Love Story (1970 film)

Oliver Barrett IV, the heir of an American upper-class East Coast family, is attending Harvard College where he plays ice hockey. He meets Jennifer "Jenny" Cavilleri, a quick-witted, working-class Radcliffe College student of classical music; they quickly fall in love despite their differences.

When Jenny reveals her plans to study in Paris, Oliver is upset that he does not figure in those plans. He proposes, she accepts, and they travel to the Barrett mansion so that she can meet Oliver's parents, who are judgmental and unimpressed with her. Later Oliver's father tells him that he will cut him off financially if he marries Jenny. After graduation Oliver and Jenny marry nonetheless.

Without his father's financial support, the couple struggle to pay Oliver's way through Harvard Law School; Jenny works as a teacher. Oliver graduates third in his class and takes a position at a respectable New York City law firm. They are ready to start a family, but fail to conceive. After many tests Oliver is told that Jenny is terminally ill.

Oliver attempts to live a "normal life" without telling Jenny of her condition, but she finds out after confronting her doctor. Oliver buys tickets to Paris, but she declines to go, wanting only to spend time with him. To pay for Jenny's cancer therapy, Oliver seeks money from his estranged father, who asks him if he has "gotten a girl in trouble." Oliver simply says yes, and his father writes a check.

From her hospital bed, Jenny makes funeral arrangements with her father, then asks for Oliver. She tells him to not blame himself, insisting that he never held her back from music and it was worth it for the love they shared. Jenny's last wish is made when she asks him to embrace her tightly before she dies. As a grief-stricken Oliver leaves the hospital, he sees his father outside, having rushed to New York City from Massachusetts as soon as he heard the news about Jenny and wanting to offer his help. Oliver tells him, "Jenny's dead," and his father says "I'm sorry," to which Oliver responds, "Love– Love means never having to say you're sorry", something that Jenny had said to him earlier. Oliver walks back alone to the outdoor ice rink, where Jenny had watched him skate the day she was hospitalized.

• Ali MacGraw as Jennifer "Jenny" Cavilleri
• Ryan O'Neal as Oliver Barrett IV
• John Marley as Phil Cavilleri
• Ray Milland as Oliver Barrett III
• Russell Nype as Dean Thompson
• Katharine Balfour as Mrs. Barrett
• Sydney Walker as Dr. Shapeley
• Robert Modica as Dr. Addison
• Walker Daniels as Ray Stratton
• Tommy Lee Jones as Hank Simpson (credited as Tom Lee Jones)
• John Merensky as Steve
• Andrew Duncan as Reverend Blaufelt

Erich Segal originally wrote the screenplay and sold it to Paramount Pictures. While the film was being produced, Paramount wanted Segal to write a novel based on it, to be published on Valentine's Day to help pre-publicize the release of the film. When the novel came out, it became a bestseller on its own in advance of the film.

The original director was Larry Peerce. He backed out and was replaced by Anthony Harvey. Harvey dropped out and was replaced by Arthur Hiller. Jimmy Webb wrote a score for the film that was not used.

The lead role was turned down by Beau Bridges, Michael York and Jon Voight.[5] Ryan O'Neal was given the lead role on the recommendation of Erich Segal, who had worked with the actor on The Games; he was paid $25,000.[6]

Filming Love Story on location caused significant damage to the Harvard campus. This experience, followed by a similar experience with the film A Small Circle of Friends (1980), caused the university administration to deny most subsequent requests for filming on location.[7]

The main song in the film, "(Where Do I Begin?) Love Story" was a major success, particularly the vocal rendition recorded by Andy Williams.

The premiere for Love Story took place at Loews's State I theatre in New York City on Wednesday, December 16, 1970.[8] In the Philippines, the film premiered on June 29, 1971 at the Diamond Theater in Quezon City.[9]

The soundtrack from the film was released separately as an album, and distributed by Quality Records.[26]

All tracks are written by Francis Lai, except where noted.

Two lines from the film have entered popular culture:

What can you say about a 25-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful and brilliant? That she loved Mozart and Bach? The Beatles? And me?

Love means never having to say you're sorry.

The latter is spoken twice in the film, once by Jennifer when Oliver is about to apologize to her for his anger. It is also spoken by Oliver to his father when his father says "I'm sorry" after hearing of Jennifer's death.

The quote made it to #13 onto the American Film Institute's AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movie Quotes, a list of top movie quotes.

The comedy What's Up, Doc? (1972), which stars O'Neal, refers to this line at the end, when Barbra Streisand's character says "Love means never having to say you're sorry", then bats her eyelashes. O'Neal's character responds in deadpan fashion, "That's the dumbest thing I ever heard."

O'Neal and Milland reprised their roles for a sequel, Oliver's Story, released in 1978. It was based on Segal's 1977 novel. The film begins with Jenny's funeral, then picks up 18 months later. Oliver is a successful, but unhappy, lawyer in New York. Although still mourning Jenny, he manages to find love with heiress Marcie Bonwit (Candice Bergen). Suffering from comparisons to the original, Oliver's Story did poorly with both audiences and critics.

NBC broadcast Love Story, a short-lived romantic anthology television series, in 1973–1974. Although it shared its name with the novel and movie and used the same theme song – "(Where Do I Begin) Love Story" – as the movie, it otherwise was unrelated to them, with no characters or storylines in common with either the novel or the movie. The original film was remade in India in the Malayalam language entitled Madanolsavam in 1978.

Another movie Sanam Teri Kasam was made also in India in the Hindi language and released in 2016. The film is a modern rendition of the novel Love Story by Eric Segal. The film was released worldwide on 5 February 2016 under the production banner of Eros Now.

Vincent Canby wrote in his original New York Times review that it was "as if Jenny was suffering from some vaguely unpleasant Elizabeth Arden treatment."[14] Mad magazine ran a parody of the film ("Lover's Story") in its October 1971 issue, which depicted Ali MacGraw's character as stricken with "Old Movie Disease", an ailment that causes a dying patient to become "more beautiful by the minute."[30][31] In 1997, Roger Ebert defined "Ali MacGraw's Disease" as a movie illness in which "the only symptom is that the patient grows more beautiful until finally dying."[32]

In 1971, the 20th episode of the fourth season of The Carol Burnett Show featured a take-off of the film called "Lovely Story", with Carol Burnett in the MacGraw role and Harvey Korman in the O'Neal role.[33]

The film's female protagonist has been credited with the spike in the baby name Jennifer in North America in 1970, launching it to the number 1 feminine given name.[34] It would hold this position for 14 years.

In 2020, the film's theme music was played during the funeral procession of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.[35]

In Westworld season 3, the film's theme music is played while a character is on a drug called 'genre' which makes him see the world in different film genres.

• List of American films of 1970
• A Walk to Remember (2002), a film with a similar theme

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Love Story (1970 film)

• Love Story at IMDb
• Love Story at the TCM Movie Database
• Love Story at Rotten Tomatoes
• Film Rewind: Revisiting Love Story (fan summary)