The Way We Were movie storyline. The often unlikely joint lives of Katie Morosky and Hubbell Gardiner from the late 1930s to the late 1950s is presented, over which time, they are, in no particular order, strangers, acquaintances, friends, best friends, lovers and adversaries.
The unlikely nature of their relationship is due to their fundamental differences, where she is Jewish and passionate about her political activism both in political freedoms and Marxism to an extreme where she takes life a little too seriously, while he is the golden boy WASP, being afforded the privileges in life because of his background but who on the most part is able to capitalize on those privileges.
Their lives are shown in four general time periods, in chronological order when they attend the same college, their time in New York City during WWII, his life as a Hollywood screenwriter post-war, and his life as a writer for a New York based live television show. It is during college that Hubbell finds his voice in life as a writer, and that Katie sees beyond his good looks to find a person with substance who realizes his position in a life as something that does not give him an inherent right to those opportunities.
External world events, such as the Spanish Civil War, WWII and the House Un-American Activities investigation, do affect their lives directly, but it is how they deal with these effects personally, largely in relation to personal relationships – such as with Hubbell’s long term friends J.J. and Carol Ann, the latter his college girlfriend – that may dictate if Katie and Hubbell are able to make it in the long term as a couple.
The Way We Were is a 1973 American romantic drama film directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford. Arthur Laurents wrote both the novel and screenplay based on his college days at Cornell University and his experiences with the House Un-American Activities Committee.
A box office success, the film was nominated for several awards and won the Oscar for Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Original Song for the theme song, “The Way We Were”. It ranked at number 6 on AFI’s 100 Years…100 Passions survey of the top 100 greatest love stories in American cinema. The Way We Were is considered one of the greatest romantic films ever.
The soundtrack album became a gold record and hit the Top 20 on the Billboard 200 while the title song became a million-selling gold single, topping the Billboard Hot 100 respectively, selling more than two million copies. Billboard named “The Way We Were” as the number 1 pop hit of 1974. In 1998, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and finished at number 8 on the American Film Institute’s 100 Years… 100 Songs list of top tunes in American cinema in 2004. It was also included in the list of Songs of the Century, by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Way We Were (1973)
Directed by: Sydney Pollack
Starring: Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, Bradford Dillman, Lois Chiles, Patrick O’Neal, Viveca Lindfors, Allyn Ann McLerie, Herb Edelman, Murray Hamilton, Sally Kirkland, Marcia Mae Jones
Screenplay by: Arthur Laurents
Production Design by: Stephen B. Grimes
Cinematography by: Harry Stradling Jr.
Film Editing by: John F. Burnett
Costume Design by: Dorothy Jeakins, Moss Mabry
Set Decoration by: William Kiernan
Music by: Marvin Hamlisch
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: October 17, 1973
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