Since he passed away last week at 89, those folks who were lucky enough to know Redford, who got to call him “Bob,” shared stories of his class and generosity. There’s no doubt that between his long career as an actor, his founding of the Sundance Film Festival in Utah (which helped launch the American independent film movement in the late ’80s), his political and environmental activism, and his legacy as a filmmaker, his contribution was outsized.
Redford was so movie-star handsome and magnetic, all of Hollywood wanted to work with him, but he learned to resent those good looks. Famously, he wanted the role of Benjamin in The Graduate, but director Mike Nichols, who knew he wasn’t right for the part, asked him when it was the last time he struck out with a woman. Redford reportedly had no idea of what he was talking about.
Redford was terrific in a lot of things — to celebrate his work you could watch anything from Barefoot In The Park to The Way We Were, from Out Of Africa to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and you wouldn’t go wrong. Here’s 10 I’d recommend.
Downhill Racer (1969) Director Michael Ritchie’s debut, a chilly, art house sports movie with Redford as a remote, driven American skier pursuing an opportunity to compete for Olympic gold. There’s something austere and European about the film, a restraint that doesn’t line up with a lot of the excesses of late ’60s Hollywood. Maybe that’s why it’s aged so well.
Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (1969) The movie made Redford a star in his early 30s, and even though the Burt Bacharach score dates it, the William Goldman script, the ease of George Roy Hill’s direction, and Paul Newman and Redford’s undeniable chemistry make it a classic. If this is your bag, don’t hesitate to check out their reunion in The Sting.
The Candidate (1972) Another Michael Ritchie picture, this one has Redford as an entirely plausible political candidate from California who attracts electors with his charisma and unpolished charm, but as time goes along we see how the system pushes him to compromise his values for power.
Jeremiah Johnson (1972) Sydney Pollack directs a romantic fantasy about a “mountain man” carving out a life in the old west, going toe-to-toe with the indigenous population, something that must have seemed gritty and “authentic” at the time can’t help but appear quaint and problematic now — it was probably still an influence on something like The Revenant. Redford’s terrific in the lead, somehow projecting a real decency even as the picture becomes a kind of revenge thriller in the second half. This is where that famed meme of him originated (see below).
Three Days Of The Condor (1975) Sydney Pollack again, with one of the era’s best paranoid thrillers Redford is a CIA analyst who ends up the only survivor of an attack on a secure office, turning him into an unwilling field agent and unsure of who to trust. The liaison with Faye Dunaway’s character doesn’t quite work, but the rest of it is unimpeachable.
All The President’s Men (1976) Maybe the greatest journalism movie, it teams Redford up with Dustin Hoffman — the actor that became a star thanks to The Graduate — as Woodward and Bernstein, the Washington Post reporters who broke the Watergate scandal, eventually leading to Nixon’s resignation.
The Natural (1984) A bit of Hollywood sports-movie hokum from director Barry Levinson, but one that makes the best of Redford’s incredible charisma. He plays Roy Hobbs, a guy who becomes a baseball hero a lot later in life than most. Also starring Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, and Kim Basinger, Caleb Deschanel’s cinematography makes everyone glow.
Sneakers (1992) The kind of star-studded caper picture you don’t see too much of these days, with a multigenerational cast all bringing their A-game in this fun romp. Redford and Sidney Poitier are especially good, and it’s always a pleasure to revisit something from River Phoenix’s too-brief career.
All Is Lost (2013) A 77-year-old man sailing alone in the Indian Ocean faces unexpected damage to his vessel. That’s it for plot, with an astonishing, almost silent performance from Redford, incredibly demanding physically and emotionally. Director JC Chandor (A Most Violent Year) showed his versatility with this one, while Redford, who was devoting much of his time to directing in this period, reminded audiences of his courage and vitality as an actor.
The Old Man and The Gun (2018) A warm-hearted tribute to Redford and his incredible career, where he plays a real-life gentleman bank robber, with strong support from Sissy Spacek, Danny Glover, and Tom Waits.
And if you want to check out one of Redford’s directorial efforts, there’s about 10 to choose from going back to the Oscar-winning Ordinary People. I like The Milagro Beanfield War, but the best of the bunch, IMHO, is Quiz Show, the Oscar-nominated drama from 1994 (it lost Best Picture to Forrest Gump, forever a crime, but then so did Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption), starring Ralph Fiennes and John Turturo. It’s about no less a treatise on American innocence, based on the true story of the fixing of a TV game show in the 1950s.
