“If You Love Something Set It Free:” An Analysis on Hollywood’s Depiction of Love by Rachel

As the movie, Roman Holiday (1953), drew to a close, reporter Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) walked away without a story and without the girl. When I watch a romantic comedy, I am reassured by the idea that the boy and the girl will end up together. Although it is predictable, I count on romantic comedies to provide me with the happy feeling that love exists; however, Roman Holiday confused me with how I should feel regarding the ending. Is it possible to have a happy ending in a romantic comedy when the guy does not get the girl? The ending of Roman Holiday shows that one does not have to end up with someone to show them they love them. 

My generation has an idealistic fantasy of love and how love and relationships should work, which Hollywood films constructs. When I was a sophomore in high school, I began dating a junior at my school named Liam. We had been friends since I was in 5th grade. While we were dating, all of our friends thought we were the classic love story: we were best friends for years and then began dating. After Liam went to college, and I was still in high school, we realized the long-distance relationship would not last for us. I live in Indiana and Liam went to school in Florida. When Liam went away to college, his parents moved to Florida with him, and we could not see each other on school breaks. After a few months, we decided that it was better to end the relationship on friendly terms rather than have it end badly. Naturally, I was upset, but it did not mean that I did not love Liam anymore. We were friends for a long time and I do not believe you can just stop loving someone; however, in a realistic world, we were at two different stages in our life and sometimes life interferes with relationships. At the time of the breakup, I was heartbroken. I wanted the happy ending that Hollywood portrays where the girl gets to marry her best friend; however, that is not always reality. It is a false reality that Hollywood portrays to leave viewers feeling happy and content when they walk out of the movie theatre. Hollywood constantly shows how relationships should be, which only leads to disappointment when the “happy ending” does not happen in reality.  William Wyler provides a realistic conclusion to Roman Holiday that leaves viewers uncomfortable with the lack of a predictable ending. Wyler shows that love does not always mean that the guy and girl end up together, but love sometimes means sacrificing to show your love to the other person, even if it means letting them go.

McDonald suggests that romantic comedies can “be seen repeating the same narrative patterns” (12). As Shumway suggests, romantic comedies follow the idea that boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back (McDonald 12). In the movie, Joe Bradley realizes he has an opportunity to expose Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn) by manipulating her into giving him an insight into her reign as Princess. The movie begins by Joe, coincidentally, running into a vulnerable Ann, thus fulfilling the first step of a romantic comedy: boy meets girl. After spending the day in Rome with Ann, Joe realizes that Ann has to go back to her throne and leave Joe: boy loses girl. The final step in fulfilling the stereotypical plot of a romantic comedy is boy regains girl; however, Joe never did. 

Throughout the movie, I questioned how Joe and Princess Ann would end up together because of their drastically different lives; however, I held the belief that they would end up together because that is how most romantic comedies end. When Joe walked out of the palace at the end of the movie, I could not help but be upset because he and Ann did not walk out together. In a real-world situation, a reporter and a princess ending up together is unrealistic; however, I expect them to end up together when it’s presented in a romantic comedy format. The movie disappointed me because it didn’t break the reality that an American reporter would never end up with a European Princess; however, the sacrifice Joe made at the ending portrayed his love for Ann more so than if he had ended up with her. Joe showed that the love he felt for Ann was real, which resulted in him giving up the story and respecting that Ann decided to fulfill her family duties rather than be with him. 

A famous quote that pertains to this movie is “if you really love someone, set them free” (Richard Bach). Joe and Ann realized a relationship between them would not be possible due to their drastically different lives. Roman Holiday differs from other romantic comedies because it shows one can love someone and still not end up with them. The audience can agree that there was chemistry between Joe and Ann. In the scene, after Ann had left Joe, Ann tells her supervisors “if I were not completely aware of my duties to my family and to my country, I would not have come back tonight” (Wyler 1:40:53). This quote suggests that what the head and what the heart wants are two different things. Ann’s heart is telling her to be with Joe and experience life free-hearted, but her head reminds her of the duties and responsibilities she has to fulfill for her country. This shows that love does not always prevail to get a happy ending. Shortly after Liam began school in Florida, we realized that we were experiencing two different parts of our life, and it was hurting the relationship we had with each other more than if we broke up. 

