Sidney Pollack
The Way We Were

Hubbell: People are more important than their principles

Katie: People ARE their principles

This excerpt from one of the most important dialogues in "The Way We Were" is enough to already understand much of the story brought to the big screen by Pollack in 1973. The film tells, through the tormented love story of two decidedly opposing souls, a small portion of U.S. history, spanning a few years from the end of the '30s to the early '50s, an era of enormous changes in both social customs and the politics of the time.

Hubbell and Katie are two students living opposite lives, he is rich, handsome, and unengaged, while she is poor, plain, and a fervent supporter of the Communist party; they meet, or rather clash, in college, and they fall in love during the second world war, a mistake for both. The major flaw of this film is its attempt to tackle too many themes simultaneously, with the two protagonists embodying the opposing spirits of American society of the period—a society trying to hold on tight to the benefits of post-'29 economic recovery but unable to ignore the dangerous shifts happening in Europe. This alone is enough to build the plot, but the attempt to provide a wide overview of the period through chronological narration doesn't entirely work, the dialogues are essential, but those between Hubbell and Katie are often strained, especially Katie, whose political passion is her great limitation, also rightly pointed out by Hubbell. Her political principles are everything to her and this becomes incomprehensible to the audience over time; is it possible that there is no middle ground for Katie? Hubbell also has flaws; he is somewhat the stereotype of the American boy with big dreams—all tied to his career, to a carefree life without too many problems, and he is largely unconcerned with the fact that while he’s having fun on campus, someone is fighting in Spain for their freedom. The stark contrast between Katie and Hubbell leaves a bit of a bitter taste, which is the significant flaw of the screenplay; otherwise, "The Way We Were" is an interesting film, well-directed with some very intense moments, such as the ultimate realization of the couple's impossibility of living together or the briefly touched theme of McCarthy's political persecution of suspected communists in Hollywood.

If Pollack's direction is fairly fluid, the performances by Robert Redford and Barbara Streisand a little less so, the American actress has always had a tendency to overact and this is very evident in "The Way We Were," and the character of Katie comes across as overdone and unrealistic, making it hard to engage with her and her ideas. Redford, on the other hand, is passable but not moving. The film was shortened by ten minutes after its initial public presentation, which received a cool response; the cut scenes (ten minutes in total) were, unfortunately, fundamental for some parts of the film. They were the more political moments, and cutting them dramatically downsized the film, transforming it into a good movie that leaves the sensation that it could have been much more.