The Way We Were

The Way We Were
Theatrical release poster by Bill Gold
Directed bySydney Pollack
Screenplay byArthur Laurents
Based onThe Way We Were
1972 novel
by Arthur Laurents
Produced byRay Stark
Starring
CinematographyHarry Stradling Jr.
Edited byJohn F. Burnett
Music byMarvin Hamlisch
Production
company
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • October 19, 1973 (1973-10-19)
Running time
118 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$5 million
Box office$50 million[1]

The Way We Were is a 1973 American romantic drama film directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford. Arthur Laurents adapted the screenplay from his own 1972 novel of the same name, which was based on his college days at Cornell University and his experiences with the House Un-American Activities Committee.[2]

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.[3][4][5][6][7][8]

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.[9]

  1. ^ "The Way We Were (1973)". The Numbers. Archived from the original on April 6, 2014. Retrieved May 26, 2014.
  2. ^ Laurents, Arthur (1973). The Way We Were. Avon Books. ISBN 978-0-38-015289-6. Archived from the original on May 12, 2018 – via Goodreads.
  3. ^ Jacobs, Laura (August 9, 2013). "Cinema Aphrodiso". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on December 2, 2015. Retrieved December 7, 2015.
  4. ^ "23 Reasons "The Way We Were" Featured The Best Romance Of All Time". BuzzFeed. October 19, 2014. Archived from the original on November 5, 2015. Retrieved December 7, 2015.
  5. ^ "The 100 best romantic movies". www.timeout.com. Archived from the original on June 1, 2018. Retrieved December 7, 2015.
  6. ^ "List of the Most Romantic Movies of all Time". www.franksreelreviews.com. Archived from the original on July 5, 2016. Retrieved December 7, 2015.
  7. ^ "The 50 Best Romantic Movies". whatsontv.co.uk. Archived from the original on February 6, 2016. Retrieved December 7, 2015.
  8. ^ "Top 100 Best Romance Movies Of All Time". whatsontv.co.uk. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved December 7, 2015.
  9. ^ "Songs of the Century". cnn.com. CNN. March 7, 2001. Archived from the original on May 2, 2014. Retrieved March 9, 2013.