Love Story, 1970

When I first watched “Love Story,” back in 1970, I was a chubby 9th-grader in braces. I thought it was sappy, even then, but my strongest emotion was wondering if anyone would ever love me like that.

Jenny’s death hardly touched me.

Now, at age 52, watching it again after all these years—and having lived through several very satisfactory romances myself, thank you—I find the love story sadly flat. There is so little chemistry or romantic tension between Ryan O’Neal (Oliver) and Ali MacGraw (Jenny). And she simply cannot act.

MacGraw delivers the film’s most famous, and hotly discussed, line, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry,” as though she were reading a grocery list.

And Jenny’s death from an unspecified cancer, leukemia, perhaps, is truly ludicrous. One minute she is telling Oliver off in her classic style, scolding him, calling him “Preppy,” and two minutes later, she is dead. Just like that.

A couple of other things will annoy people living with cancer:

* The doctor tells Oliver that Jenny is dying, but doesn’t tell Jenny. (He apparently lies to his patient. I don’t think doctors did that, even in 1970.)

* Later, when Oliver consults with Jenny’s doctors in the hallway of the hospital, one of them says he doesn’t know “how long she’ll linger.”

And Oliver doesn’t punch him in the nose! “Linger?” It sounds like they need the bed for another patient. I’ll linger as long as I like when it’s my turn to go.

@ Jeanne Sather 2007.

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Comments

[Carrie]

I so agree with you on this review. Jeez, Ali McGraw really WAS terrible in that movie. It's hard to believe it became so popular.

I'm still trying to find out where I can buy Griffin Loves Phoenix, the original version. Now THAT was a great love story movie about cancer. I heard the remake doesn't do it justice unfortunately.

[Sara]

Gad, yes, what a horrible movie! And that "love means never having to say you're sorry" line is one of the more irresponsibly used quotes of all time. Real love, of course, means saying you're sorry a lot.

Incidentally, doing research in California in the late 1980s for some project or other, I was shocked to discover that in some states (including Washington, but I can't remember which others) doctors even then were not required ever to grant patients access to their own medical records, but were allowed to give any requested information to a patient's next of kin, even information they chose not to divulge to the patient. A chill went over me when I read that. This is a right I have always taken for granted, but it has not always been considered the right of every patient in the United States, and as recently as very recently it used to vary quite widely from state to state.

I do not know when or where these laws changed, if the U. S. ever created a federal law guaranteeing a patient bill of rights. For all I know, this kind of thing still goes on quite legally.

[Jeanne]

Wow, Sara, I had no idea. I need to look into this. Thanks for letting me know.

Jeanne

[Sheva]

Amazon has a copy of Griffen Loves Pheonix for sale.