The Way We Were is not politically confrontational enough for its story of ideological opposites falling in love to feel authentic, but Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford's beaming star power gives this melodrama romantic lift. Read critic reviews
The Way We Were
1973, Romance, 1h 58m
33 Reviews 10,000+ RatingsWhat to know
You might also like
See More
Tex
Without Limits
Tempest
Educating Rita
Onegin
Where to watch
Rate And Review
-
What did you think of the movie? (optional)
You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket.
You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket.
What did you think of the movie? (optional)
How did you buy your ticket?
-
Fandango
-
AMCTheatres.com or AMC AppNew
-
Cinemark Coming Soon
We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.
-
Regal Coming Soon
We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.
-
Theater box office or somewhere else
The Way We Were Videos
The Way We Were Photos
Movie Info
Opposites attract when, during their college days, Katie Morosky (Barbra Streisand), a politically active Jew, meets Hubbell Gardiner (Robert Redford), a feckless WASP. Years later, in the wake of World War II, they meet again and, despite their obvious differences, marry. Hubbell wants to be a screenwriter, so the two move to California despite Katie's objections. They prosper there, but as the Hollywood blacklist looms, Katie's activism threatens her husband's reputation.
-
Rating: PG
-
Genre: Romance
-
Original Language: English
-
Director: Sydney Pollack
-
Producer: Ray Stark
-
Writer: Arthur Laurents
-
Release Date (Theaters): original
-
Release Date (Streaming):
-
Runtime:
Cast & Crew
News & Interviews for The Way We Were
Critic Reviews for The Way We Were
Audience Reviews for The Way We Were
-
Streisand and Redford have no chemistry together, the dialogue is usually awkward and awful, the love story is completely artificial and Streisand's character is so insufferably anal that it is hard to believe that anyone would ever fall in love with someone like that.
-
This movie starts out with heated sociopolitical debate and a great feminist role model, but then brassy, independent Katie devolves into Overly Attached Girlfriend - fawning over Hubbell, the poor little rich boy with a streak of writing talent, who buys her a beer and patronizingly ties her freakin' shoe? (I hate all shoe-tying imagery in art! I hate it when looks-so-much-like-his-dead-mother Ginny does it to Harry Potter. I hate it when Ted does it to baby-talking Boats-Boats-Boats Becky on HIMYM. I surprisingly don't mind glass slipper symbology because it's quick, okay? You just slip it on. "It's the condom of our generation." Tying a shoe is a ham-handed, Oedipal commitment of a romantic gesture.) Anyway, Katie essentially rapes him and ropes him into falling in love with her, but she's made to apologize so much for her tempestuousness and "wrong style" while Robert Redford's dead eyes glaze over in a masquerade of privileged, white, liberal ennui. The flashback structure of the film's beginning is also wasted. I thought YEARS had gone by before they meet again and that the whole movie would be about their college relationship and "the way they were"... The movie gets so episodic after that inciting incident, documenting every bit of grueling conflict contributing to their doomed partnership. A donnee or redemption moment nearly appears when Katie shouts, "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!" but it's too late. They're still wrong for each other, but we're never given a convincing enough reason in the script or the performances for why they got together in the first place and why they stayed together for so long. And he never meets their daughter? Weird. Highlight is Barbra Streisand's soaring mezzo-soprano in Marvin Hamlisch's titular song.
-
This well loved but ultimately barfy film has Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford falling in love, separating and then reuniting. It unfortunately inspired a number of films that were even more barfy than the original.
-
Set against the background of political turmoil, a radical and a milquetoast writer fall in love. A saccharine love story, when this film succeeds it's because Robert Redford was just absolutely dreamy in his prime. He was also a great actor, working with a subtle strength and playing off his natural magnetism. However, most of the time, there is little that any actor can do to save this meandering script. There is a certain truth to relationships that flounder because there is too much work involved, but this theme is more developed in real life than in cinema, and this film doesn't do much original. I've never been a fan of Barbra Streisand as a cultural icon or as an actress, and while I can't say that there was anything horrible about her acting, there wasn't anything extraordinary either. Overall, this film is another reason to love Redford, but the story is weak.
Verified