This doco features all the major contributors except, strangely, not Robert Redford. We see Sydney Pollack doing the elastic band thing that Bob Balaban copied for Pollack's film Absence of Malice, Streisand looking fabulous in red Donna Karan, an outtake from the dance scene, and cuts, including the notorious 2 scenes that have become infamous, described here as the "missing climax". These are Katie at UCLA seeing an activist who reminds her of herself and crying, and Hubbell telling Katie she has been informed on and is a subversive wife, as the reason why the couple have to divorce. Although Streisand is wonderful in both scenes, the former is weakened by the activist and the crowd rejecting her. Pollack defends his cutting of the scenes for pacing and a "cleaner emotional line", but Streisand remains disappointed, which probably explains why she seems to have copyright of them according to the end credits. Writer Arthur Laurents makes some interesting comments - paralleling Redford and Streisand with what was said about Astaire and Rogers ie he gave her class and she gave him sex, and tells how Redford told him how women still run there hands through his hair they way Katie did. There is also a long discussion with Marvin Hamlisch and Alan and Marilyn Bergman on the music and the title song.
2 Reviews
The Way We Were: Looking Back is a fine tribute doc of such a classic romantic movie
tavm17 October 2012
After watching the movie The Way We Were on DVD, I went to the Special Features section to watch this documentary about the making of it with interviews of director Sydney Pollack, Barbra Streisand, screenwriter Arthur Laurents, composer Marvin Hamlisch, and lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman. Notice I didn't mention Robert Redford as there was no interview with him, just Pollack talking about his working relationship with him and his attempts to convince him to take the role down to the deadline wire. The most fascinating parts of this doc were all the deleted scenes provided by Ms. Streisand especially her character's going back to her alma mater to see a woman taking a stand like she did about 20 years earlier and a revelation from Redford's character concerning an old friend of Barbra's. When it segued to Hamlisch and the Bergmans, they talked about writing the iconic song and Barbra's contributions such as her changing the original first word-"daydreams"-to "memories". It's especially touching seeing Pollack, Laurents, and Hamlisch on screen as they've all passed on since 1999 when this was made, Hamlisch just several weeks ago. So on that note, The Way We Were: Looking Back is well worth seeing for die-hard fans of the movie.
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