For those looking for one of the most classic and greatest romances of ever look no further because this is it. At first what seems like an awkwardly paced amateur love story full of embracing language actually develops into one of the most heartfelt love stories of all time. In this film you watch as the actors mature and grow deeper into their characters and their own profession to peak at an amazing resolution full of love, and pain.
When a young Harvard student enters the Radcliffe library, he meets a pretty young women at the counter who can’t help but give him a hard time for not being in his own prestigious much bigger one. Although this young man did not realize this would be the first of many witty and cunning lectures from the love of his life. Oliver Barrett played by Ryan O’Neal is a young Harvard hockey playing law student who runs into Jenny Cavalleri played by Ali MacGraw, who is studying music’s greatest artists and composers while being a great pianists. This 1970 romance ties together two lovers from very different backgrounds into an epic relationship full of turmoil and the stresses of life, bound to a fate not many would wish.
Disclaimer: Paramount Pictures provided us with a free copy of this classic film, our opinions are our own.
Today the Romance genre is washed out to the point where the most mediocre stories with half-baked actors end up on the screen just to satisfy the insecurities of the lonely. Not challenging the world or questioning people’s background for the betterment of a true relationship, but instead walking on egg-shells to instead create a fabricated reality of a true love story. That being said every director or screenwriter must watch this move, no discussion.
At what first seems like sloppy transitions to off-pace speech patterns to borderline questionable language, the beginning of this film had me unimpressed, but I didn’t fully appreciate what I was seeing. As the story unfolds the transition from scene to scene from all these different settings is unheard of and unused by many of today’s conventional movies. For 1970 Arthur Hiller was far beyond his time in developing a rich atmosphere and smooth seamless scene transitions that could carry on and split up a conversation from two different parts of town, at different times of day. Needless to say, this movie has aged epically and just visually outdoes many that have come after it.
Love Story strikes at the complications between parents and their children’s true understandings of one another, and how each can try to satisfy one another but ultimately do so with executions that fall short. The shortcomings of a father with a son that couldn’t understand his true intentions is a reality for many in our world as seen in this film. Though what Jenny and Oliver’s relationship shows is a perfect and true one, based off of each other’s characters, emotions and personalities. Not the amount of coin in ones pocket. But mostly how love like that can last eternal and burns true to the end, and is the driving force behind everything that we do.
In conclusion at the beginning I wasn’t sure how well this movie had aged after seeing the date but then soon realized that was completely irrelevant. Despite what seems like some awkward acting and very weirdly paced scenes and scene transitions you get to see how much of a masterpiece it is from a filming point of view. The camera does an amazing job of capturing the mood without a sound or bit of acting, just the actual quality itself.
Lastly Francis Lai could not have created a better soundtrack to match the tone of the film. His ability to integrate music into scenes at this time was extraordinary. Overall this movie was one of the best romance’s I’ve ever seen and had me truly emotional on the first watch through.
