Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1500026
49 S U M M E R Q 2 I S S U E B O O K R E V I E W fice stratosphere. Even so, the disparate makers of "The Way We Were" always had greater ambi- tions than to make just another big-screen soap opera — yet as recounted time and again in Robert Hofler's book "The Way Th ey We re," t h o s e a m b i t i o n s we re n' t always shared. As the theater critic of The Wrap and a former editor and writer at pub- lications including Life and Variety, Hofler is experienced enough (and well-connected enough) to have secured interviews with Streisand, Redford, and numerous others involved in the production. He also utilizes the archives of Pollack, who died in 2008, and Laurents, who died in 2011. The book is sure to be catnip for the many devotees of "The Way We Were," but even non-fans of the movie — those simply interested in how numerous forceful personalities can somehow come together to make a success- ful movie — will be interested in the story told here. As a veteran Hollywood journalist, Hofler is also attuned to the way legends, myths, and conflicting accounts adhere to famous movies — something evident in his very first pages. "Arthur remembers it be- ing a hundred twenty-five pages," Streisand said of the original treatment that formed the basis for what became "The Way We Were." "I remember reading a fifty-page treatment." No matter: the world-famous vocalist — already an A-list movie star on the strength of "Funny Girl" (1968) and "The Owl and the Pussycat" (1970), both Stark productions — was persuaded that the material had the makings of her next movie. "In the beginning, I only knew that Ray Stark hired Arthur Laurents to write a script for me, which I thought was a great idea," Streisand said. "It was only later that I learned how personal it was for him. But it was also personal to me, because Arthur has said he used my own personality, as well as my own political activism, for Katie." Therein lies the source of much of the behind-the-scenes drama on "The Way We Were": everyone involved had some person- al investment in the story and thus his or her own take. Though conceived as a vehicle for Streisand, the project nonetheless was un- abashedly autobiographical for Laurents, the noted screenwriter of Otto Preminger's "Bonjour Tristesse" and Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope" and the celebrated book-writer of the Broadway hits "West Side Story" and "Gypsy." "Katie Morosky, the campus political progressive played by Barbra Streisand, is mainly me," wrote Laurents, who, like Katie, was Jewish and devoted to liberal politics. Furthermore, there is much speculation here that Laurents' conception of Hubbell Gardiner derived from his long- term relationship with a man named Tom Hatcher. "Arthur was always doing more to keep the relationship going, and [regard- ing] that dichotomy, Robert Redford is more like Tom, and Arthur is more like Barbra," noted Laurents' assistant Ashley Feinstein. Alas, part of being a screenwriter is