The world was different 35 years ago and, in romantic comedies, it was still common (if not acceptable) for independent women to still feel incomplete if they didn’t find true love. Harry and Sally, one of the biggest hits at the global box office in 1989, represents this moment in the history of cinema.

Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) symbolizes a romantic heroine like few others: hopeful, beautiful, friendly, and slightly neurotic, always waiting for “happily ever after”. Coming from the imagination of director Rob Reiner, producer Andy Scheinman, and writer Nora Ephron, both she and Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) represent the idealized opposites of men and women, products that took shape and history in a long lunch between the trio.

According to what is now legend, their idea was another project, but the conversation turned to relationships and they were soon laughing at the situations seen from opposite perspectives. Reiner says that he always wanted to make a film about two people who become friends and don’t have sex precisely because they know it will change their relationship. But of course, they have sex anyway. Nora Ephron, who had already signed two praised scripts (Silkwood and Heartburn) took on the challenge.

The story of the film is simple: Sally and Harry meet in 1977, on a trip between Chicago and New York, and encounter each other again over 20 years, before realizing that they may have been born for each other. Or would they just be best friends?

Some of Harry and Sally’s situations and dialogues keep this romantic comedy as one of the most perfect ever made, I know the complete dialogues by heart. The lines are realistic, fun, and timeless, not least because they reflect many of the three’s personal views, with Nora interviewing Rob and Andy for several of the scenes used in the film.

Sally, naturally, represents much of what Nora Ephron thought of as a woman (and Meg Ryan would become her muse for the films she later directed). Rob Reiner had Harry’s pessimism, as well as his humor. While working on the script, starting in 1984, he released two extremely popular films, Stand by Me and The Princess Bride, just to imagine the parallel.

If today it is impossible to think of another cast for the duo, 35 years ago actors like Tom Hanks, Richard Dreyfuss, Michael Keaton, and Albert Brooks refused to play Harry Burns, and on the women’s side, not even Meg Ryan was the first option, only getting the Sally Albright after Molly Ringwald and Elizabeth Perkins dropped out.

All filmed in Manhattan and highlighting the beauty of New York, When Harry Met Sally is always among the best films ever made, no matter the list. Their original proposal was to keep the two just as friends, but later they decided to go for a less realistic outcome, placing “happily and neurotically ever after” as the final alternative to romantic comedies.

With the Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay, When Harry Met Sally paved the way for Nora Ephron to reinvent herself as a film director, years later reversing the formula in Sleepless in Seattle, among others.

The cultural impact of the film has been present in several productions since then, including the mega-success Ted Lasso, which trolled fans with the Tedbecca never seen on screen, that is, Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) and Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham)’ prove ‘ the proposal that Sally defends and that Harry denies: men and women CAN just be friends. And, in this case, the two never have sex otherwise it ruins everything… [laughs].

That’s right, it’s 35 years of a thesis that is timeless and places both Harry and Sally among the most beloved characters in cinema. It’s not just any feat, it’s proof of the fans’ unconditional love.

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