Both movies bring forth such pleasure, and pain, and happiness all at once, then one at a time, till by the end I'm either laughing, crying, or both. The markings of a great movie. I have a long list of movies that some would put under the category of "romantic" but I choose to simply label them as my favorites. And what luck I have that TCM has been showing both of these movies several times already this year? Especially this 31 days of Oscar month.
The Way We Were (1973) - starring Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford
No matter how many times I put myself through the torture of watching this movie it's like an addiction, I have to watch it till the end. Then I have a good cry, get pissed off either with myself or to anyone within the distance of my voice about how HORRID the ending is, vowing I will never watch it again. I cross my heart and everything! Then, the damn movie comes on again and I find myself drawn to it! Why? I think because I relate on SO MANY eerily creepy levels with Katie (played by Barbra Streisand). She is a naive girl who wants to change the world.
This movie is taking place around the 40's and 50's, when McCarthy was running rampant through Hollywood, scaring everyone from actors to writers, fearing they could be blacklisted. This movie was the first of its kind to truly going into the McCarthy "Communism" Era, and even they skirted around it as much as possible. A lot of the really controversial stuff was cut. Anyway, so here's Katie, this loud mouth, soap box girl, who's desperately and hopelessly in love with Hubbell (played by Robert Redford). His character I hate. But if you put that personality in a female (I'm gay so work with me a bit here) it's the EXACT kind I find myself attracted to and wanting just like Katie. We both want what we know we shouldn't have cause it will only end in heartache and despair but we just don't care and we claw and we fight and we argue and we do it anyway!
Katie Morosky Gardner:
I don't have the right style for you do I?
Hubbell Gardner:
No you don't have the right style.
Katie Morosky Gardner:
I'll change.
Hubbell Gardner:
No, don't change. You're your own girl, you have your own style.
Katie Morosky Gardner:
But then I won't have you. Why can't I have you?
Hubbell Gardner:
Because you push too hard, every damn minute. There's no time to ever
relax and enjoy living. Every things too serious to be so serious.
Katie Morosky Gardner:
If I push too hard it's because I want things to be better, I want us to
be better, I want you to be better. Sure I make waves you have I mean
you have to. And I'll keep making them till your everything you should
be and will be. You'll never find anyone as good for you as I am, to
believe in you as much as I do or to love you as much.
Hubbell Gardner:
I know that.
Katie Morosky Gardner:
Well then why?
Hubbell Gardner:
Do you think if I come back its going to be okay by magic? What's going
to change? What's going to be different? We'll both be wrong, we'll both
lose.
Katie Morosky Gardner:
Couldn't we both win?
It's romance. It's fighting. It's that awkward first sexual encounter. It's devotion. It's marriage. It's too soon. It's too late. It's everything you could ever want in a movie that will push you and pull you and take you on a roller coaster of emotions like you've never been on before. The only downfall?
**SPOILER ALERT** There is no happy ending to be found here, and that's what I hate. It's an ending that, as I understand it, was not uncommon during that time period. Girl gets pregnant. Man can't/won't stick around for the child's sake. They break up amicably. The End. WHAT?! That's it? And years later they "bump into each other" on a crowded New York Street where she brushes his damn hair aside, he briefly (and I do mean briefly) asks about the daughter he saw just once when she was born, then admits he wasn't strong enough to just move on like she did (getting married and all) so he can't ever see her again. Do I feel sorry for him? NO!
**END SPOILER ALERT**
What a frustrating movie! I hate it! I really do! Then that damn song! Same as the title. I'm sure you've heard it? I hear it and it's like, how can you NOT cry? Especially after knowing how it all turns out in the end? I hate it! I really do! But damn it if you won't find me watching it the next time it's on!
And just briefly, my theory on why Barbra was nominated in 3 major awards for leading actress but didn't win any of them? At that time they probably felt there was nothing "empowering" about giving an award for a role of a woman who had a husband who left her just seconds after their baby was born. Why was Robert Redford not nominated at all? Well, let's not award the guy who separated from, then left, his wife after she had their baby. So it stands to reason why a movie like this was only recognized for the title track, "The Way We Were." And I believe, if not for that song it probably wouldn't have been acknowledged at all.
The Goodbye Girl (1977) - starring Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason
Such a great movie with great lines throughout. I love a movie that has such intelligent, witty, and sarcastic lines. They are delivered so quickly and masterfully you have to keep up with not only Elliot (Richard Dreyfuss) and Paula (Marsha Mason) but "The Kid" Lucy as well. All three are bad mouthed individuals who say what most of us merely think in our heads whenever we found ourselves in an awkward or uncomfortable situation. They say what we WISH we had the guts to say at the right moment and at the right time.
I love that kind of movie. It adds an air of fantasy as well as romance. I watch it and I think, "I could see myself totally saying that someday." And for that time it takes for the movie to come to an end, I believe it wholeheartedly.
In a nutshell it's about this very neurotic woman who, after being jilted twice by actors, that she is destined to be the girl men eventually love and leave. While she is is having this battle with herself she has a daughter whose lines are much too mature for someone her age, but we all know that old saying, "kids say the darndest things." Lucy is no exception. Elliot fits in because he's been sublet the apartment that Paula's recently departed ex once lived in with her and her daughter. He leaves her a horrible Dear John (or in her case Jane?) letter and doesn't even warn her about this new guy, an actor no less, who now has the rights to the apartment.
So, in a compromise that I'm sure probably doesn't happen in today's day and age, the two adults compromise and Elliot decides to allow Paula and her daughter to remain living in the apartment with him. Comedy and romance and stubborn fighting ensues. It's another roller coaster, only this time with a fairly happy, yet also realistic ending. It has that "and they lived happily ever after" feeling to it. But hidden deep within the subtext I found myself asking, "or do they?" And surprisingly, I'm okay with that kind of ending.
And if you're looking for an interesting Oscar fact (since it IS Oscar month and all), Richard Dreyfuss was considered the youngest receipient for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the age of 30, until 2003, when Adrien Brody won for The Pianist. He was 29 at the time. Just a few months younger than Dreyfuss. If you're anything like me, you remember those classic award show moments, and Adrien Brody winning sticks out in my mind, not because of his age, but because Halle Berry gave him the award and the kiss he planted on her was like WOAH!
Lastly, the title song for The Goodbye Girl isn't all that bad either...
