University of Virginia Library

Major Fault

My final objection is the
horrible ending. Since all college
students are alienated from their
parents and society (as well as
current film heroes), Oliver Barrett
IV must be also. His father comes
to help him, but is too late. Oli
rushes off murmuring the
McKuenish statement "Love means
never having to say you're sorry,"
and sulks about his "beautiful girl
now dead." How ludicrous! The
beautiful symmetry of Segal's thin
novella is sacrificed to make a
"now" movie. In the book the
reconciliation is necessary and the
film demands a similar ending.
Without it, Oli is spiritually dead
and cannot conceivably exist
beyond that Central Park bench.
We wonder what he learned from
Jenny's death, if indeed he did
learn anything. Certainly there is no
love or respect for his father, which
was the only good quality possessed
by Jenny. Oliver is sill a child, but
he is as smug and superior as his
dead wife was.

I cannot understand how
anyone can actually sit back in his
seat and feel sorry for either of
these two characters. Paramount
should have either given us the
novel's ending with Oliver matured
and grown up, or given him a gun
so he could end the film like
"Elvira Madigan," and complete the
only possible outcome for his
life. "Love Story" is the most
deceptive film of 1970, which has
successfully used schmaltz and kitsch
to dupe the American public into
swallowing its morally sadistic
outlook on life.

(Now at the Paramount)