Cactus Classic Cinema: "Love Story” (1970) Rated PG - starring Ryan O’Neal and Ali McGraw
Love Story is a 1970 American romance film written by Erich Segal, who was also the author of the best-selling 1970 novel of the same name. It was produced by Howard G. Minsky, and directed by Arthur Hiller, starring Ali MacGraw, Ryan ONeal, John Marley, Ray Milland and Tommy Lee Jones in his film debut.
The film is considered one of the most romantic by the American Film Institute (No. 9 on the list) and is one of the highest-grossing films of all time adjusted for inflation. It was followed by a sequel, Olivers Story (1978), starring ONeal with Candice Bergen.
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Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw in 1970 studio photo: Harvard ice-hockey star & hot head meets wise-cracking Radcliffe beauty in popular novel & Hollywood film, “Love Story.
Shown at right is a 1970 photo of actors Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw. At the time, these two were the “easy-on-the-eye” film stars du jour; the star couple in Hollywood’s Love Story, a film that swept the nation off its feet in 1970-71. Ali MacGraw stole the hearts of millions as Ms. Jenny Cavilleri, the bright and sassy working-class Italian kid from Providence, Rhode Island who goes off to Radcliffe and finds her rich Harvard Hunk.
There, in the undergraduate idyll, these two beautiful people, full of promise and intelligence, fall in love and begin their storybook life together – or so it seems. But alas, the fates intercede in this too perfect union, providing a tragic and unhappy ending. Indeed, there are plenty of Kleenex moments in this film as the likeable and quick-witted Jenny is stricken with an unnamed cancer, eventually succumbing to the disease in a heart-wrenching hospital scene one cold winter’s night.
This story, however – rising first as a best-selling novel – became commercial gold. Though some would call it sappy by today’s standards, in the early 1970s both book and film were perfectly timed, and they permeated popular culture through and through. Millions succumbed to the Love Story spell, in print and on screen. Novel and film each made bundles of money. The story’s success marks one of those moments in popular culture when a simple love story sweeps through society as something of a gale force phenomenon, though sometimes, as in this case, to the disdain of more highbrow literary and film critics. What follows here is a recounting of the Love Story tale, novel and film, covering story recap, cultural and business impact, and some biographical follow-up on the principal players.
《愛的故事》（：Love Story）是一部1970年上映的美國愛情電影，亞瑟·希勒執導，改編自編劇艾瑞克·席格爾1970年的同名小說《愛的故事》，並由雷恩·歐尼爾、艾莉·麥克勞、約翰‧馬利、雷·米倫領銜主演。電影描述一名哈佛生與一名拉德克利夫學院生的愛的故事。此片在當年獲得1.36億元美金的票房，被評選維美國電影協會百大愛情片排名第九。.
Love Story is a 1970 American romantic drama film written by Erich Segal, who was also the author of the best-selling 1970 eponymous novel. It was produced by Howard G. Minsky, and directed by Arthur Hiller, starring Ali MacGraw, Ryan ONeal, John Marley, Ray Milland and Tommy Lee Jones in his film debut.
The film is considered one of the most romantic by the American Film Institute (No. 9 on the list) and is one of the highest-grossing films of all time adjusted for inflation.[] It was followed by a sequel, Olivers Story (1978), starring ONeal with Candice Bergen.
洋溢着青春浪漫气息的哈佛大学校园中，富家子弟奥利弗（瑞安·奥尼尔 Ryan ONeal 饰）遇见了聪敏可爱的女生詹妮弗（艾丽·麦古奥 Ali MacGraw 饰），他被女孩的机智俏丽深深吸引，两人迅速坠入爱河。然而，当有权有势的奥利弗家族得知儿子的未婚妻竟然出身于一个烤甜饼的家庭，他们极力反对这桩婚姻。深爱着詹妮弗的奥利弗不顾家庭反对，毅然与爱人成婚，并不惜与家族断绝关系。婚后生活虽然拮据而艰难，但是充满了爱情的甜蜜。奥利弗在爱妻的支持下完成了硕士学业，顺利拿到律师执照。正当生活向着美好的未来走去时，病魔选中了詹妮弗。为了治疗爱妻的绝症，奥利弗低头向父亲求救。然而，一切哀求都无法阻止无情的病魔，詹妮弗最终离开了人世。然而，这段真挚的爱情故事却获得了永恒。
本片获得第43届奥斯卡最佳配乐奖，以及其它6项目奥斯卡提名奖
.1970-2025.整整55個年度,本片至今在美國各愛好經典文藝愛情片中,佔有前10名的排行榜,在許多影迷中有足夠的份量,筆者當年在美國留學時期,本片已經上映25年之久,回憶當時與同學們租用錄影帶觀賞,記憶猶新,令人懷念真正愛情的價值,.傳聞是作者Erich Segal 年輕時在耶魯大學的戀愛故事改編而成,人事時地物皆有調整以免影射第三者?
