Love Story is a 1970 American romantic drama film written by Erich Segal, who was also the author of the best-selling 1970 eponymous novel.

It was produced by Howard G. Minsky,[4] and directed by Arthur Hiller, starring Ali MacGraw, Ryan O'Neal, John Marley, Ray Milland and Tommy Lee Jones in his film debut.

Oliver Barrett IV, heir of an old money East Coast White Anglo-Saxon Protestant family, attends Harvard College, where he majors in social studies and plays ice hockey.

He meets Jennifer "Jenny" Cavilleri, a quick-witted, working-class Radcliffe College student reading classical music.

Later, Oliver's father drives a long distance to Ithaca, New York, to see his son's hockey game against Cornell University for the All-Ivy title.

She accepts his proposal and he takes her to the Barrett mansion to meet his parents, who are uncomfortable with her Italian-American and blue-collar background.

Jenny works as a teacher but without his father's financial support the couple struggles to pay Oliver's way through Harvard Law School.

Oliver seeks money from his estranged father to pay for Jenny's medical care, but as a matter of pride does not disclose the reason for this request.

She tells Oliver to not blame himself, insisting that he never held her back from music and Paris and it was worth it for the love they shared.

The question of sexual morality is irrelevant, but there is much less ‘swinging’ among young people now than in the old days.”[6] The movie was originally written as a screenplay but Erich Segal was unable to sell it.

Howard Minsky, who was head of the motion picture division on the east coast for the William Morris Agency, who represented Segal, believed in the project.

The changes included altering the female lead from being Jewish to Italian-American, deleting the character of the girl's mother, and minimizing swearing and nudity.

[7] In May 1969, Evans announced that he wanted a "sensitive young actor" like Beau Bridges or Jon Voight for the lead and Larry Peerce, who had made Goodbye Columbus, would direct.

[10] Evans later said Peerce took the job because he "desperately needed a gig" but the director was always unhappy working on the project and pulled out after a month.

Eventually Arthur Hiller, who was making two films at Paramount (The Out of Towners and Plaza Suite) agreed to direct.

[12] In September 1969 it was announced Hiller would direct and that Harper and Row would publish a novelized version of the script in February of the following year.

Segal says that he wrote the novel at the same time as the screenplay with considerable input from Gene Young of Harpers who was editor.

[16] Evans later claimed he insisted O'Neal be cast because he made the best test, over the objections of Hiller who wanted Walken.

[8] The premiere for Love Story took place at Loew's State I theater in New York City on Wednesday, December 16, 1970.

The critical consensus reads: "Earnest and determined to make audiences swoon, Love Story is an unabashed tearjerker that will capture hearts when it isn't inducing eye rolls.

There is scarcely a character or situation or line in the story that rings true, that suggests real simplicity or generosity of feeling, a sentiment or emotion honestly experienced and expressed.

[22] It expanded into another 166 theaters on Christmas Day and grossed a record $2,463,916 for the weekend, becoming the number-one film in the United States.

"[7] Peter Bart, an executive at Paramount when the film was made, said "Love Story had become a sort of cinematic aphrodisiac.

[47] The Crimson Key Society, a student association, has sponsored screenings of Love Story during orientation to each incoming class of Harvard College freshmen since the late 1970s.

In February 2021, remodeled ViacomCBS streaming service Paramount+ announced a remake of Love Story as a TV series, to be part of their new lineup of content.

[63] Jenny Cavilleri's disease being unspecified and her relatively good looks during the onset of her illness was met with criticism for its implausibility.

[64] Vincent Canby wrote in his original New York Times review that it was "as if Jenny was suffering from some vaguely unpleasant Elizabeth Arden treatment".

[27] Mad magazine ran a parody of the film ("Lover's Story") in its October 1971 issue, which depicted Ali MacGraw's character as stricken with "Old Movie Disease", an ailment that causes a dying patient to become "more beautiful by the minute".

[65][66] In 1997, Roger Ebert defined "Ali MacGraw's Disease" as a movie illness in which "the only symptom is that the patient grows more beautiful until finally dying".

[68] The film's female protagonist has been credited with the spike in the baby name Jennifer in North America in 1970, launching it to the number 1 feminine given name.