has never even SPOKEN ON THE PHONE to his CHILD? What an asshole.
Never seen this movie. Redford plays a conservative and Babs is a socialist who fall in love and then break up because of politics right?
Redford was totally unbelievable in the college scenes, as was Bradford Dillman.
I agree R71. Two 30 somethings trying to pull off 20 year olds was a little much. Dillman was even worse than Redford in those scenes.
And Dillman was FORTY-TWO when he made TWWW.
Actually, I just checked and Dillman was actually in his forties when the film was made so even more ridiculous.
R72
R64, Some of us look completely different in pics or on screen.
I agree that "The Way We Were" was one of the best love stories ever made, mostly because of the politics. I don't think we had any political films released that year, and the cutting of the screen was very disturbing. The girl who played Dillman's girlfriend was beautiful, why didn't she become a great star?
[quote]Redford was totally unbelievable in the college scenes, as was Bradford Dillman Oh, but did he look like a dreamboat? I think if Redford would have cut his hair short, he would have looked younger.
I caught this movie half way through... I wasn't around when it first came out so maybe there are some things I don't get. For one. These two are in love and Redford has an affair- yet Streisand's character only seems slightly miffed about it. She's supposed to be passionate and unreasonable at times, right? But an affair is...just annoying? She is having his child but he shows absolutely no interest in helping to raise the child, and it is evident by their reunion - he had never taken any interest in the child or attempted to know her. How is he sympathetic? Did I miss something?
R78 he isn't sympathetic. That's why I said he was shallow. She considers herself the luckiest woman alive because he looked twice at her so she accepts his affair as if it was an expected occurrence. But the marriage does end so they're really just going through the motions at this point. They've already drifted apart for many reasons, esp. their political views (or his lack of any political view).
Union College in Schenectady, NY was the setting for the college scenes. It is known for the eight-sided building (Nott Memorial, circa 1879) with the dome that is often pictured in the college scenes. From what I've heard the track & field scene of Redford throwing the javelin took longer to film than expected but the women extras playing the part of fans in the bleachers did not mind. Many commented that just loved being there and seeing RR in those shorts.
[quote]But the marriage does end so they're really just going through the motions at this point. They totally changed the ending and that's why it seems weird and out of character with the rest of the story and Hubble looks like such a bastard. That wasn't in the original script. B.S, fought for the original ending but to no avail. I can't now remember what the ending was...there's a whole thing about it in the DVD extras.
at the end of the movie, Hubbell asks: "Still married?" Katie: "Sure!" Does anyone else think she was lying?
David X. Kohn
Barbra persuading Redford he should stay for dinner because she's making pot roast is Barbra at her best. Loved that scene.
I wondered too, about Redford's character not being involved in his daughter's life after the divorce. But wasn't this a 1950's thing? Didn't lots of people think this was best for the child?
perhaps R84, but it's a universal thing for dramatic effect. I see that a lot in fiction; people do not what makes sense, but what is dramatic.
R64, you should find the Redford (and shorter Newman) is six feet tall thread here and have a laugh. Everyone knows he's a shrimp,
[quote]They totally changed the ending and that's why it seems weird and out of character with the rest of the story and Hubble looks like such a bastard. That wasn't in the original script. B.S, fought for the original ending but to no avail. Correct, R81. There's a lot of informative discussion on this on the IMDb board, if anyone's interested. It gave me a lot of insight into the movie's ending that I hadn't had, but at the same time, it's pretty infuriating that Pollack changed it. From an informed IMDb poster: [quote]In the original script, the reason for their split (before director Sydney Pollack made his cuts) was because Hubbell wanted to continue working in the film industry but couldn't because his wife had been identified as a Communist. In order to stay married, Katie would have been forced to name names - something she would have never done. So she agreed to end the marriage; all she wanted was for Hubbell to stay with her until the baby was born. In the final cut of the movie we got, there's no real reason given for their split. I always assumed we were supposed to assume they'd just grown apart, but Hubble having left her as soon as the baby was born seemed incredibly cold and nasty. The film's ending basically makes hardly any sense after the cuts were made.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070903/board/thread/157735406
Still%20love%20the%20movie%20though
[quote]Barbra persuading Redford he should stay for dinner because she's making pot roast is Barbra at her best. Loved that scene That was so sweet. I always cry when she says that line.