{"id":46320,"date":"2019-12-24T23:35:52","date_gmt":"2019-12-25T06:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=46320"},"modified":"2021-01-18T18:57:13","modified_gmt":"2021-01-19T01:57:13","slug":"love-story-1970","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=46320","title":{"rendered":"Love Story (1970)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;You&#8217;re a preppy millionaire, and I&#8217;m a social zero.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Love-Story-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Love-Story-Poster-197x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"197\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-46322\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Love-Story-Poster-197x300.jpg 197w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Love-Story-Poster-84x128.jpg 84w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Love-Story-Poster.jpg 496w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 197px) 100vw, 197px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA music student at Radcliffe (Ali MacGraw) falls for a preppy Harvard law student (Ryan O&#8217;Neal) whose wealthy father (Ray Milland) disapproves of their marriage and cuts off O&#8217;Neal&#8217;s inheritance. The beautiful newlyweds live a poor but happy life &#8212; until devastating news about MacGraw&#8217;s health rocks their world.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ali MacGraw Films<\/li>\n<li>Cross-Class Romance<\/li>\n<li>Death and Dying<\/li>\n<li>Flashback Films<\/li>\n<li>Illness<\/li>\n<li>Newlyweds<\/li>\n<li>Ray Milland Films<\/li>\n<li>Ryan O&#8217;Neal Films<\/li>\n<li>Tommy Lee Jones Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary writes that &#8220;Erich Segal&#8217;s screenplay&#8221; &#8212; &#8220;boy-meets-girl-and-marries-girl-who-then-becomes-terminally-ill&#8221; &#8212; was turned down by several studios who claimed &#8220;it was too superficial, too syrupy, too pure&#8221;, but then picked up by Paramount Studios, which &#8220;realized those weren&#8217;t necessarily negative characteristics&#8221; and subsequently &#8220;made a fortune&#8221;. He notes it&#8217;s &#8220;more stylish but less substantial than the old-style weepies it emulated&#8221;, and asserts that it &#8220;strives for honesty and simplicity at the expense of theme or characterization&#8221;. He goes on to describe the film&#8217;s popularity (it was number one at the box office that year, and broke records) by noting that &#8220;the opening line, which tells us that the girl (Ali MacGraw) has died, is enough to start the tissue parade&#8221;, with the entire flashback story &#8220;pointed toward her dying (from some unmentionable disease).&#8221; He writes that &#8220;as the ill-fated couple, MacGraw and O&#8217;Neal&#8221; (inappropriately nominated for Oscars) &#8220;seem intent only on building their own images &#8212; there is no sincerity in their performances.&#8221; He adds that &#8220;how their characters fall in love, or why they love each other so much, is unclear&#8221;: &#8220;they are too dull, arrogant, and full of false humility to be anything but competitors&#8221; and &#8220;they come across as beautiful people who could have won each other on <em>The Dating Game<\/em>&#8220;. He concludes by assuring us that &#8220;the number of tears viewers shed shouldn&#8217;t be mistaken for a measure of approval.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Peary&#8217;s review is spot-on, leaving little to add. These characters are good-looking but shallow and unappealing. O&#8217;Neal&#8217;s rocky relationship with his father (Milland, trying his best with limited material) feels petulant rather than righteous, and O&#8217;Neal&#8217;s bond with her salt-of-the-earth father (Oscar-nominated John Marley) isn&#8217;t explored in any depth. MacGraw&#8217;s all-in-fun name-calling (&#8220;preppy&#8221;) and both characters&#8217; profanity-laced &#8220;verbal volleyball&#8221; (&#8220;Listen, you conceited Radcliffe bitch&#8230;&#8221;; &#8220;Look, it&#8217;s not an official goddamned threshold.&#8221;) was considered shocking at the time, but now is simply tiresome to listen to. MacGraw&#8217;s unnamed illness (referred to as leukemia in the source-novel) leaves her looking infamously hearty, hale, and lovely till the very end. The film&#8217;s famous line &#8212; &#8220;Love means never having to say you&#8217;re sorry&#8221; &#8212; is both incorrect and inane. In his review, Peary neglects to mention Francis Lai&#8217;s uber-famous title song, which is lovely but overused to such an extent that it begins to feel manipulative.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fine cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Love-Story-Cinematography1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Love-Story-Cinematography1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"624\" height=\"352\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-46323\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Love-Story-Cinematography1.png 624w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Love-Story-Cinematography1-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Love-Story-Cinematography1-128x72.png 128w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 624px) 100vw, 624px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Love-Story-Cinematography2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Love-Story-Cinematography2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"624\" height=\"352\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-46324\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Love-Story-Cinematography2.png 624w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Love-Story-Cinematography2-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Love-Story-Cinematography2-128x72.png 128w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 624px) 100vw, 624px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, unless you&#8217;re curious to check it out given its popularity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0066011\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/4689\/love-story#articles-reviews?articleId=88484\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.filmsite.org\/love.html\">FilmSite Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1970\/12\/18\/archives\/screen-perfection-and-a-love-storyerich-segals-romantic-tale-begins.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re a preppy millionaire, and I&#8217;m a social zero.&#8221; Synopsis: A music student at Radcliffe (Ali MacGraw) falls for a preppy Harvard law student (Ryan O&#8217;Neal) whose wealthy father (Ray Milland) disapproves of their marriage and cuts off O&#8217;Neal&#8217;s inheritance. The beautiful newlyweds live a poor but happy life &#8212; until devastating news about MacGraw&#8217;s health rocks their world. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Ali MacGraw Films Cross-Class Romance Death and Dying Flashback Films Illness Newlyweds Ray Milland Films Ryan&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=46320\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46320"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64301,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46320\/revisions\/64301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}