本電影估且不論故事情節是否屬實,在50 餘年前的美國社會價值觀,扔然保持年輕人戀愛的純真與忠貞,彼此愛戀對方至死不渝的愛情觀,現今年輕人所欠缺的真愛價值觀有極大的差異,猶如物質重要於愛情?..........
https://youtu.be/9qMZlKYiNLA?si=m2hMBluaYZae480t
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Erich Segal: Love Story began its journey with a somewhat unlikely creator – a Yale University classics professor named Erich Segal. Born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of a rabbi, Erich Segal studied Hebrew and other languages at an early age, becoming fluent in German, French, Latin, and Greek. He attended Brooklyn’s Midwood High School where Woody Allen was among his contemporaries.
At Harvard, Segal received a bachelor’s degree in 1958 and was both class poet and Latin salutatorian. Two more Harvard degrees followed: a master’s in classics in 1959 and a Ph.D in comparative literature in 1965.
Erich Segal became a scholar of Greek and Latin literature, publishing books on the Greek writer Euripides and the Roman playwright Plautus before writing Love Story.
Outside of his scholarship, Segal was also something of a long-distance runner. He first ran the Boston Marathon in 1955, and once finished in a respectable time of 2:56:30. By the 1960s, he was still running ten miles a day.
.Segal became a professor of comparative literature at Yale University and throughout his career would also serve as a visiting professor at Princeton, Dartmouth, and other schools. But Segal was not only an academic.
In the 1960s he became involved with screen writing. In fact, by 1967, he wrote the screenplay – adapted from a story by Lee Minoff – for the Beatles’ hit 1968 animated film, Yellow Submarine. He also collaborated on other screenplays through the late 1960s.
One of Segal’s own screenplays was about a romance between a Harvard University student and a Radcliffe College co-ed. Yet this story initially went nowhere. A William Morris literary agent, Lois Wallace, suggested to Segal that he turn the love story script into a novel – the novel that became Love Story.
Segal’s story was sold to Harper & Row publishers in New York, and it became a best-selling hardback in early 1970. It was quickly followed by a paperback, which by then was also being used to tout the forthcoming Paramount film which had been in production even before the hardback was issued. The film came out in mid-December 1970. More on Segal and the marketing of both book and film a bit later. First, an overview of the story, aided here by book-and-film storyline, plus screen shots from the film.
"Love means never having to say youre sorry." Were celebrating the 54th anniversary of Love Story, starring Ryan ONeal and Ali MacGraw. Whats your favorite scene?
.The Story
 Nerdy librarian aide, Jenny Cavilleri, meets Harvard jock, “Ollie” Barrett IV in the Radcliffe library. |
 Jenny succeeds in getting Ollie to take her for coffee. |
 Love Story: Jenny Cavilleri at Harvard ice hockey game, cheering on new found friend, Ollie Barrett. |
 Jenny, inquiring about Ollie’s stay in the penalty box. |
 Ollie & Jenny on campus at Barrett Hall sign. |
 Jenny & Ollie in more intense conversation. |
 Ollie & Jenny becoming better acquainted. |
 "Love Story" snow scene with Jenny & Ollie. |
 Love Story: Ollie & Jenny studying. |
 Ollie & Jenny on the road to meet Ollie’s folks. |
 Jenny Cavilleri meeting Oliver Barrett (Ray Milland). |
 Despite his father’s disapproval, Ollie marries Jenny anyway. |
 Ollie meets Jenny at her kids beach camp. |
 Ollie & Jenny talking at Jens school. |
 Love Story 1970: Jenny Cavilleri & her dad “Phil,” played by John Marley, attending Ollie’s graduation. |
 Jenny congratulating her husband on his law degree. |
 Ollie & Jenny facing Jens prognosis. |
 At Central Park skating rink cafe after their outing, |
 Ollie & Jen crossing snow-covered park to hospital. |
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The featured romance in Love Story is that between Jenny Cavilleri, music major at Radcliffe College and Harvard ice hockey jock, Oliver “Ollie” Barrett, IV. It all begins in the Radcliffe library. That’s where the two first meet. Jenny works there to help pay her college tuition. Ollie Barrett has come to that library rather than Harvard’s because it’s quieter there and easier to find books. Ollie is a somewhat cocky kid who comes from a wealthy, old line, upper crust New England family – a well-respected family with its own history of Harvard alumni. Jenny is the only child of a widowed baker – a working-class Dad whom she calls “Phil”.
