Costumes, Featurettes, Premiere, Awards, Home Video, The Sequel
BARBRA ARCHIVES “THE WAY WE WERE” PAGES:
OVERVIEW, SCRIPT, CAST, FILMING, THE THEME SONG
COSTUMES, FEATURETTES, PREMIERE, AWARDS, HOME VIDEO, THE SEQUEL
Dorothy Jeakins designed some of Streisand’s costumes for The Way We Were, then left the production before the film completed. A few designers were suggested to replace her, including Edith Head, but Streisand chose Moss Mabry, who was signed to the film July 1972. When he spoke to the press about his new assignment, Mabry said, “I haven’t been this excited about a film in a long time. Barbra wears 62 changes of wardrobe ranging in feeling from 1937 to 1952. If this isn’t a designer’s dream – I don’t know what is.”
A few years later, Mabry told writer James Spada, “[Barbra’s] got wonderful buns. And one of the most beautiful busts in Hollywood. And beautiful skin.”
The designer Adolfo created many knit items for Streisand, including a patterned cardigan suit with a silver fox collar and cuff. “She told me to send her things I thought would be appropriate. When they were shipped to Hollywood, Barbra called to say they were divine.”
Streisand also wore five 1930s-1940s-style outfits from Vespucci Deluxe in Los Angeles. There is a production photo of Hubbell and Katie in their wedding outfits — Streisand was dressed in Nancy Smith’s white crepe back satin with signature airbrushed flowers.
BELOW: Photo gallery of Streisand and Redford's costume and hair tests. Click the photos to enlarge.
There were a couple of film shorts — also called featurettes — created to promote The Way We Were.
The Streisand and Redford romantic film had its West Coast premiere October 23, 1973 at the ABC Entertainment Center in Century City. It was a benefit for Cedars-Sinai Women's Guild, was attended by 1,000, coproduced by Fran Stark, and raised more than $25 million for the guild. The movie premiere was followed by a dinner-dance at the Century Plaza.
Streisand arrived wearing a grey fox fur coat, escorted by Herb Allen (Columbia Pictures) and her publicist, David Horowitz.
Robert Redford did not attend the West or the East coast premieres.
Barbra Streisand received her second Academy Award nomination for her performance as Katie in The Way We Were. She was alongside several other powerful performances that year: Glenda Jackson (A Touch of Class); Ellen Burstyn (The Exorcist); Marsha Mason (Cinderella Liberty); and Joanne Woodward (Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams). Jackson was the winner that year.
| Oscar (AMPAS) | Best Cinematography (nominee) | Harry Stradling, Jr. |
|---|---|---|
| Oscar (AMPAS) | Best Costume Design (nominee) | Dorothy Jeakins and Moss Mabry |
| Oscar (AMPAS) | Actress in a Leading Role (nominee) | Barbra Streisand |
| Oscar (AMPAS) | Art Direction (nominee) | Stephen B. Grimes and William Kiernan |
| Oscar (AMPAS) | Music (Original Dramatic Score) (WINNER) | Marvin Hamlisch |
| Oscar (AMPAS) | Best Music (Song) (WINNER) | Marvin Hamlisch, Alan and Marilyn Bergman “The Way We Were” |
| Golden Globe (HFPA) | Best Actress in a Leading Role (nominee) | Barbra Streisand |
| Golden Globe (HFPA) | Best Original Song (WINNER) | Marvin Hamlisch, Alan and Marilyn Bergman “The Way We Were” |
| BAFTA | Actress in 1975 | Barbra Streisand (nominee) |
| Grammy Awards | Song of the Year 1975 | Marvin Hamlisch, Alan and Marilyn Bergman “The Way We Were” |
| David di Donatello Awards | Best Foreign Actress 1974 (WINNER) | Barbra Streisand |
The Way We Were was released as a Special Edition DVD on December 2, 2004. The DVD was digitally remastered and included a making-of documentary called Looking Back. In the documentary were new interviews with Barbra Streisand, director Sydney Pollack, screenwriter Arthur Laurents, lyricists Marilyn and Alan Bergman, and composer Marvin Hamlisch. Several of the cut scenes were discussed and shown on the documentary. The DVD also had a separate audio track with Sydney Pollack's commentary about the film.
The independent label, Twilight Time, released The Way We Were on Blu-ray November 12, 2013. Containing a gorgeous, restored print of the film, the Blu-ray repeated some of the features from the 2004 DVD, plus some new ones:
Twilight Time only produced 3,000 units of the Blu-ray. Unfortunately, Twilight Time shut down operations in June 2020. Their Blu of The Way We Were is no longer for sale, but sometimes copies come up on eBay or Amazon.
Ten years after the Twilight Time Blu-ray, Sony reached into the vaults again — with Barbra's assistance.
Released October 17, 2023 by Sony Pictures, the 50th Anniversary Edition of The Way We Were was a 4K Ultra HD disc which included a Blu-Ray and a Digital copy of the classic film. Sony's publicity related: In close collaboration with Barbra Streisand and in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Sydney Pollack’s classic film, Columbia Pictures presents a new extended version of THE WAY WE WERE — restoring two important scenes where the love story and the political story come together — alongside the original theatrical version.
For years there was talk of a sequel to The Way We Were. It's never been made, nor does it look like it ever will be.
Producer Ray Stark wanted a sequel, but the films' principals (Streisand, Redford, and screenwriter Laurents) weren't interested at first.
According to Arthur Laurents, there was also an issue of payment that may have soured Streisand and, especially, Redford. Laurents wrote in his memoir that both stars had to sue Stark for their percentage of the film's gross.
It was a decade after the original movie that Robert Redford asked Laurents to write a film love story. Laurents, instead, came up with a sequel to The Way We Were. Here’s his description of the story he came up with:
Hubbell and their daughter (a radical like Katie), who comes on to him not knowing he is her father; Katie and Hubbell who never stopped loving one another; Katie jealous of her daughter and deeply attached to her second husband, David, who loves her and the daughter he has really been a father to. Add outtakes from the original so that, for one example, when Hubbell and Katie talk long distance for the first time in fifteen years, what each visualizes on the other end is the other fifteen years ago. Add an ending at the chaotic 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago with police brutality against marching protesters who are shouting to the TV cameras: “The whole world's watching!”
Laurents explained in his book that Redford abandoned the screenplay in the early 1980s “because Ray Stark would produce it and he hates Ray. It's a whole long story with Redford. He's impossible, egocentric.”
Streisand became interested in reuniting with Redford in the 1990s. Redford originally had the rights to Pat Conroy's novel The Prince of Tides and thought it'd be a great property to bring Streisand back together with him on screen. Streisand, of course, ended up producing, directing and starring in Tides with Nick Nolte instead of Redford.
Streisand told a magazine in 1992 that the sequel “would be about how passion wins over intellect. In The Way We Were, it doesn't: Passion gets relegated to second position. But there's no question, he is the love of her life.”
Meanwhile, Laurents says it was 1996 when Streisand approached him for the sequel because Ray Stark had sold the property to Streisand, who wanted to direct, produce, and co-star with Redford.
In 2010, on the Oprah Show with Redford, Streisand confirmed: “There was a great story with our daughter, who would have become a political activist as well, at Berkeley in 1968, the year of the Democratic Convention. There was a very interesting story there.”
Redford told Oprah, too, “I just felt certain things should be left alone, and this was one of them.”
“I wanted it to be released on the 25th anniversary,” Streisand revealed to Piers Morgan in 2012, “but we never made it.”
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