UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ - The Way We Were -- in 4k UHD (1 Viewer)

[Noel Aguirre]

I watched this last night, and I thought it was terrific. The picture looks better than I expected for a film of this age. I also think the additional material in the new edition really works. I think it really shows Katie as a person who wouldn't change her principles, even for the person she loved -- even for her child, who'd never know her father. (That's an antiquated notion, I think -- one that wouldn't be included if the film was made now.) Despite a few things that probably would be written differently if the film was made today, I think this one stands the test of time. Is it Streisand's best role? It might be. It's not Redford's best role, but he's great in it. I bought this to be part of my collection of Redford films, even though it's primarily about Streisand's character, and she really owns the picture. For that reason, I think she was right to insist on the changes to the film for this edition. (I'm pretty sure Redford is on record, too, saying that he thought the deleted scenes should be included.)

Well I for one am glad Sydney Pollack thought differntly and the director’s cut made for a more balanced film. The Streisand cut of course would have more of her but in this case I think “less is more.” Redford probably is tired of discussing it. Lol

 

[Cineman]

No, they don't. She has left wing leanings throughout the whole movie and before they even get married. Her politics have always been a non-issue for Hubbell. Besides, we find out she left the Communist Party during the war.

Spoiler:
The new scenes explain that Frankie, the James Woods character from earlier in the film, has informed on Katie. She won't become an informant herself, but won't stick Hubbell with a subversive wife as it will end his career as a writer in Hollywood. He thinks they should fight it but Katie knows how it will end. She decides they must divorce. He allows it.

Far from making him unsympathetic, his non-actions at this point telegraph his eventual sense of total loss and regret. I've seen this movie many many times and this is the first time that the fleeting look of sadness and yearning on Redford's face in closeup, as they embrace in the last scene, hits like a ton of bricks. It's actually Redford's performance, IMO, that suffers most with the deletion of those scenes because, with them, you see a man who lets everything slip away in 1948 for something that didn't even matter by 1954. The extra scenes deepen the emotional punch of that final scene and switch our focus from Streisand to Redford. He's a shell of a man at the end and we finally know why.

In the theatrical version, it looks like he throws it all away by sleeping with Lois Chiles. It's less sympathetic because their breakup is a result of his action rather than being the result of his inaction (which is the point of his character in the first place.)

I watched the Extended Version last night after having seen the Theatrical Version 4-5 times and I totally agree with your assessment here.

Hey Will, the documentary is included and I just re-watched it. It‘s from 1999 and was made for the DVD release, which was about the last time I saw it. Surprisingly, the bulk of the outtakes are presented in the documentary, and in the interviews Barbra and Arthur present their case why they think the cuts hurt the picture, while Sydney defends the cuts, but admits he could be wrong and capitulates that he doesn’t think putting them back would destroy the picture. It’s been 24 years since that documentary came out, and I hadn’t remembered that that all this information about Barbra’s crusade to fix the movie was already out there.

Yes, I watched that Making Of bonus doc last night as well and was struck by another collaborator's recalling of the way the movie played so differently with two preview audiences just as director Sidney Pollack related in the doc.

I am talking about music soundtrack composer Marvin Hamlisch.

Perhaps we can call this "A Tale of Two Previews." Lol.

Mr. Pollack relates his experience of the movie not being well received at all with the first preview audience when some (or all?) of the eventually cut scenes were left intact. Then he cut those scenes out and, as he relates, the next preview audience loved it.

However, a few minutes later in the doc Mr. Hamlisch also relates his experience that the first preview audience did not respond as he has hoped. There were no tears, no sniffling, nothing that any of us who saw this movie in a theater or even at home with friends know is the standard response to that final scene.

Mr. Hamlisch blamed that luke warm (at best) initial preview audience reaction on his own music soundtrack decision for that final scene. That preview audience did not hear the same reprise of The Way We Were as it is today and as it was in the original theatrical release. And so Mr. Hamlisch went to "the studio" (he does not say he went to Mr. Pollack, Ray Stark or anyone else by name) and begged them to let him change the soundtrack for that final scene.

It came down to the money. So at his own expense he went back into the studio and replaced whatever had been there before with that bitter sweet reprise of The Way We Were that those of us who were moved to tears by that final scene can probably hear in our heads right now.

Then, aaccording to Mr. Hamlisch, the very next preview audience responded to it every bit as emotionally as he had hoped.

In that doc there is no reference from Mr. Hamlisch to the few minutes of clarifying "political" scenes being cut for that second preview.

By the same token, in that doc there is no reference from Mr. Pollack to the change in the music soundtrack in the final scene for that second preview audience.

Which begs the question; which change do you/we think made as dramatic a difference in audience response as each of those men described?

For me, I honestly don't see how that movie with the music soundtrack as it is in the final scene today could have failed to wring tears out of a general audience even if there had been 10 additional minutes of clarifying "political" scenes involving the two leads earlier.

I also can't see how that movie with a far less emotionally heartfelt music soundtrack in that final scene could have worked as well as it does even if every reference to "politics" had been cut and the pacing was a breakneck 70 minutes.

So I suppose it is obvious my vote is it was Mr. Hamlisch's observation, intuition and gut feeling about what needed to be done about his soundtrack in that final scene that made all the difference.

Then again, as Mr. Pollack admits about his editing decision, "I could be wrong."

 

[PMF]

[…] I could have sworn that the scene where Katie stops the car to watch a young girl giving a speech protesting the McCarthy hearings was in the theatrical cut, but apparently it's not...

I also thought the same.

FILE UNDER: Misty Watercolor Memories

 

[PMF]

I assume this doesn't include the isolated score track, right?

Yes it’s missing. So hold on to the Twilight Time. And why that’s not here but more of Barbra is …..?

Another point of interest concerning the Twilight Time edition of The Way We Were is that it marked the first time Nick Redman & Julie Kirgo sat down to do a commentary track together.

 

[titch]

Another point of interest concerning the Twilight Time edition of The Way We Were is that it marked the first time Nick Redman & Julie Kirgo sat down to do a commentary track together.

.....and Sold! I was just able to purchase a used copy of Twilight Time's blu-ray, solely for the purpose of listening to this commentary! Probably a blu-ray ditched by its previous owner, upgrading to the 4K UHD. But the 4K UHD doesn't have the commentary from the dynamic duo, just Pollack's. Much obliged for the heads-up.

 

[PMF]

.....and Sold! I was just able to purchase a used copy of Twilight Time's blu-ray, solely for the purpose of listening to this commentary! Probably a blu-ray ditched by its previous owner, upgrading to the 4K UHD. But the 4K UHD doesn't have the commentary from the dynamic duo, just Pollack's. Much obliged for the heads-up.

This fact came as a reply from Nick Redman, as I once wrote to him asking a couple of specifics concerning the chronology of his earlier commentary tracks; even though the actual release month of The Way We Were might suggest differently.