Anyone get the feeling that romance has either taken a back seat to other genres or at least had to change in accordance with times like everything else? Back in the 1970s it might have been corny to enjoy a romance but it was also something you did if you wanted to cozy up to your main squeeze and show them that you were just sensitive enough to worth their time. Nowadays romance is something that happens within another genre or on the Hallmark or Lifetime channels. It does still show up in the theaters but it’s definitely changed from what it used to be. The old romances that were there to entertain and to show people what it was like to fall in love, remember the good times, and work against societal class in order to find one’s true love are still around, but a lot of them are used for nostalgia at this point.
Here are some of the best romances from the 70s.
5. What’s Up Doc?
There’s little more than hilarity in this movie aside from the romance and the continuing hilarity. Honestly if you can get through this movie without doubling over in laughter you might need to check your pulse since even with the difference in humor from the 70s to now this one should leave you in stitches. The case of the mistake briefcases is an old gag but one that is proven and serves to set up the whole plot of this movie as Barbara Streisand plays the eccentric young woman that sets a great many things in motion as she tries to woo the male lead and ends up causing a mess of epic proportions.
4. Annie Hall
Does anyone else think that Alvy has humongous issues with being around women? If not for his brief stint with Annie it might be surmised that he’s just the kind of guy that gets too nervous and way too tense around the ladies but even when they’re together he’s not all there as he seems to find ways to ruin the relationship even despite the fact that he wants to keep her near and also attempts to get her back once or twice. This is the kind of guy you shake your head at and hope the best for since otherwise it would be too depressing to contemplate his existence. No matter how close he gets to a woman he can’t seem to completely close that gap.
3. The Way We Were
It’s said that opposites attract, but this is really only true when there’s a unifying bond that the two of them can agree on and in Katie and Hubbell’s case there really isn’t a whole lot for them to go on. In fact it seems safe to say that Katie puts more into the relationship than Hub, who just wants to take the easiest way out whenever it’s presented and doesn’t seem to try too hard at anything in life. Katie is definitely the one that doesn’t change her convictions or a single thing about the way she lives her life, while Hub is content to change what and who he is just so that he can live an easier life.
2. Love Story
Love is a great many things, but among them all it is never having to say that you’re sorry. The force that love creates between two individuals is great enough to overcome pretty much anything if it’s strong enough, and if those involved are invested in one another completely. Oliver and Jenny struggled when his father cut him off for marrying a woman supposedly beneath his station in life, but they persevered and made things work. Long before she fell ill it was decided that Jenny and Oliver were bound to be together through thick and thin, no matter the outcome. Love is that strong if it’s real.
1. Grease
There’s so much that can be said about this classic story but it’s enough to say that the romance that goes on throughout the movie is long, complicated, and sometimes a bit confusing since despite the fact that none of the cast were teenagers during this film, but still attempted to run the gamut of teenage emotions that plague just about every person during these years. It’s definitely not something a lot of us look back on and say “boy I wish I could experience that again” since the storm of emotions that grip us during this period usually come with a hefty price and a lot of mistakes that many of us would rather forget about. But the film made it look just about as hard as it can be, which was fortunate.
Romances are definitely a way to laugh or sympathize with the human condition as they remind us that love is quite complicated at times.
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