Roman Holiday

Last night I couldn't sleep so I decided to watch the movie Roman Holiday.

For those of you unfamiliar with the movie here's a little break down:

The movie came out in 1953. It was Audrey Hepburn's first major role and the only film for which she ever won an Oscar. It's a romantic comedy from the Golden Age of Hollywood and a fine example of the postcard genre (a film shot on location capturing the beauty of some exotic place).

The story is about a princess who is fed up with being a princess so she takes a break and runs away. She gets picked up by a reporter played by Gregory Peck. He takes her around town hoping to get a story...and the rest you can probably imagine.

Now, I realize that runaway princess stories are overused. In fact, the princess market might be the only market more saturated than the vampire market...but luckily Roman Holiday isn't your average princess movie.

(Oh, and be careful cause I'm going to spend most of this post talking about the ending so if you're gonna see it you probably shouldn't read much more)

At first the story is very formulaic: the jaded journalist (Peck) sees dollar signs when he meets the princess. But, after a a few scenes of Audrey Hepburn being her incredibly charming and lovable self, Peck's character's interest shifts and becomes more than financial. This is, of course, very formulaic and it leads you to expect that the film will continue in the stagnant romantic comedy genre: 1) secret in relationship 2) relationship secret revealed 3) fight over secret 4) post fight regret causes realization of feelings for other 5) reconcile with new insight into love for other (usually through some thoroughly romantic gesture that depicts the uniqueness and fun of the relationship....then rinse and repeat.

Roman Holiday is a great movie because it gets derailed from this genre at step 2 and it never makes it to step 3. The two begin to care for each other, they eventually kiss (all of this according to the painfully predictable romantic comedy formula)....but then they share a sad parting and walk away from their magical day together. Their lives are both changed and invigorated because of their time together...but they're practical enough to know that their time together, as magical as it was, was just a day and that they now gotta get back to their real lives.

So, he drops her off at her place, they tearfully say goodbye, and they walk away with neither of them expecting to ever see the other again...but of course that's not the case (this may be a twist on the romantic comedy but it's still a romantic comedy) and they see each other the next day.

The next day Peck goes on assignment to a royal press conference. When the princess enters the room she sees him with his fellow reporters and her face pinches with concern. In front of everyone she realizes that she spent the previous day with a reporter who now has the makings of a very salacious story(a princess in a fist fight, spending the night in a strange man's apartment, getting arrested etc.).

Gregory Peck can see that she's shocked and a little scared when she sees him, but he's on the job so he can't tell her that because of his feelings for her he won't use their time together to sell newspapers, so he tells her that she can trust the journalists and he places extra emphasis on the word "trust." She looks relieved (she acts this very well and somehow looks relieved while also looking like she never lost her princessly calm). She walks up and meets the members of the press on the first row and shakes their hands. When she gets to Peck they share an extra warm handshake and she is given the pictures that he was originally going to use as evidence for his article. She smiles to herself when she sees them, tucks them away, and then moves on.

It's such a bittersweet ending. The last scene is amazingly acted. When they shake hands you know they want to say so many things to each other, but they can't cause of everyone else around them. Somehow both actors convey everything they'd want to say to the other beneath the surface: through tension in the eyes, a set to the jaw, a half smile. It is really impressive.

Roman Holiday is a great movie because the end doesn't give you what you want, it gives you what you should want. Both of the characters know that there are two many things separating them. They both know that they can't throw their lives away on a whim. They both know that they can't throw their lives away because of one special day--regardless of how magical that day may have been. And while they both know these things, we as viewers don't. We're so trained to want and expect a relationship to overcome anything, even if the result is damaging.

We enjoy watching a guy throw his career out the window through a bold declaration of love during a board meeting. We enjoy watching a woman spurn all suitors while she wastes the best years of her life waiting for a soldier that might never come home...

But these stereotypes are a little bit different from the love in Roman Holiday, because hopefully, at the very least, these relationships were older than a single day.

The ending to Roman Holiday doesn't attack love, it attacks whim. It attacks the idea that the course of an entire life should be abandoned because of what feels good rather than what one knows is right. It attacks the idea that love can exist between two people who act so selfishly that they'll allow the other person to become something less so they can be with them. At it's most fundamental level Roman Holiday attacks the idea that love exists outside of virtue rather than through virtue.

Anyway, back to the movie. So, they both say goodbye. Bound by their respective duties they part and we as viewers assume that the parting is permanent this time. Both of the characters have grown for their meeting. The princess is more possessed. She's more affirming. She is willing to take risks she never would have before. The reporter is now softer. He now sees that the value of another person goes beyond what he can get out of them.

And I think at heart this is what makes this a good story. Love should, ideally, make you a better person. The stamp of approval that we have for the love between these two is that at the end of the movie they are both better people. But this wouldn't have been possible if they'd been together at the end.

Because if they were together at the end then the princess would still be a whimsical girl who never took control of her life. And if they were together at the end then the reporter would still be a selfish man profiting from the princess's misfortune. But separate...letting the other go...that shows that they really did have noble feelings for the other. That shows that they did really fall in love in a single, wonderful day.

So, this single wonderful day, and the love it fostered, is why this movie is a classic. If they'd gone for the happy ending they'd have changed this movie from a classic love story to a forgettable fairy tale depicting forgettable fairy tale love. It would have removed the feeling of realism and forced a suspension of disbelief.

We'd all have gone along with it I'm sure. We'd have been happy and feeling all warm and fuzzy inside....but we'd also have known that that isn't how it would really have happened. We'd know that in our painfully realistic lives it wouldn't have turned out that way. We'd say "Oh, if only life were like a fairy tale, then I could have something magical like that happen."

So, while this hypothetically happy ending forces resolution, it also leaves us with the sad thought that the sort of chemistry and excitement we just saw only works out in a world where practical considerations are suspended....but Roman Holiday with it's slightly sad ending gives you something so much better than that. It depicts love outside of a fairy tale. It shows love happening in a real world where circumstances can take it away from you...and it reassures us that love can still be magical despite its brevity. Roman Holiday elevates cinematic love to something believable.

Roman Holiday is a beautiful movie because it shows the power and immediacy that love can have in spite of the frustrations and complications of life. But beyond that, and perhaps even more importantly, it shows how love makes people better, even when it's only for a day.