It's like a good advertisement. Maybe it suggests something that has been on everyone's mind but no one is willing to speak aloud. Wants, needs, desires, passions, hatred.
Tonight the roommates and I watched The Way We Were. Before anyone gets worked up and thinks "Oh Gosh, another chick-flick?!" I'm not here to get anything about how romantic and wonderful and blah blah this movie is.
I just found it extremely intriguing how each roommate decided what the movie was trying to say, and how it related to each of our own personal lives. You can do this with a lot of movies. Not escapism movies like Box Office blowouts and Superhero sagas, but with some truly well done movies.
An extremely brief loose synopsis of the movie, so as not to include bias before I explain each viewpoint. An so as to further that idea, the imdb synopsis:
Two desperate people have a wonderful romance, but their political views and convictions drive them apart.
OK. I guess that's a little barren. On the chance of fucking up this wonderful thought I had, I'll just go ahead and explain how I saw the movie and move on with the other interpretations, and let them speak for themselves. If you really want to get a feel for this movie, watch it yourself.
SO. Two people, worlds apart, attend the same college. Katie and Hubble. It begins as your typical, nerd loves jock type of story. I believe this is done in order to make the audience comfortable with the familiarity of such a simple beginning plot. Naturally. (An aside. Don't you ever just want to say "DUH" but don't because the word seems so uncouth? but sometimes it's the only thing that will suffice) I digress. So the two people with nothing in common end up getting together. She's touched by his undeniable way with words and (DUH) he's Robert Redford; he's intrigued by her resolve and strength in the face of adverse opinion. She had this wild dynamic that was as intoxicating. Their love become so strong and intertwined that it still stands when everything falls apart. The politics get in the way, the stress and pressure just isn't enough for them to stay together. With all the love they have for one another, it just can't be. That is a horrible thing to watch. He thinks that love should be easier. She thinks she can fix it if she tries hard enough. It's all explained in a line early in the film:
SO. Two people, worlds apart, attend the same college. Katie and Hubble. It begins as your typical, nerd loves jock type of story. I believe this is done in order to make the audience comfortable with the familiarity of such a simple beginning plot. Naturally. (An aside. Don't you ever just want to say "DUH" but don't because the word seems so uncouth? but sometimes it's the only thing that will suffice) I digress. So the two people with nothing in common end up getting together. She's touched by his undeniable way with words and (DUH) he's Robert Redford; he's intrigued by her resolve and strength in the face of adverse opinion. She had this wild dynamic that was as intoxicating. Their love become so strong and intertwined that it still stands when everything falls apart. The politics get in the way, the stress and pressure just isn't enough for them to stay together. With all the love they have for one another, it just can't be. That is a horrible thing to watch. He thinks that love should be easier. She thinks she can fix it if she tries hard enough. It's all explained in a line early in the film:
Katie: I don't have the right style for you do I?
Hubbell : No you don't have the right style.
Katie I'll Change.
Hubbell : No don't change you're your own girl, you have your own style.
Katie : But then I won't have you. Why can't I have you?
She was everything he couldn't be and vice versa. She was outspoken, she didn't go along with the grain. He was high class, easy-going, successful. In the end, no one can truly change, and if they had stayed together, their love would destroy them both. You know they love each other still after everything because of the last scene. They meet on the streets of New York and it's not with malice or regret, but with love and friendship. I mean the fucking song talks about only remembering the laughter in the way we were, because the hard times were too bad to think about. They couldn't be together. It had to end that way. OK. I've gone too far! Getting carried away here. Moving on.
