‘Love Story’ (1970) Blu-ray Review: Classic Tear-Jerker Jerks My Tears
by John NolteIf love really meant never having to say you’re sorry, I’d have enough time on my hands to get a PHD.
Yes, the tagline for director Arthur Hiller’s “Love Story” is unforgivably stupid, no question. Almost as bad is Ali McGraw’s performance as the gorgeous but doomed Jennifer. My wife hates this film and MacGraw’s performance so much that she only agreed to screen the Blu-ray with me so that she could delight in Jennifer’s cancerous demise. My wife’s tagline for the film is, “Marrying the studio head means never having to take an acting class.”
So what was it about this fairly mediocre 1970 tear-jerker that made it, not only the highest-grossing film of the year, but also the 6th highest grossing film of all time — the “Titanic” of its day?
Believe it or not, I saw this “chick flick” classic for the first time ever when the Blu-ray screener arrived last week, and thankfully I’m secure enough in my masculinity to admit that the story got to me. You can’t disagree with the film’s critics and their many criticisms, but in the end I’m not completely ashamed to admit that Jennifer’s death choked me up and that I found the third act a little gut-wrenching as that reality became increasingly inevitable.
For everything the story does wrong, it does two key things so right that those moments help to overcome the rest. When, in the middle of a perfect day, Jennifer tells her husband, Oliver (Ryan O’Neal), that she has to go to the hospital, it’s a real kick to the gut. Laugh all you want, but just thinking about it gets to me. And then there’s how we learn that she’s died. (No spoiler warning necessary. We’re told Jennifer will die in the opening scene.)
Those were the exact right moments for the story to avoid melodrama and those moments all but redeem the entire production. “Love Story” isn’t a great film, but it’s a good one that manipulates you just enough that it stays with you for a little while, and that’s a pretty rare accomplishment. There’s also something charming about Jennifer that grows on you over time. At first she’s haughty and obnoxious, but there was something that eventually won me over. By the time she and Oliver are sitting alone in the dark in that chair together coming to terms with the news, the story owned me. MacGraw is no actress, but she has an undeniable quality that helps to overcome that.
Another of the movie’s saving graces is that most of the production was filmed on-location, which looks marvelous in high-definition. The disc also offers feature-length commentary from the director as well as an above-average behind-the-scenes documentary.
You know what really does mean never having to say you’re sorry? Making a cheesy tearkerker that pushed my buttons.
“Love Story” hits shelves Feb. 7 and is available for pre-order at Amazon.com.
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44 Comments
Bravo to Mrs. Nolte. That's a brilliant tagline for the insipid "Love Story". Talent wise, MacGraw was the Demi Moore of her day.
Dick Nixon was "shocked" at the frank language in the film.
Hey Demi Moore could act! She was totally convincing in Striptease – you know, working those poles must have been a stretch….
I love this movie – I enjoyed it the first time I saw it at 19, and I've enjoyed it the multiple times I've seen it since. The novel was average, the sequel was terrible, but Love Story is in its own way a magical film. Many love stories are overrated and insipid, but this never struck me as one of them.
"I couldn't [EXPLETIVE DELETED] believe the [EXPLETIVE DELETED] language in this [EXPLETIVE DELETED] movie. [EXPLETIVE DELETED]!"
It was great to see Ray Milland on screen again (as Ryan O'Neal's father) and in a decent film!
He was better in "The Thing with Two Heads."
I agree with your wife. Blah! When I saw this movie back in the day, I was almost cheering when she died.
Barbra S. to Ryan O'Neill in "What's up, Doc?":
"Love means never having to say you're sorry"
O'Neill: "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
Troll all you want, but Babs was great in that movie.
Also, lighten up on Demi Moore, please. Imagine if you were going through a tough time and everyone
ripped you up and mocked your pain. Trolling demeans you.
The movie was a total drag, save Ali MacGraw. She’s always worth watching a couple hours at the cinema house.
I remember seeing this movie with my parents and brother as a 13 year old at the old Drive-in Whitestone movie theater in The Bronx! With the speaker mounted inside my dad's 1971 Plymouth!
I think Andy Williams' song had a lot to do with the success of this film.
Al Gore insistied that LOVE STORY was based upon HIS and TIPPER's LIVES……shame He didn't go the way of Jennifer.
THIS was just a ELITIST HARVARD MAGNA RICH KID with a "mean rich daddy" which was all CLASS WARFARE and MONEY vs LOVE CONQUERS ALL claptrap.
The music was the heartstring puller….not the movie itself.
Just watched "The Lost Weekend" for the first time last night. WOW!
Great picture.
What's up, Doc is one of my movies and yes, Barbara was brilliant. Shut up and Sing!
It's very rare for me to "hate" a film but this is an exception. Ali McGraw was just atrocious and overall cringeworthy. What Steve McQueen ever saw in her, I'll never know.
Yes, it was a "Class" love story-Al and Tipper, lol? I heard he thought it was, so I went to the source,,
I used to be in the video biz, and who did I see, at a convention about 19 years ago, promoting her new fitness tapes, was Ali McGraw herself! Couldnt have been nicer, and still looked hot! And yes, she denied it being about Fat Al, even back then!