At the outset of the film Jenny appears somewhat nerdy and very much into her music. It’s Bach and Beethoven for her, music which is heard in the film’s score. And as we learn from the narrator’s opening line, Jenny also loves the Beatles.
The story is introduced in flashback mode by Ollie, who is shown in the film’s opening scene seated on a bench staring into a deserted New York city Central Park ice skating rink in a wintry, snow-covered setting. This scene comes full circle as the film’s closing sequence (more on this later).
Back at the Radcliffe library, meanwhile, it’s Jenny who makes the first move, displaying her snappy repartee with Ollie, who she labels “preppie” from the start. Ollie is on the hunt for a book he needs for an upcoming history exam, so he heads over to the reserve desk to inquire about the book. He opts for one of the two girls working there – the “bespectacled mouse type,” as he describes her – “Minnie Four-Eyes.” Here’s their exchange:
Ollie: “Do you have The Waning of the Middle Ages!”
Jenny: “Do you have your own library?” she asked.
Ollie: “Listen, Harvard is allowed to use the Radcliffe library.”
Jenny: “I’m not talking legality, Preppie, I’m talking ethics. You guys have five million books. We have a few lousy thousand.”
Ollie: [ to himself. Christ, a superior-being type! The kind who think since the ratio of Radcliffe to Harvard is five to one, the girls must be five times as smart. I normally cut these types to ribbons, but just then I badly needed that goddamn book.]
Ollie: “Listen, I need that goddamn book.”
Jenny: “Wouldja please watch your profanity, Preppie?”
Ollie: “What makes you so sure I went to prep school?”
Jenny: “You look stupid and rich,” she said, removing her glasses.
Ollie: “You’re wrong,” I protested. “I’m actually smart and poor.”
Jenny: “Oh, no, Preppie. I’m smart and poor.”
Ollie: [ in narration: She was staring straight at me. Her eyes were brown. Okay, maybe I look rich, but I wouldn’t let some ‘Cliffie—even one with pretty eyes—call me dumb.]
Ollie: “What the hell makes you so smart?”
Jenny: “I wouldn’t go for coffee with you.”
Ollie: “Listen—I wouldn’t ask you.”
Jenny: “That is what makes you stupid.”
Ollie does take her for coffee, where the two continue their sharp repartee with Ollie becoming frustrated with her barbs and the fact, that apparently, she does not know that he, Ollie, is “big-man-on-campus” Harvard ice hockey star.
Ollie: “Hey, don’t you know who I am?”
Jenny: “Yeah,” she answered with kind of disdain. “You’re the guy that owns Barrett Hall.”
Ollie: “I don’t own Barrett Hall. My great-grandfather happened to give it to Harvard.”
Jenny: “So his not-so-great grandson would be sure to get in!”
Ollie: “Jenny, if you’re so convinced I’m a loser, why did you bulldoze me into buying you coffee?” [ She looked me straight into the eyes and smiled.]
Jenny: “I like your body.”
After their initial get together over coffee, they soon begin their romance on the Harvard campus, she attending his hockey games, the two studying together, frolicking in the snow, and later, consummating their love.
In one scene they are walking across the Harvard campus, by then deep into their emotional tangle, taking measure of each other. They are talking about their relationship. Ollie has been more forthcoming at that point than Jenny, and he unloads on her for her smart-ass style:
Ollie: “Look, Cavilleri, I know your game, and I’m tired of playing it. You are the supreme Radcliffe smart-ass – the best – you can put down anything in pants. But verbal volleyball is not my idea of a relationship. And if that’s what you think it’s all about, why don’t you just go back to your music wonks, and good luck. See, I think you’re scared. You put up a big glass wall to keep from getting hurt. But it also keeps you from getting touched. It’s a risk, isn’t it, Jenny? At least I had the guts to admit what I felt. Someday, you’re gonna have to come up with the courage to admit you care.”
