I took my girlfriend to see this movie in 1968. At the end, I was sobbing. I didn't stop crying until we had driven a mile or so from the movie theatre. She looked at me as if I was out of my mind.<br /><br />This week I bought the movie, to see how it would affect me 30 years later. Not quite the same emotional impact (well, I knew the ending), but still a very powerful movie.<br /><br />Recently I heard a director say that the most important things conveyed in movies are not the words that are said, but the words that are not said.<br /><br />This movie is filled with words not said. The protagonist, John Singer, is an emotional cipher. Alan Arkin had the good sense to underplay him. You can pour all of your own feelings into him.<br /><br />I could quibble about some elements now, but this is, at essence, a story of the heart. Thirty years after first seeing this movie, it still stands up, and still touches my heart in a way few movies have.