"My wife’s tagline for the film is, “Marrying the studio head means never having to take an acting class.”"
And those who don't marry the studio head? Well. There is a four letter word in that question that gives the answer. Hint: It's not couch.
A classic if there ever was one. Rosie Grier should have got an academy nod.
The only appropriate thing would have been to give Grier and Milland a joint-Oscar.
Spike Lee could learn a thing or two from this frank and thought-provoking meditation on race relations.
Great film. Try THE UNINVITED next. And for a change of pace – PANIC IN YEAR ZERO.
He was always good until he did those junker horrors in the 60s.
"My wife’s tagline for (Love Story) is, “Marrying the studio head means never having to take an acting class.”
Nolte? You've just explained to us why you married that woman. ;>)
The Revenge Of The Sith of its day
Come on!! She was a great looker! And give McQueen his due, he had great taste in women if not actresses!
I hate this movie without having seen it for a simple reason. This is the movie that proved once and for all that the members of the Motion Picture Academy who vote for Best Original Music Score have the biggest tin ears when it comes to recognizing music score greatness and who time and again shafted the greatest film music composers of movie history for the sake of rewarding trendiness. In this case, Jerry Goldsmith, one of the greatest of composers, was robbed of an Oscar for "Patton" (the ONLY category this film lost that year!) just so "Love Story" could get rewarded based on its sappy song. UGH!!
My dad (he ain't no chick) loved this movie and even named my brother Ryan because of it.
LOL, ain't that the truth. First thing I thought of, was the movie mentioned by Bennett Marco, in the above post.
Was the drive-in anywhere near the bridge?
I remember being little and my dad and mom going to see the movie. It was a big deal to go out back than. They were all dressed up for it and I can still smell my moms make-up (cover-girl base) as she hugged me good-bye. My mom came home still crying her eyes out. Up to that point I'd never seen my mother cry so that's probably why I remember it. My dad seemed blasé about the whole thing. Dad probably had to down a few drinks when she made him take her to see it again. Same thing, she came home bawling. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said it was that generations Titanic.
I finally saw Love Story for the first time in the 80's and thought it was ridiculous. My favorite part is when they decide to keep the illness from Jennifer. Who does that?? I thought the music was really annoying as well. Don't get me started on the acting!
"Love Means never having to say you're sorry"
Stupid. Idiotic. Slogan.
Many have interpreted this to mean that you can be as mean and nasty toward the one you love without having to ever apologize.
No wonder the divorce rate skyrocketed after this movie came out.
I DID cheer when she died. I'm just sorry Oliver didn't shove a gun in his mouth and pull the trigger…which would then have made it an awesome movie. Take that "Love means never having to say you're sorry."
Needless to say I hate this movie. I hate this movie. I HATE THIS MOVIE.
John, I think it pushed your buttons because you're a guy hopelessly in love with your wife. Just seeing yourself in a situation like that is enough to get any man to start looking around the room for peeled onions.
I know, cuz I'm married and would be the same way…that's why I'm not sure I'll ever see this one.
Because someone is a bad actress, does it necessarily have to follow that they are a bad person? From everything I've read, Ali McGraw is a very good, caring person. Steve McQueen on the other hand – was a jerk in his real life.
It was a shame that so many screen ladies and gents were reduced to working in junk films. Milland, Basil Rathbone, Joan Crawford, Peter Lorre.
I've never heard that Steve McQueen was a "jerk" in real life (unlike, say, Alec Baldwin). Where did you get that info? We have audio of Alec Baldwin talking to his daughter…..
There's still a movie theater there now, but its not a drive-in. Its in the area of the interchange between the Bruckner Expressway and the Cross-Bronx Expressway.
The actor's name was John Marley, I believe.
I maintain that the relationship between Captain Frank Furillo and Joyce Davenport on "Hill Street Blues" was the most annoying and insufferable relationship in the history of the large or small screen combined. Although the patrician Oliver, thinking about it, reminded me more of John Kerry than Al Gore, and Jennifer's character was pretty snotty and sarcastic, at least at the beginning of the movie.
That's what I thought, and why I asked. Thanks houster!!
Not to mention Bela Legosi too, eh?!
I guess the pickinings for some actors at a certain age for good roles/parts, is kinda slim.
If they still need to be top billed it is I suppose. OTOH, you who people like Edward G. Robinson and Joan Blondell who realized early that they were getting older and they took supporting roles way back in the 40s. They never had to appear in junk movies b/c they didn't have to carry the film. Milland takes a supporting role in LOVE STORY and in back in a top notch production…instead of one where he has a blackhead on him.
You're entitled to that opinion, Chas. I just found her average, at best.
Gosh, I hated this movie when it first came out, and still think it's a yawner. My 15 year old daughter recently caught this on TV, and told me that Jennifer didn't seem like any girl she knows. She asked why would his family even care who he dated or married. I had a hard time trying to explain that one, since her frame of reference doesn't share room with snobbery or class distinctions.
The truth of it is rather ironic. Ryan O'Neal's rich-kid background is based on Gore… and the relationship and loss are based on his roommate, Tommy Lee Jones, who does not talk about it. Ever.
OK, she couldn't act. But Ali MacGraw was GORGEOUS to look at.
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