In that scene, they stop walking as she quietly replies, “I care,” leading to a kiss, then cut to Ollie’s dorm room and the couple making love. Shortly later in the film, in a wintry montage, they end up playing in the snow, throwing snowballs and tossing a football at each other, and wrestling in the snow together.
After several months together, Jenny tells Oliver that she has received a scholarship to study music in Paris the next year. Ollie, afraid of losing her, decides to propose marriage. Jenny after some thought, accepts the offer, and soon the couple is off to “meet the parents” — first, his.
Meet The Parents
On the drive to the Barrett family place, Jenny is somewhat taken aback as they approach the estate, with its giant mansion and extensive grounds. It is then she begins to realize just how truly wealthy the Barretts are.
The family gathering to meet the bride-to-be becomes a tense affair, as Ollie’s father does not react well to Jenny’s background. Father and son, already in a testy relationship, come to the brink when Ollie’s father tells him he will be disinherited if he marries Jenny.
The drive back to campus is not a happy one. Ollie later meets his father for dinner to try again, but this also ends badly as Ollie loses his temper. Ties between father and son from that point on are pretty much severed.
Jenny and Ollie continue to plan their wedding, traveling to Providence, Rhode Island to receive the blessing of Jenny’s Dad, “Phil.” Here too, they upset tradition, informing Phil they are not planning a traditional ceremony, with church and God. Phil is not entirely pleased, but he’s on their side in any case.
Upon graduation, Oillie and Jenny marry against the wishes of Ollie’s father. Ollie then plans to enter law school, while Jenny goes to work as a teacher. The couple struggles to pay Ollie’s way through Harvard Law School. They rent the top floor of a house near the law school. Ollie had applied for financial aid, but his Barrett Hall fame and family wealth disqualified him.
“Love Means…”
Along the way and in their marriage, the new couple have a few spats here and there, one coming after Ollie refuses to attend his father’s 60th birthday party. Jenny has been trying to move Ollie to speak to his father, but after Ollie explodes, she leaves their apartment in tears. Guilt getting the best of him, Ollie searches the Harvard campus for Jenny, visiting the all the music rooms and other places she might be. Then, having arrived back home, he finds her sobbing on their outside porch steps in the cold without her keys. As Ollie moves to apologize, Jenny stops him, delivering one of the film’s classic (and now much-parodied) lines: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”
Things get patched up, of course, and life goes on. Scenes of beach visits and boating flash by, and another in winter of Ollie selling Christmas trees on a city lot. Jenny and “Phil,” meanwhile, do what they can to bring the Barrett father and son back together, but the Barrett men remain at war. Ollie soon finishes his stint at Harvard Law, graduating third in his class. Phil and Jenny attend the ceremony, and life for the young couple begins to change.
Now a Harvard lawyer, Ollie takes a position at a respectable New York law firm, though one with at least part of its practice in civil liberties. The couple move to New York, and begin to plan for a family. The two twenty-somethings try to have a child, but fail. Jenny then has a series of tests.
Devastating News
One day, Ollie is called in to see Jenny’s doctor, who tells him that Jenny is dying. The tests have revealed that Jenny has a serious and deadly disease, assumed to be some kind of leukemia, though never stated. Jenny does not have long to live. Ollie is devastated, and is shown in the film taking a long and dazed walk through the city on his way home.
Reaching their apartment, he tries to act normal as he is greeted by an upbeat Jenny. Ollie tries to hide the truth from Jenny, attempting a normal life. At one point he buys two airline tickets to Paris to surprise Jenny. But Jenny soon discovers the truth about her disease, and has suspected for some time.
Somber and intimate scenes follow as the couple tries to deal with Jenny’s prognosis. She insists that he will be a “merry widower” and makes him promise that he will carry on in good form. As the disease weakens Jenny, the couple tries to spend some happy time together.
Central Park
At one point they have a brief outing in Central Park and stop at an outdoor public skating rink, where Ollie skates with the crowd as Jenny watches approvingly from the bleachers. After Ollie’s skating they stop briefly at a café near the rink where Jenny makes it known its time to go to the hospital.
From the outdoor café they make their way slowly to the hospital across the park in the snow. A weakened Jenny moves with halting steps in Ollie’s arms as they go. The Love Story piano theme rises in the background as the camera pulls back high above the couple, slowly trekking through the snowy, winter scene — a season once of happier and playful times for the couple on the Harvard quad.
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