this 1970 hit film have not age well and but frankly and it be not that good when it be release . yet and it be a hugely popular success perhaps because the idea of fatalistic young love must have appeal to audience saturate by constant tv coverage of the vietnam war . the plot be pure drivel a it concern oliver barrett iv and a privileged harvard hockey player and who meet and fall in love with jenny cavelleri and an antagonistic vassar music student proud of her work class background . his old school father naturally disapprove of jenny and and in a typical act of rebellion and that mean the young couple get marry in one of those hippie era and extemporaneous ceremony . he land his dream job in new york and but she get unexpectedly ill and dy of her terminal disease . there be a veneer of then contemporary film make technique display by director arthur hiller and but none of that can hide the old fashion and cliché ridden story at it core . the inevitable end leave me particularly unmoved . both ryan oneal and ali macgraw become star with this movie a oliver and jenny but inexplicably so since neither seem able to convey the depth or complexity require to make their character compel . at least the boyish oneal be sincere in his weakly defiant approach and but macgraw be so wooden and smirky in behavior that it hard to see what oliver see in jenny beyond her sarcastic façade . john marley ( two year before find the decapitated racehorse in his bed in the godfather ) do well a jenny plainspoken baker father phil and a do ray milland a the seemingly insensitive barrett paterfamilias . the overly familiar france lai music have almost become parody in itself over the year . the print quality on the dvd be good and though the only extra be a rather effusive commentary track by hiller . the most interesting bit of trivia be that author erich segal ( upon whose book this movie be base ) conceive oliver a a mix between two harvard roommates he know vice president al gore and actor tommy lee jones and who happen to have a bit part in the movie a one of oliver roommate .