Love Story (film)
"Love Story" is a 1970 film directed by Arthur Hiller, based on a screenplay by Erich Segal, who also authored a novel of the same name that became a best-seller concurrently with the film's release. The narrative centers around the romance between Jenny Cavalleri, a Radcliffe student from a modest background, and Oliver Barrett IV, a wealthy Harvard student. Their love faces societal challenges rooted in class differences and familial opposition, echoing themes found in classic tales such as Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" and the Cinderella story. Despite their deep connection, the couple's journey is marked by tragedy, as Jenny's untimely death from a terminal illness underscores the harsh realities of life and love.
The film resonated with audiences during a time marked by social upheaval, reflecting themes of youthful rebellion and the generational conflict prevalent in American society, particularly in the context of the Vietnam War. "Love Story" not only became the highest-grossing film of 1970 but also earned acclaim at various award ceremonies, securing an Academy Award for Best Musical Score and several nominations, including Best Picture. A sequel, "Oliver's Story," was released in 1978 but did not achieve the same success. Overall, "Love Story" remains a poignant exploration of love, loss, and the complexities of human relationships.
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Subject Terms
Love Story (film)
Identification Motion picture
Date Released in 1970
Director Arthur Hiller
This tragic drama appealed to an audience seeking love, not war, but who were nonetheless reconciled to unhappy endings.
Key Figures
Arthur Hiller (1923- ), film director
Erich Segal turned his script for Love Story into a novel, which appeared at the same time as the film and became a best-seller, which added to the impact of the motion picture. Like most great love stories, the film ends tragically, but it also contains romantic elements of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and the fairy tale of Cinderella. Jenny Cavalleri (played by Ali MacGraw), a Radcliffe student, is the daughter of an Italian American baker. Oliver Barrett IV (Ryan O’Neal), a hockey-playing student from Harvard, is the son of a wealthy lawyer whose family connection to Harvard is reflected in the name of Barrett Hall on the Harvard campus.
Jenny is daunted by the socioeconomic disparity between herself and Oliver. Oliver, whose attraction to her is partly based on his desire to rebel against his father, is determined to bridge the class gap. The theme of true love overcoming class differences and parental opposition has long appealed to mass audiences, and the theme of youthful rebellion against father figures and all forms of authority appealed to a generation of filmgoers concerned about the war in Vietnam and rights for black Americans and women.
When Oliver defies his father and is on his own, he marries Jenny, who now has her “prince,” but the fairy tale lacks a “happily ever after” ending. Jenny is diagnosed with a fatal illness and dies after the couple move from Cambridge to New York City, where Oliver has a job with a prestigious law firm. For the film’s audience, this tragic ending seemed to relate to the situation in Vietnam: In addition to acknowledging the death of the young and the beautiful, the film also implied that, just as in the Vietnam War, things do not always end happily. Moreover, the film’s conflict between generations (Oliver and his father) was paralleled by the very real conflict in American society between the young people protesting in the streets and the establishment figures in power. Jenny tried to reconcile Oliver and his father, but while Juliet’s death brought together the Montagues and the Capulets in Romeo and Juliet, Jenny’s death is not enough to bring the two men together. Their failure to relate is essentially a failure to communicate, a situation mirrored in American politics and society.
Impact
In addition to being the top-grossing film of 1970, Love Story received an Academy Award for Best Musical Score and garnered several additional nominations, among them Best Picture and Best Director for Arthur Hiller, who also won a Golden Globe for directing. Oliver’s Story, a 1978 sequel, met the fate of most sequels—failure at the box office.
Bibliography
Emery, Robert J. The Directors: Take Two. New York: Watson-Guptil, 2000.
Lieman, Sergio. Robert Wise on His Films. Los Angeles: Directors Guild, 1995.
Phillips, Gene. Major Film Directors of the American and British Cinema. Bethlehem, Pa.: Lehigh University Press, 1999.