The Way We Were

Two students who meet at university in the late nineteen-thirties, a political activist and a man who worries about nothing, meet again years later in New York and marry. When they move to Hollywood the hunt for communists begins. The film presents the separation not as incompatibility but as a political choice: she opposes the naming of names, he wants to keep his profession. The narrative builds why the relationship cannot hold without putting either of them in the wrong. Sydney Pollack directed, with Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford. Some of the blacklist material was cut during production, and the film was criticised for the resulting weakening of its political line. Who it's for: those who like classic Hollywood melodrama. Who it's not for: viewers wanting a detailed treatment of the blacklist; the narrative touches it and moves on.