Main Cast: Ali MacGraw, Ryan O'Neal, John Marley, Ray Milland, Russell Nype
Release Year: 1970
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: GP
Plot
In director Arthur Hiller's hit tearjerker -- based on Erich Segal's novella -- Ryan O'Neal plays Oliver Barrett IV, a comfortably off Harvard pre-law student who falls in love with Radcliffe music student Jenny Cavilleri (Ali MacGraw), a freewheeling, delightfully profane product of a blue-collar Italian-American family. Oliver's father (Ray Milland) heartily disapproves of the subsequent marriage and cuts off his son's allowance. Despite financial travails (the pampered Oliver actually has to go to work!), the couple is blissfully happy....until Jenny is diagnosed as having an unnamed disease that consigns her to an early death. The movie's tagline "Love means never having to say you're sorry" became an iconic American catchphrase, the film's theme a number one hit. One of the early products of Paramount guru Robert Evans, Love Story grossed more money than any Paramount production before it. This enormously successful film inspired a 1978 sequel, Oliver's Story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Some viewers dismiss Love Story as a cynical, manipulative tearjerker, mentioning "MacGraw's Disease," an incurable ailment which leaves its victims brave, sunny, and radiant. But these easy criticisms ignore why the film works so beautifully in the first place: it presents a pair of interesting, fully realized characters and makes us fall in love along with them. Ali MacGraw's portrayal of Jenny Cavilleri is so exuberant yet believable (she talks like a sailor) that she is immensely appealing, and Ryan O'Neal's Oliver is both sympathetic and admirable. These are good people, and when Jenny gets sick and Oliver grieves, we suffer along with them. Unlike with most tearjerkers and disease-of-the-week movies, we cry not because someone died, but because Jenny died. For proof of how much she's missed, see the dreadful sequel, Oliver's Story. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Katherine Balfour - Mrs. Oliver Barrett Ill; Robert Modica - Dr. Addison; Syd Walker - Dr. Shapely; Walker Daniels - Ray; Tommy Lee Jones - Hank; John Merensky - Steve; Andrew Duncan - Rev. Blauvelt; Sudie Bond; Milo Boulton; Julie Garfield; Bob O'Connell - Tommy the Doorman
Credit
Robert Gundlach - Art Director, Pearl Somner - Costume Designer, Peter R. Scoppa - First Assistant Director, Arthur Hiller - Director, Robert Jones - Editor, David Golden - Executive Producer, Francis Lai - Composer (Music Score), Martin Bell - Makeup, Richard C. Kratina - Cinematographer, Howard Minsky - Producer, David Golden - Producer, Phil Smith - Set Designer, Jack C. Jacobsen - Sound/Sound Designer, Erich Segal - Screenwriter, Erich Segal - Book Author
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