# Identify a Romantic cliche - Two figures bounding towards each other **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 20, 2005, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-romantic-cliche-two-figures-bounding-towards-each-other/291021 "2005-02-20T14:04:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![silverfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e480ec/32.png) [@silverfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silverfish)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-romantic-cliche-two-figures-bounding-towards-each-other/291021/1 "2005-02-20T14:04:24Z")
There’s a particular scene, presumably from a Romance film, that I’ve seen a fair few parodies of this scene, but not the original. Basically, the scene involves two people (I assume a man and the woman in the original) , who bound gleefully towards each other, and usually there a particular piece of romantic music. It may be in slow motion. Basically, I would like to know what the source of this is. ---
**Author:** ![todd33rpm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@todd33rpm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/todd33rpm)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-romantic-cliche-two-figures-bounding-towards-each-other/291021/2 "2005-02-20T14:07:49Z")
Supposedly it’s _Wuthering Heights_, but I haven’t read the book. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-romantic-cliche-two-figures-bounding-towards-each-other/291021/3 "2005-02-20T14:39:01Z")
I doubt it was the first to do this, but there’s an entirely serious scene in _Gone With the Wind_ wherein Melanie and her husband Ashley do the “running toward each other gleefully and embrace to swelling music.” He comes home unexpectedly after being missing after the Civil War ended. So I think the parodies exist side-by-side with earnest uses of this scenario. I don’t think the parodies are parodies of one particular movie or book, but an honest and unironic scene which happens in many movies and books. (Heck, I’ve done it entirely seriously myself! They never show the part where you misjudge arm postitions and clock each other in the chin, though.) ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/59ef9b/32.png) [@Kaitlin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlin)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-romantic-cliche-two-figures-bounding-towards-each-other/291021/4 "2005-02-20T14:47:30Z")
Don’t know where that cliche is from, but the music is Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture. (The entire piece is rather stunning, actually.) Just thought I’d toss that in there! ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-romantic-cliche-two-figures-bounding-towards-each-other/291021/5 "2005-02-20T16:46:37Z")
Aren’t they usually in a thick field of wild flowers? ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-romantic-cliche-two-figures-bounding-towards-each-other/291021/6 "2005-02-20T16:48:18Z")
I always thought it might be from From Here To Eternity, with the couple running toward each other in slow motion on a beach, which is why Airplane! parodied it, with them getting covered in yucky seaweed. ---
**Author:** ![VanGogh\_sEar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ee59a6/32.png) [@VanGogh\_sEar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VanGogh_sEar)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-romantic-cliche-two-figures-bounding-towards-each-other/291021/7 "2005-02-20T18:00:03Z")
Another vote for “From Here to Eternity.” ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-romantic-cliche-two-figures-bounding-towards-each-other/291021/8 "2005-02-20T20:29:38Z")
There are no characters running toward each other in slow motion in _From Here to Eternity_. Beside _Wuthering Heights_ (1939) and _Gone With the Wind_ (1939), I would add Gary Cooper and Ann Harding in _Peter Ibbetson_ (1935), if my memory serves me right. Ken Russell parodied the cliché with Alan Bates and Jennie Linden running at each other in slow motion through a field of wild flowers in _Women in Love_ (1969). ---
**Author:** ![Peyton\_Farquhar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Peyton\_Farquhar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peyton_Farquhar)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-romantic-cliche-two-figures-bounding-towards-each-other/291021/9 "2005-02-20T22:05:35Z")
I believe that the cliche way predates movies (except for the romantic musical accompaniment), so good luck finding a source but for your collection, do check out Bierce’s _An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge_. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-romantic-cliche-two-figures-bounding-towards-each-other/291021/10 "2005-02-20T22:57:41Z")
I’d always heard the _Wuthering Heights_ explanation. “Catherine!” “Heathcliff!”