This is to honor the Queen on her birthday – Memory
The Way We Were is a 1973 American romantic drama film directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford. Arthur Laurents wrote both the novel and screenplay based on his college days at Cornell University and his experiences with the House Un-American Activities Committ
A box-office success, the film was nominated for several awards and won the Academy Awards for Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Original Song for the theme song “The Way We Were”. It ranked at number six on AFI’s 100 Years…100 Passions survey of the top 100 greatest love stories in American cinema. The Way We Were is considered one of the great romantic films.The soundtrack album became a gold record and hit the Top 20 on the Billboard 200, while the title song became a gold single, topping the Billboard Hot 100 and selling more than two million copies. Billboard named “The Way We Were” as the number 1 pop hit of 1974. In 1998, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and finished at number eight on the American Film Institute’s 100 Years… 100 Songs list of top tunes in American cinema in 2004. It also was included in the list of Songs of the Century, by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.ld partly in flashback, it is the story of Katie Morosky and Hubbell Gardiner. Their differences are immense; she is a stridently vocal Marxist Jew with strong anti-war opinions, and he is a carefree WASP with no particular political bent. While attending the same college in 1937, she is drawn to him because of his good looks and natural writing skill, although he does not work very hard at it. He is intrigued by her conviction and determination to persuade others to take up social causes. Their attraction is evident, but neither acts upon it, and they lose touch after graduation. The two meet again towards the end of World War II while Katie is working at a radio station, and Hubbell, having served as a naval officer in the South Pacific, is trying to adjust to stateside life. They fall in love, despite their differences. Soon, however, Katie is incensed by the cynical jokes that Hubbell’s friends make at the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She’s unable to understand his indifference towards their insensitivity and dismissal of political engagement. At the same time, his serenity is disturbed by her lack of social graces and her polarizing postures. Hubbell breaks it off with Katie, but she pursues him and they eventually reconcile. When Hubbell is offered the opportunity to adapt his novel into a screenplay, Katie believes he will waste his talent if he goes to Hollywood. Despite her frustration, they move to California where, without much effort, he becomes a successful screenwriter and the couple enjoy an affluent lifestyle. As the Hollywood blacklist grows and McCarthyism encroaches on their lives, Katie’s political activism resurfaces, jeopardizing Hubbell’s position and reputation. Eventually, Katie and other Hollywood liberals dare to confront the government’s invasion of their privacy and the oppression of their right to free speech. This leads to a fight in which Hubbell claims people are what matter, not an ultimately pointless battle over principles. Katie counters that people are their principles. Hubbell is alienated by Katie’s persistent abrasiveness and, although she is now pregnant, he has brief liaison with Carol Ann, his college girlfriend recently divorced from J.J., his best friend. After the birth of their daughter, Katie and Hubbell divorce. She finally understands he’s not the man she idealized, and he will always choose the easiest way out. Hubbell, for his part, is exhausted and unable to live on the pedestal that Katie erected for him. Years later, Katie and Hubbell meet by chance in front of the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Hubbell is with a stylishly beautiful woman, and he’s writing for a television show. Katie has remarried, and she invites Hubbell and his lady friend to come for a drink, but he turns her down. Hubbell asks about their daughter Rachel, and whether Katie’s new husband is a good father to her. Katie has remained faithful to who she is, and her new political cause is to “Ban the Bomb.” Hubbell takes a flyer from her, says, “See you, kid,” and walks back to the waiting taxi