My roommate A, could only see what a bastard Hubble was when he cheated on her with his old girlfriend. She got lost in the plot, and kept wondering why Katie didn't just dump Hubble on his ass, and why he even put up with her. She didn't understand the politics of the movie, which really were just a side story to make things tense. She was focused on how rough it was going to be for Katie to raise a child alone in the 60s--a time when, to her, everyone had to be in a nice packaged family where the mom stays home and cooks. She couldn't see that Katie would never be that type of mother anyway, which was part of why the relationship died. Even when Katie met Hubble's new girlfriend at the end, she couldn't understand why Katie handled it so gracefully, instead of going ape shit and refusing to even look at the woman. She wondered why the movie ended so sadly.
The other roommate K, was almost at this same view, but could see that they loved each other very much. She wanted Katie to drop Hubble as well, and move on with her life. She though Katie put up with way too much shit. She concentrated on how she had packed up her entire life and moved to Hollywood to be with Hubble, and he had sacrificed nothing. Although. I would like to say here, that Hubble did compromise as well. He did. It just wouldn't work. Anyway. She saw Katie as this independent woman who didn't need him in her life if he couldn't support her.
The fucking parallels between our own personal lives and the ways we chose to interpret this film are NUTS. I don't mean in the way our lives actually play out so much as the way we feel about life, the way we each think things should work out. I mean. If you've read any of this blog, you can see my unguarded parallels. I like to think I saw this movie the way it was intended. But did I?
I thought about this for a few minutes and decided. SURE. I interpreted it correctly, because it's never meant to be seen one way. Is this what makes it a classic?
I leave with one other good line from the film:
Hubbell Gardner: You think you're easy? Compared to what, the Hundred Years' War?
Hubbell : No you don't have the right style.
Katie I'll Change.
Hubbell : No don't change you're your own girl, you have your own style.
Katie : But then I won't have you. Why can't I have you?
She was everything he couldn't be and vice versa. She was outspoken, she didn't go along with the grain. He was high class, easy-going, successful. In the end, no one can truly change, and if they had stayed together, their love would destroy them both. You know they love each other still after everything because of the last scene. They meet on the streets of New York and it's not with malice or regret, but with love and friendship. I mean the fucking song talks about only remembering the laughter in the way we were, because the hard times were too bad to think about. They couldn't be together. It had to end that way. OK. I've gone too far! Getting carried away here. Moving on.
My roommate A, could only see what a bastard Hubble was when he cheated on her with his old girlfriend. She got lost in the plot, and kept wondering why Katie didn't just dump Hubble on his ass, and why he even put up with her. She didn't understand the politics of the movie, which really were just a side story to make things tense. She was focused on how rough it was going to be for Katie to raise a child alone in the 60s--a time when, to her, everyone had to be in a nice packaged family where the mom stays home and cooks. She couldn't see that Katie would never be that type of mother anyway, which was part of why the relationship died. Even when Katie met Hubble's new girlfriend at the end, she couldn't understand why Katie handled it so gracefully, instead of going ape shit and refusing to even look at the woman. She wondered why the movie ended so sadly.
The other roommate K, was almost at this same view, but could see that they loved each other very much. She wanted Katie to drop Hubble as well, and move on with her life. She though Katie put up with way too much shit. She concentrated on how she had packed up her entire life and moved to Hollywood to be with Hubble, and he had sacrificed nothing. Although. I would like to say here, that Hubble did compromise as well. He did. It just wouldn't work. Anyway. She saw Katie as this independent woman who didn't need him in her life if he couldn't support her.
The fucking parallels between our own personal lives and the ways we chose to interpret this film are NUTS. I don't mean in the way our lives actually play out so much as the way we feel about life, the way we each think things should work out. I mean. If you've read any of this blog, you can see my unguarded parallels. I like to think I saw this movie the way it was intended. But did I?
I thought about this for a few minutes and decided. SURE. I interpreted it correctly, because it's never meant to be seen one way. Is this what makes it a classic?
I leave with one other good line from the film:
Hubbell Gardner: You think you're easy? Compared to what, the Hundred Years' War?
1 comment:
Your interpretation seemed reasonable, but having been in an 11 year relationship that was much like the story-line, I may be bias.
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