 Within the same scene, Ann slowly walks to her window and gazes over the city. The slow walk and gaze over the city portray Ann reminiscing on her adventures with Joe. This scene is filmed in a long shot to show Ann’s mellow and despairing body posture and to show her all-black robe that covers her whole body. The black robe emphasizes the emotional darkness of the scene. Although she is looking out the window, there is not a lot of light shown in the scene. There are dark shadows to further emphasize Ann’s sadness on being back in her palace. Once Ann reaches the window, the scene fades into a long shot of Joe staring out his window. The connection between these two scenes shows us, the audience, that Joe and Ann are reminiscing about their day while longing for each other. The slow violin music begins in Ann’s scene and carries over to Joe’s scene to emphasize that we should be sad. When Joe hears a knock on the door, the music picks up. As the music picks up, Joe slowly arises to answer the door with a hopeful expression that Ann will be on the other side. This makes us become eager to see if Ann has come back to Joe. Once Mr. Hennsey (Hartley Power) walks in, the music quickly stops to let down the built-up anticipation. The scene builds up a sense of false-hope that Ann and Joe would return to each other in an embrace to then abruptly disappoint the audience. Joe then makes it clear to Mr. Hennsey that he did not get a news story (Wyler 1:41:54-1:42:49). This one minute scene summarizes the climax of the whole movie. Throughout the movie, the audience is engaged in Joe and Ann’s adventure throughout the day. We hope that Joe and Ann can break the social ladder barrier to be together; however, we are let down when Ann and Joe do not end up together. In this scene, the music builds the anticipation that Joe and Ann will reunite to then be let down by Mr. Hennsey walking through the door. This shows that Mr. Hennsey could not buy the memories Joe made with Ann. Joe did not get the girl or the news story, but he realized the day he spent with Ann was too valuable to expose Ann to the public on her adventures.

As I questioned why the ending was so hard for me to accept, I realized that society has portrayed a fantasy of love and romance. Hollywood constantly portrays love as a reward for overcoming adversity. This conclusion leaves the audience with having a sense of closure and being satisfied, but this conclusion leaves the audience with an unattainable sense of what love should be. In the movie Philadelphia Story, Tracy Lord (Cary Grant) leaves her alcoholic husband. After spending the whole movie trying to win her back, Tracy agrees to remarry him. As an audience member we are happy that “love” has prevailed; however, the audience does not acknowledge that Tracy reentered a marriage with her alcoholic husband who pushed her to the ground in the opening scene. The false love that Hollywood portrays causes people to set unrealistic expectations that true love will find a way. When friends of mine end relationships, most of them are bitter toward their ex-boyfriend. Despite all the happy moments they shared with him, they go to social media and start bad-mouthing him to their followers. My friends get so upset when they go through a breakup because they have this unrealistic expectation that every guy they date is the guy they will be with forever. Wyler showed that sometimes love is not enough to conquer reality.  Ann had to fulfill her royal duties, which meant that she and Joe could not be together. 

Roman Holiday showed that unattainable love is realistic. Just because one loves someone does not mean that they will end up with them. The idea that “love conquers all” is naive because there are barriers that hinder people from being together. This is not something that is easily accepted by society. Speaking from personal experience, I did not come to this conclusion about my relationship with Liam until several months after it had ended. Just because I am not in a romantic relationship with Liam does not mean that I do not love him or want him to be happy in life. If the media and Hollywood portrayed films with more realistic endings and expectations of love, then people would not be so heartbroken when their relationship ends. 

Works Cited

Cukor, George, director. Philadelphia Story. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1940.

McDonald, Tamar Jeffers. Romantic Comedy: Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre. Columbia University Press, 2012.

Wyler, William, director. Roman Holiday. Roman Holiday, 2016, https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3rp5md.