The Way We Were (1973)

Second viewing; previously viewed somewhere between 1983 and 1986.

A leftist, working-class college girl falls in love with a colleague from the economic elite, in the 1930s. After graduation, they go to Hollywood, where he finds a job as a screenwriter. Their romance has its ups and downs, which are modulated simultaneously by their different temperaments and by the historic events which shake the US and the world.

It was hard for me to simply bypass this movie, despite all the objections I had to it. Its very shortcomings are somewhat compelling to the student of the discourse and filmmaking practices of Hollywood. According to Wikipedia, the interference of the director over the screenplay caused severe production problems, and affected the film negatively. This is ironic because it is almost exactly what happens to the male protagonist during his stay in Hollywood. The film makes a big fuss about it, but the whole thing is just unconvincing: a screenwriter knows from the get-go that he will have no power over the final product, unless of course he is also the producer. Concerning The Way We Were, I doubt that those alleged problems, which I vaguely surmised to be insufficiently developed plot points or somewhat inconsistent characters, were what really bothered me about the movie. And, to be honest, I think that, strictly as a metteur en scène, the director did a great job. The real problem for me, which I strongly suspect would still be a problem had it followed the original script faithfully, is that the film is clearly biased toward leftist values. At one specific scene at least, this becomes so blatantly obvious as to be involuntarily comical, namely, when Hubbell and J.J. are on a boat relaxing and discussing their failed marriages, and J.J. states that in his case it was not a great loss, but in Hubbell's, his ex-wife, well, that was a loss to be really regretted. Are they kidding? So, gorgeous upper-class women with a college education are not attractive as a rule, unlike, say, perhaps equally literate yet insufferably self-righteous commie loudmouthed egomaniacs? Well, I can see their point. And the film has a devious way of pretending it shows us both sides of an issue when in fact it does not. For instance, in an argument about whether or not one should testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, the two parties disagree on several points but agree that the Committee is a violation of the First Amendment (the one regarding Free Speech), which I think is a bit of a stretch and an oversimplification of the whole issue. Anyway, I do not live in the U.S.A., and have more pressing concerns in my own country, so I prefer not to delve further into such discussions and just say that I enjoyed this film and its endearing romantic story, and hope the Katies of this world are still alive and well and very active in the defense of LBGTQ, Immigration 'Reform', the end of White Privilege, and whatever else their present concerns are.

Rating: 59 (down from 63)