‘See you, Hubbell’: Reflecting on Robert Redford and the unattainable man

Barbra Streisand, left, and Robert Redford at the Plaza Hotel filming the final scene of

Redford died in his sleep at age 89 near Provo, Utah. His roles included Western outlaw Harry Alonzo “Sundance” Longabaugh in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” (1969), Washington Post Watergate reporter Bob Woodward in “All the President’s Men” (1976), and trainer Tom Booker in “The Horse Whisperer” (1998). But for many, it’s his role in “The Way We Were” that comes to mind at the mention of his name.

The film follows Hubbell Gardiner (Redford) and Katie Morosky (Streisand) from college in the 1930s to Hollywood during the McCarthy communist witch hunts of the 1950s.

Hubbell is a Waspy star athlete and a talented writer for whom life seems to come easily, although not without an inner cost.

Katie is a young Jewish woman passionate about left-wing politics, working her way through school and constantly in the thick of the struggle. The two reencounter one another in New York during World War II, and a complicated love story blooms.

But it’s not just that opposites attract with Katie and Hubbell, it’s that the poles of their different worlds are constantly pulling them away.

And yet, there is a deep affection and admiration they have for each other: Katie marvels at his natural abilities and confidence, while Hubbell is impressed by her passion and courage. Eventually, the two are torn apart by politics.

There’s a gesture Streisand repeats in the film, brushing Redford’s strawberry blond hair from his forehead, that speaks to their tenderness. Redford’s blue eyes say so much every time she touches him.

Hubbell could have easily been a hollow golden boy, but Redford added layers to the character that gave generations a taste for unattainable love.

Beneath his smile you understood the internal struggles of the character — mainly, his fear that he could never live up to the man Katie saw in him.

The film and Redford’s portrayal of Hubbell was so iconic that “Sex and the City” referenced “The Way We Were” to highlight how Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Big (Chris Noth) had a dynamic that was similar to Katie and Hubbell.

Carrie even quotes from the final scene, telling Big, “Your girl is lovely, Hubbell” to his confusion.

Redford’s masculinity was sensitive and nuanced; he invited you into his performances. In “The Way We Were” there was also an ordinariness he embodied in Hubble’s failure with Katie that made the character relatable.

The original film isn’t perfect due to some eliminated scenes about the McCarthy trials that make the reasons for the couple’s split less clear, but it is a classic, nonetheless.

The 50th anniversary extended cut of “The Way We Were” added back two critical scenes, which had long been a dream of Streisand’s, according to her 2023 memoir “My Name Is Barbra”.

The stars discussed a sequel centering on the couple reuniting in the late 1960s as their daughter Rachel takes up Katie’s activist mantle, but it never came to be.

In the final scene of the film, it’s a few years since Katie and Hubbell’s parting and they meet again in front of the Plaza Hotel in New York. Katie is still a firebrand, passing out fliers for a campaign to ban the atomic bomb.

She is married, and Hubbell is with a female companion. Hubbell is still taken by her bravery and commitment, remarking, “You never give up, do you?” But the two know this is not a happy reunion, their love story is destined to be tragic.

They embrace and then part, and she brushes his hair off his forehead one last time, the title song beginning to play.

As Katie says with a bittersweet smile and sadness in her eyes, “See you, Hubbell.”