'Love means never having to say you're sorry'...and apparently never having to worry about narrative continuity either. Director Arthur Hiller's Love Story (1970) is the three hanky weepy by which all other soapy, soppy and sloppy boy meets girl romances are judged. The book 'Love Story' is actually based on the film, both written by Erich Segal. It's 'can a Wasp and an uppity Radcliffe bitch find true happiness?' scenario apparently worked well, enough for Sydney Pollack to ape it three years later with The Way We Were (1973) for Columbia Pictures. But on this outing the film tells the story of Oliver Barrett IV (Ryan O'Neal) - a preppie who hates his father, Oliver III (Ray Milland) but falls madly in love with opinionated Radcliffe liberal, Jennifer Cavalleri (Ali McGraw) instead. Not much parental strife on this outing. Jen's dad, Phil (John Marley) has some initial objections and Oliver attempts to belittle Jenny's importance by referring to her as 'she', but otherwise it's smooth sailing for the happy couple. Well, almost...though not quite.
Oliver disowns his son after the two are married. Oliver IV struggles to pay his way through Harvard Law School and Jenny gets a job working as a private school teacher. Young love prevails and so does hard work. Oliver graduates and takes a position at a respectable law firm in New York.
The two decide to start a family. Only conception is not as easy as it should be. After several false starts Jenny and Oliver undergo tests to, in Ollie's own words, 'find out who's faulty.' Dr. Addison (Walker Modica) informs Oliver that Jenny is very sick and will die shortly of one of those glamorous undisclosed Hollywood illnesses that are never revealed to the audience.
Oliver appeals to his father for $5,000 to pay for Jenny's treatments. Oliver III assumes that the money is for an abortion but writes his son the check anyway. Too late he learns what his money is really being used for and rushes to the hospital to comfort his son only to be told by him that Jenny has died and with her, presumably, so has the last opportunity Oliver III might have had to reconcile with his estranged son.
Love Story may not be high art but it definitely tugs at the heart strings. Initially, Hiller wanted either Beau Bridges or Michael York to play Oliver IV. Both turned down the part. Ryan O'Neal was cast only after several other actors were first considered. Today it's quite impossible imagining any of the other choices being half as good. Ali McGraw's 'go to hell' attitude wears a little thin during the last act of the film but otherwise provides a real spark in the dialogue.
Segal's script is sharp and witty. The verbal sparing between Jenny and Oliver IV sustains the film even if the narrative is tragically episodic to a fault. Dick Kratina's cinematography is fairly straight forward, although his staging of the hockey match involved mounting the camera on a pair of hockey sticks and getting a camera man who could shoot and skate at the same time.
The film is also noteworthy for the debut of actor Tommy Lee Jones as Hank Simpson, one of Ollie's frat buddies briefly glimpsed during a card game. Francis Lai's theme gets overplayed throughout the movie but is memorable nonetheless. Bottom line: Love Story will have you delving into the Kleenex by the final reel.
Paramount's Blu-ray rectifies the major sins committed on their standard DVD from some years before. Truly, Love Story has never looked better on home video. The true 1080p image retains its dated 1970s look, while colour fidelity and contrast levels take a quantum leap forward. Better still, all that pesky edge enhancement and aliasing that plagued the DVD is gone on Blu-ray. Film grain looks like grain, rather than digital grit. The image is smooth, yet very film like. The audio has also received a badly needed upgrade to DTS 5.1. Although it exhibits all the shortcomings of vintage audio, the effect has been lovingly and painstakingly preserved to eliminate minor hiss and pop.
Extras include an audio commentary from Hiller as well as a truncated 'making of' featurette that boils down to Hiller taking about the film with inserts from the film itself - all of it in full frame! Bottom line: Paramount has once again done an outstanding job on mastering a catalogue title in hi def. Highly recommended.
FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)
4
VIDEO/AUDIO
4
EXTRAS
2
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