The Way I'm Not

I like to record older movies on TCM and watch them with my daughter. This is good for her because it gives me a chance to explain what the big hullabaloo was about back in the day over a movie star, a time in history or a specific topic. This is also bad for her because it's not her idea of a good time and she would be perfectly happy if I just left this part of our relationship alone. I like to think that I'm broadening her in a way that won't happen through any other avenue of exposure and she knows I like to do it. So she tolerates me.

This week's movie was The Way We Were.    I only saw the movie once and in all the years since 1973 til now, I never had the urge to see it again. I remember it as a mediocre chick flick and my main takeaways were:

• it's not really plausible that Barbra Streisand would leave Robert Redford because her wanted her to stop being a communist for the sake of his career, but oh-kaaaay I guess it could happen.
• Barbra had long, weird fingernails that shot out unattractively from the ends of her fingers in several different directions.

Now that I saw it again, it is clear to me that Robert Redford is a real shortie and probably needed a box to stand on so that he wasn't standing in the shadow of her giant hairdo.Their direct dialog scenes "together" are filmed with the  camera look at either one or the other of them - Robert directs his eyes downward; Barbra directs her eyes downward to give the impression that he is taller than she is. The TCM bumper around this movie revealed that Barbra's part was written specifically for her. That explains a lot. Everything about the contemporary Barbra is right there. She has not changed a whit.

The two big things that my daughter picked up were:

• there's not a single musical note in this entire picture that is not part of the title song
• Barbra Streisand is a desperately needy person

She left halfway through and even though I called her back to see the big ending, she remained unimpressed. For my part, it struck me that RR was a pretty good actor.  I never paid much attention to his work beyond his pretty freckled face but really he wasn't half bad. Especially comapred to Barbra One Note, who plays the same character as in Funny Girl and Yentl - the highly-principled outsider who forces her way against the societal grain into someplace she has a hankering to be.

I see that 2001: A Space Oddessy is coming up this week. As we were cruising through the channel  guide, I was just about to hit the record button when my daughter reminded me that we had already seen it together. "We did? What did you think of it?" I asked her. "I don't know," she said, "you were talking  thorough the whole thing."

I think that was a dig.

Comments

[Kitsch]

Have you ever seen Barefoot in the Park? Robert Redford is wonderful in it.

[Lulu]

Robert Redford was at his best before he became overtly political. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was a marvelous movie.

Politics and entertainment do not mix, IMHO.

Barbra Streisand has never had her name on a movie (I refuse to say "acted" in a movie) unless she had so much control that people who had to deal with her were ready to kill her - The Prince of Tides, a real clinker, comes to mind without too much effort.

[Lulu]

BTW, you are a very interesting mother, Suzette. I hope your daughter appreciates that. Show her this note! :)

[Jim - PRS]

Barbra Streisand is absolutely insufferable on every level. She would make a great substitute First Lady.

[pam]

I was on pins and needles during this film, thinking one of Bar's wayward fu manchu nails would poke out Hubbell's eyeballs.

Not that they would have filmed that... but still.

[pops]

Tell me you didn't talk through the part with the monkeys.

That's the best part.