SP: English Study Group

Are Romantic Movies Really Ideal Love Stories?

Everyone enjoys a good love story, don’t they?

They may not be the highest-grossing movies of all time, but romantic movies can elicit some strong emotional responses when done right. Watching passion overcome adversity, seeing two people connect on a profound level, witnessing a giant ship sinking in icy waters. The heartstrings tremble, they also seem to set up impossible romantic ideals for us mere mortals to live up to.

With the potential relationship pitfalls that come from movie expectations, I got to thinking… are romantic movies really the best love stories?

The Answer: Not at all. Most are actually pretty messed up.

Romantic dramas are a different story. If you want to keep a relationship going, don’t plan your relationship like one of these movies. The consequences can be quite dire.

It’s not surprising to learn that cheating is a bad thing for relationships. Unfortunately, it also appears to be standard human behavior. More than half of men and women admit to being unfaithful in at least one relationship. When infidelity happens in a marriage, it results in divorce about one-third of the time. So while these figures show that people can be forgiving, cheating happens. A lot. However, they still happen in love stories more than in real life.

Most of the time, the lovers don’t end up together

Once again referring to the top 20 grossing romance dramas, the lovers don’t even end up together by the end of the film. The couples figuratively ride off into the sunset in only six of these movies (Pearl Harbor, Jerry Maguire, The Vow, Indecent Proposal, Dear John, and Safe Haven). In An Officer and a Gentleman, the characters literally walk off into the sunset, which must count for something.

The Notebook is a slightly different story, considering the lovers don’t actually end up together until after the story is told. And even then, she can’t remember a damn thing about him in the end, anyway. How’s that for irony? Nicholas Sparks, you devil!

That leaves 12 of these movies – amounting to 60% – in which the lovers’ time together is limited in some way. And just because this list is for films made since 1980 doesn’t mean the trend started there. Some of the best-known historical romances feature the main characters going their separate ways. From Gone with the Wind in which Rhett Butler doesn’t give a damn to Casablanca (which again features some infidelity) in which Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) leaves Rick (Humphrey Bogart) and Renault (Claude Rains) to live happily ever after together.

In fact, romantic dramas don’t just make a point to split characters up. They keep them apart through much of the movie, as you’ll see in the wildly popular Doctor Zhivago, as well as the more recent Top 20 films like Cold Mountain and Legends of the Fall.

Q1. Do you go the movie theater to see love and romantic movies?  What movie impresses you most? Why?

Q2. Can you identify what kinds of plots are real or not real in a movie? Please give us some example.

Q2-1. Please share with us. When a romantic movie’s strory line is obvious not real, you still like it? What part of it you like?

Q2-2. Do you recommend any romantic that can tell you or teach you the philosophy of love?