Love Story (Paramount, 1970; nominated for seven Oscars) and Oliver's Story (Cinema International Corporation, 1979) have been adapted for film.

The screenplay of Love Story (with Ali MacGraw and Ryan O'Neal in the title roles) actually prefigured the novel, and although very popular, only readers of the novel and viewers of the movie would have noticed minor variations. The remorse and tenderness stressed in the novel give way in the movie version to a much more aggressive, macho Oliver. Even the concluding reconciliation scene lays the burden of guilt more upon the father than the son.

The movie Oliver's Story is a more faithful reproduction of the novel, again with only minor variations: In terms of the characters, Joanna Stein was a medical intern, but in the movie she is a furniture designer. The movie lays more emphasis on Oliver's psychological problems as well as his philanthropic activities, ending in...