“Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” This line defined Love Story, even making it onto the advertisements when it rolled out into theaters in the winter of 1970. Erich Segal was writing this story directly for the screen, and though it was originally a difficult sell, his agent believed in the project, giving up his job as an agent to shepherd the film all the way through. Without his influence and dedication, the movie would have never been made. The script took seven rewrites, including one where it was softened down from an R rating to the more family-friendly PG, before finally getting the green-light to go into production.
When it released, it reinvigorated the melodrama genre and repopularize the straight-up love story, a concept that had fallen away as the world entered the cynical 70s. Relationships were different for the young than they had been in the past, and Segal was tapping into that. Relationships with family were shifting, too, with young people growing more and more distant from their parents as they grew up into a world far different than the one their parents did. The older generation tried to reign in their children only to find out that they were their own people and wanted to go their own way. The world was changing. We were to see that through the eyes of a legacy, one who is looking to distance himself from all that that means.
Oliver Barrett IV (Ryan O’Neal) comes from a family with generational wealth. He attends Harvard College, plays ice hockey and is majoring in social studies. He meets Jenny Cavilleri (Ali MacGraw), a quick-witted, working-class Radcliffe College student majoring in classical music. Their initial meeting is outwardly full of sarcasm and bitterness, but despite all their differences, they fall in love. Meanwhile, his father travels to see him play hockey and to offer to help him get into Harvard Law. Oliver resents his legacy, especially the Barrett House on campus, a gift to the school from his grandfather, and has no intention of flying through school by the grace of his father’s money.
Jenny reveals that she has received a scholarship in Paris that will take effect once she graduates from Radcliffe. This upsets Oliver, who believes he should figure into her plans, too. To combat this, he proposes marriage, which she accepts. But his parents are uncomfortable with her background and threaten to cut him off should he go through with the marriage. Stubbornly, he marries her anyway. But now he finds that without his family money, he can no longer afford to pay to attend Harvard Law, and since he comes from money, no matter what his current situation is, he doesn’t qualify for a scholarship. But his pride, his anger, and his stubbornness will not allow him to make amends with his father, even though Jenny tries to push him in that direction.
As the years go by, he manages to get his degree, then a job. But when the two fail to get pregnant, a routine doctor’s appointment to find out why brings bad news. Jenny has a terminal disease and not long to live. Newly established in his chosen field, Oliver doesn’t have the money to pay for the hospital to care for her the way he feels they should in her final months, so he has to bury his pride and go to the one man he knows who does.
This is called Love Story, and that is exactly what it is. We see the love between Oliver and Jenny from the moment they meet to the moment they part. I went into this film blind, knowing nothing about it but what I could ascertain from the title. I expected a story about a relationship that grows cold as a couple falls in and then out of love again. The line “Love means never having to say you’re sorry” seemed to confirm that thought. What I didn’t expect was a story about love literally dying. I’m glad I didn’t know what was coming. It made that moment in the doctor’s office when Oliver is told come at me out of nowhere. It’s a very effective moment that hits you in the stomach without warning. The only real fault is that Jenny never convincingly looks like she is dying, not even in the end.
Even more effective is Oliver’s reaction to the news. It seems unreal to him. Jenny seems so full of life, and he’s just been told that she is dying. You can’t prepare for such devastating news. I have been married for nearly thirty years now, and losing my wife would destroy me. We have come to rely on each other in a way only long-term married couples can. But the truth is that at some point, one of us will have to go on without the other. That could happen in the first year of marriage or after fifty years together. When we made our vows, we knew that. While it is unlikely to lose a spouse that early on, it isn’t unheard of. Life is that way. This movie is bold in examining such a painful and relatable situation.
I have heard over the years that this is a film that is very dated in the 1970s. I don’t agree with that sentiment. There are aspects of it that don’t hold up, but that has nothing to do with the era in which it was made. I feel that people who watch Love Story with a cynical eye are generally those who have been unlucky in love and don’t like to see it bared so raw on screen. When we get extended sequences of the two playing in the snow, laughing, and kissing, just enjoying time together, we can complain that it doesn’t advance the plot any and it runs on too long, but it establishes that these two are truly in love. That is not something you can just tell an audience and expect them to buy it. We have to see it.
Oliver and Jenny are a believable couple. Their banter is rough around the edges at first, but there is also a note of flintiness to it that is not easy to get correct. Likewise, when they fight, it is not the generic bit of contention we usually see, nor is it over the top and overly written. It comes from a place of love, as some of the most hurtful fights do. Jenny is the peacemaker, trying to patch up Oliver and his father’s relationship, and that leads to a very bitter argument, one so bad that when he does try to apologize, it leads to the iconic line from the poster.
Love Story is deeper than it initially looks. There is quite a bit to say here about relationships and love. It didn’t go where I was expecting it to go, and that is a very good thing. It means I was caught off guard and found my emotions being attacked. It’s not a perfect film, but it did what it set out to do: make me feel. I can’t ever fault a movie that succeeds in doing that. Love may mean never having to say you’re sorry, but it also means you have opened yourself up to a lot of pain and loss. That’s the beauty and the horror of true love.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Howard G. Minsky
Best Director: Arthur Hiller
Best Actor: Ryan O’Neal
Best Actress: Ali MacGraw
Best Supporting Actor: John Marley
Best Story and Screenplay - Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced: Erich Segal
Best Original Score: Francis Lai (won)
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Release Date: December 16, 1970
Running Time: 101 Minutes
Rated PG
Starring: Ali MacGraw, Ryan O’Neal, John Marley, and Ray Milland
Directed by: Arthur Hiller
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