Moviegoers made The Way We Were the fifth highest grossing film of 1973, but Tom Santopietro's briskly paced and authoritative retelling of the film's journey from original screenplay to blockbuster reveals that the experience was fraught with conflicts. Santopietro (The Godfather Effect; Why To Kill a Mockingbird Matters) excels at insightful and razor-sharp critiques and straightforward reportage, incorporating a fine mixture of original sources (including interviews with Barbra Streisand, James Woods and Alan Bergman) and previously published material.
The making of The Way We Were is a study of steel-willed professionals with remarkably different goals. Producer Ray Stark wanted a crowd-pleasing love story. Screenwriter Arthur Laurents wanted to tell a political tale of the Hollywood Red Scare, the blacklist that resulted from it and how it destroyed a marriage. Streisand wanted to stretch as an actress and loved Laurents's script, but director Sydney Pollack knew the only way to convince Robert Redford to star opposite her was to beef up his role by changing the script. Seven other uncredited writers (including Dalton Trumbo, Paddy Chayefsky and Francis Ford Coppola) worked on the unwieldy script. After its sneak preview, Pollack and editor Margaret Booth cut 15 minutes from the film. Santopietro masterfully lays out all the cuts that weaken the film's logic (which can be found on the film's DVD extras) but played better for mass audiences. He also does an excellent job in one chapter ("The Good, the Great, and the What-Were-They-Thinking") going through the film, scene by scene, with his astute critical eye. Santopietro's book is a fascinating look at how troubled film productions can sometimes produce celluloid gold. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant