The Way We Were

Not bad. Good little tear jerker of a movie. Saw it again for the first time since the 70s. Here are my pros/cons having just finished it. The good: performances are great. The theme song is very catchy. Streisand, in particular, plays here role as the annoying activist well. I just wanted to shake her and tell her to stop the entire time! The bad: The leads had no chemistry...I just don't believe their romance. Redford, at almost 40 years old, in no way passes for a college student for the first 30 minutes of the movie...are you kidding me? The ending kills me: how could any father just walk away from their kid and want no participation in her life? Maybe I'll watch it again in another 50 years :).

Beautiful cinematography and color, and how is Robert Redford so insanely charming and handsome in every movie???? However, this is seriously lacking from chemistry, energy, and some of the early scenes are incredibly uncomfortable and are hard to look past.

Brilliant acting - addition of the new scenes in the 50th anniversary re-release buttons up the story and propels this film to 10/10.

One of my favorite movies. Redford and Streisand were perfection in this movie. Great storyline about what was happening in America and Hollywood during that period in history.

One of my favorite movies of all time. I saw it when it first came out and both Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford gave us one of their best performances. It's a classic.

The words the way we were refers to only a small part of this movie. It seems that a romance movie called The Way We Were had to made someday and this movie was the one chosen to wear that name.

THIS MOVIE is why we DO NOT need critics. What a bunch of jerks. This is one of THE BEST MOVIES of all time, period, end of story. The critics gave this a 63%??? Rotten Tomatoes, should do away with critics and just give audience score. That is the ONLY thing that matters. This movie is a 10 out of 10 and I am not even a Streisand fan, but credit where credit is due. She is fantastic and Redford supports at his best. Top 50 movies of all time.

This is a truly weird film. It felt like that a much longer film had been butchered by incompetent film editors to get it under two hours. But instead of upping the pace or reshooting scenes with snappier dialogue, instead it's all the scenes where something actually happens that are cut, so that every moment of the endless wrangling between the two stars is dwelt on as they attempt to resolve or come to terms with their fundamental incompatibilities. Crucial plot developments are only hinted at or dissected after we haven't seen them, so unless the viewer pays close attention it's easy to lose the thread of what's happening. Also cut are all the scenes that could have earned anyone else a "best supporting" nomination. It would be harsh to say that this film is Hollywood navel gazing at its introverted worst, but only because Barbara Streisand acts her socks off, and Robert Redford is at his most handsome. Maybe it all meant something to someone who lived through all this, but for me it had all the timeless universal significance and tragic intensity of a legal dispute over the repair of a fence.

Sydney Pollack's The Way We Were is a great occasion to see two wonderful stars, Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand, at the height of their powers. The two are radiant and believable and their scenes together very satisfying. And the costumes and decor are very evocative of the 30s, 40's and 50s portrayed here. The problem is that the good-looking film built around Streisand and Redford is preachy and belabored. Sydney Pollack wasted some of his great talent making a few films, like this one, that have a scolding tone about events from the past that seem to be what we would call today "virtue signaling" yet don't add anything new or interesting to the historical perspective.

I'm surprised this hasn't been remade recently, although it likely has in some way, under different titles, without my noticing. The story was pretty good and well presented but the characters and performances never completely drew me in or captured my undivided attention. This was headed for a 6/10 at best but I ended up really appreciating the direction the conclusion took. You have to mention the soundtrack here too which I hadn't realized I was already familiar with...